The Gila Monster Hog
- Thread starter MikeD
- Start date
No GPS or glass? OMG, what ever did you do?
Scary huh?
One night, being vectored around in IMC for an ASR to 27 at RKSO, am still at a higher altitude waiting to descend, and as I'm rolling out on final for my own RW 27 and crossing the extended final for RKSWs 33 runways, the field located about 5 miles north of my field, I detect light from my back left.....something illuminating the IMC soup and starting to illuminate my cockpit.....as I'm rolling out of a turn and the illumination gets much bigger, and in just a few seconds I glance up through the canopy to see two ROKAF RF-4 Phantoms appear out of the soup momentarily, their dark undersides shapes in formation, gear/flaps down and descending on top of me going from left aft to right forward, then just as quickly disappearing again into the soup off my 2 o'clock and at same altitude as I bounce in their wake turbulance, they themselves being vectored for their own ASR 33R to KSW. Miss distance of maybe 30 feet from lead F-4s landing gear to my canopy, me level and them descending. Fun times never missing at that place....
scooter2525
Very well Member
Keep the cool stuff coming!
Der_Meister
Well-Known Member
You all didn't by chance practice bombing approaches/gun runs on a fake air base SW/W of casa grade did you?
This jet held the record at the time for the number of engine fires it had, 5 of them with me onboard, and all as post-shutdown fires when the ODV on the #1 engine would fail to drain onto the ramp. Luckily #1 was shutdown first, but it was the same thing each time......watching #1 ITT coming down on shutdown, lagging at about 250 or so, then reversing and immediately starting to rapidly rise. Here we go again.....as I turn and look back and see fire in the hot section through the intake, with the crew chief announcing the same. Push the #2 throttle to 85% plus, while simultaneously flipping the APU switch to ON as well as the #1 engine motor switch to MOTOR for a crossbleed motoring. Once the APU is online, and if fire still going, the #2 can be reduced to idle as the APU will take over air. Fire should burn out quick as remaining pooled fuel is burned off, but if not and it keeps getting fed, then it's ground fire bottle time from the ground crew, to shoot Halon or PKP into the tailpipe and put that crap out.
Don't know why it mainly happened to this particular jet only.
Dillon's range? I personally never did, but did target up ATCAs Bonanzas stopped at Mobile every now and again.
scooter2525
Very well Member
Mechanic: well everything looks alright on our end...
Pissing them off was the pilot(s) who would pull the fire T-handle for the affected engine, and blow one or both or the Halon bottles on one of these emergencies. Maintenance not happy at that.
Der_Meister
Well-Known Member
could be, I have seen many a cool blinky lights south of PXR.V95.GBN.V66.NYLDillon's range? I personally never did, but did target up ATCAs Bonanzas stopped at Mobile every now and again.
That's all R2304/East TAC, east of GBN, and R-2301E/W North TAC and USMC range, west of GBN and east of NYL. All south of Interstate 8. Spent many days there both in air and on ground, and still go in and out of there to this day.
Der_Meister
Well-Known Member
I have had a few ATC aircraft reports of unknown types that were close to my altitude around there, who were dark, but looked like C-12's. Then there was also about 8 or so AC at a time, in the typical military blink, doing what sees to be mock bombing runs to an airfield that was not on either my IFR/VFR chart. But south around NLY some of the best demonstrations of american military might I have ever seen. Nothing like 155 flares floating and OV-22's, AH-65's, and UH-60's ripping though the valleys.
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No GPS and an INS that dumped often... I bet the GUN was trustworthy!
That machine looks like it was an absolute pleasure to destroy stuff with.
These were the old school beasts, the A-models. The new C-model conversions (which I never flew), are so much more technologically advanced, that they are essentially slow F-16s. That is, their advanced avionics, targeting pod systems, consent-to-release bombing systems, JDAM (GPS guided) munitions, and Laser Guided bombs, all make them able to employ very effectively from medium altitude, where the vast majority of Close Air Support is performed from.
The old A-models, all we had were dumb bombs, CBU, rockets. etc. We could carry LGBs, but they had to be laser marked by someone else......either another air platform or a ground platform, so it made no practical sense to carry them. But we weren't at all JDAM or other smart weapon capable. Due to that, we had to make up tactics in order to employ in certain ways. One example is so-called "Maverick Strafe". The AGM-65 Maverick was our only guided weapon at the time. And back then, the only way we could see at night was with NVGs (before that, we could only slew the IR Maverick around at night as a "poor man's FLIR"). So one way at night to strafe from somewhat long distances out, talking around 12,000+ ft slant ranges, was to bring up the Maverick missile and lock up a target with it. When the Maverick is on, a "wagon wheel" symbol appears in the HUD, showing where the missile is looking, as well as the target appearing in the Maverick TV screen in the cockpit. When locked onto the target, that is where the target is located. All this time, you're in a shallow, level dive towards the target from medium altitude. You then take the gun reticle which is also in the HUD, and maneuver the jet to superimpose that reticle over the Maverick wagon wheel. Fire a one second "check burst", and glance down into the TV screen to see via the Maverick's seeker head, where your gun rounds just impacted, adjust as necessary in the HUD, and fire again to hit the target. Problem with this method was that it was very workload intensive for a single pilot, and your attention is very much focused inside the cockpit, versus watching for threats outside. Too, you're on a shallow, wings level descent, which makes you a nice stable target for enemy AAA, were they to see you. But cool tactic nonetheless.
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Blackhawk
Well-Known Member
When I was over there I had a near miss with a JAL airliner going into Pusan. He was on the ILS, I was in the NDB approach. Fortunately, due to the vagaries of the NDB approach we missed each other and I saw the aircraft in a "sucker hole" pass right by us, so close I could see their pax in the windows. I asked approach about it and he responded "JAL on ILS. You on NDB." If you overlay the approaches they have/had the same final approach course.
About the same time frame a C-12 on a PAR with a Korean controller was "on glide slope" right into a ridge line. One of the pilots saw trees at the last second and crammed the throttles full forward saving them, but dragging the landing gear and props through the tree tops.
I remember when the American RF-4s were replaced by the OA-10's.
About the same time frame a C-12 on a PAR with a Korean controller was "on glide slope" right into a ridge line. One of the pilots saw trees at the last second and crammed the throttles full forward saving them, but dragging the landing gear and props through the tree tops.
I remember when the American RF-4s were replaced by the OA-10's.
D
Deleted member 27505
Guest
Did you have to use actual airmanship to fly that bird?? The horror!
...wow
