Aerial refueling

[C-182 flyer]

Jack of all trades, but no ARS pod.

 

[fish314]

Back in the day, waaaaaay back, we hauled the Blues around a lot because we had the drogue installed all the time. Here's a pix from one of those trips. Tried to get him to come to precontact like that but he didn't. I guess he wasn't the Jarhead pilot in the group!

Now that's cool! I once refueled the Thunderbirds, and lead came up to pre-contact with the rest of the team in the diamond formation behind him. That was pretty neat.

 

[MikeD]

I flew both the KC-135 and KC10 (14 years in each one).

Jon, do you have any insider info on the Thunderhawks and Chain's reasoning for forming them....as well as their quick demise?

 

[BTpilot]

Tanker pilots don't hug, we PLUG! Old saying, author unknown!

SNUGGLE UP, ITS FEEDIN TIME

 

[rwgb1984]

I've always wondered about that.... that looks hard. I can barely rub my head and pat my belly at the same time... let alone try an aerial refueling with a helo. You guys do those at night with NVGs?

I'm concerned....

 

[Flight Prof]

That's true. As the receiver moves in, especially with larger receivers, it changes the downwash going over the tail. Basically it changes your trim setting and makes the nose heavy. Then, as he moves in the envelope, the whole boom acts as a giant rudder and speedbrake and that get's coupled with the changing downwash thing... so basically every time he moves, I can feel it in the yoke (autopilot off) and I have to put in a minor input to keep the attitude of the aircraft the same. The trick is to put the input in as smooth as you can. Otherwise, you don't force the receiver to react to something you put in and change what he's doing, which then forces you to put in another input because he's changed, etc., etc.

You actually get the same thing with a small receiver, too. For example, I can feel where an F-15 is in the envelope (or at least, I can feel it if he moves around a whole lot). But the severity is MUCH less. The worst is probably the B-2... they're worse than a C-5 or a C-17. Something to do with their shape, I think.

Either way, though, the front end of the operation is easier than the job the receiver does (boom OR probe/drogue). Especially with the autopilot on!

The larger receivers have a larger bow wave that pushes the tanker's horizontal stabilizer up (nose down). This requires a large nose up trim input from the autopilot, if engaged, or the pilot flying. The slower the receiver approaches the contact position, the easier this is to handle for both man and machine. During a breakaway (emergency separation due to dangerous condition) the bow wave effect becomes quite sporty. All that nose up trim is now extraneous as the receiver backs rapidly out. This forces the tanker's nose up (tail down) and towards the receiver. The breakaway also requires the tanker to increase power which, with pod mounted engines, produces a pitch up moment. The pilot flying has to apply timely forward pressure to keep everything under control while trimming nose down to return to a stable condition. As previously noted, most of the hard work during air refueling is done by the receiver.