During the days instructing new instructor pilots at Fighter Lead-In Training in New Mexico, the young guys would enter the new class fresh out of four or five years in their first operational fighter assignment. They'd been driving Vipers and Ego-jets, pulling 9Gs and powering their way out of trouble with engines that pushed more than their jet weighed.
We were teaching them to instruct the next generation in the nuances of air-to-air. We didn't have a greater-than-one-to-one thrust jet. We didn't have sustained nine G available. What we had was a lightweight airplane with good speed and visibility plus the knowledge of three dimensions and "God's G" to help us around corners. No all-aspect shots either. Strictly guns and tail-aspect heaters.
Occasionally we would get a motivational sortie for instructors only and then we would get a couple of jets and go out and size each other up. The young guys always felt they'd been denied a good fight if they got paired up with a fat old guy like me or Larry Pope or John Miller or Stubby Ritter.
Strangely enough though, the film came back with a different story. How did those old guys manage? Maybe there was some of this:
3 comments:
Yes...Well, I distinctly remember a 1v1 with a crusty old Major with several rows of stars on his flight suit sleeve more than one of them gold (remember them?). Anyhow, said Major, as flight lead, briefs the mission to Beak-C as neutral butterfly setups, maneuvering as soon as HE called fight's on. ROE was covered somewhat perfunctorily, but what the heck, the Major and I brief them several times a day.
Crank 'em up, taxi out, blast off, rejoin and we're in the area. Tactical, turn away, turn in, Got my plan just waiting for the call. When I hear "Fight's On, Gun Kill, knock it off without an intervening Mike click. Rejoin, I'm somewhat befuddled, since we hadn't really even passed 3/9 when the KIO comes. Set up again, Turn away, turn in, Fight's on, "Guns". WHOOMP! I hit somebody's jetwash, between the Gun shot, jetwash, and whatever, I'm not really pulling on the pole. I spend the remaining gasoline jinking like a madman to keep the Major from saddling up. Finally, KIO, rejoin, back to the pattern, pitch out and land. Taxi'ing in, I look at the clock and padding the time as much as I can, I'm going to log a point 4. As I enter the Debrief, Maj Rasimus hands me a beer and says "Nothing prevents a head on gun shot in combat." and then with a chuckle, utters the immortal fighter pilot saying, "Anything worth havin, is worth cheating to get."
Cheers, Ras, learned a lot from you back then and hope I passed some of it on to those following me.
Oh, by the way, I bought second hand lions for this clip and to show my wife the way I'd like to go.
"Stubby"?
At least you got grouped with experienced, skillful and cunning...
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