A trap that many Americans fall into, particularly when they are young and foolish, is that we are somehow inherently superior to lesser nationalities. It doesn't take long out in the hostile world to discover that being a Yank doesn't give you a corner on the talent market.
It was a Spanish air defense exercise and I was flogging an F-4 out of Torrejon which is located on the north side of Madrid. We would be acting as "fakers" or targets to test the Spanish interceptors and their supporting radar sites. Flights would be tasked to penetrate the Spanish airspace at various altitudes and speeds, all converging on Madrid.
My profile had me topping off on a tanker in the Mediterranean, just east of Gibraltar. With full internal fuel and three external tanks, I was to coast in at Malaga and run straight at the capital above forty-thousand feet and supersonic. Get to Madrid and I win!
It was a fighter pilot's fun fantasy except for having to haul three gas bags. But, the kick of just lighting off the A/Bs and seeing how fast the old girl would go was motivation. FL420 at the coast and just able to get over mach one at full fuel weight. The centerline tank goes first and as it thumps to signal empty, I switch to the outboards. I've gone through 600 gallons in about five minutes. The two 370 gallon tanks should make it another eight or so. Then internal fuel.
Now I'm at M 1.4 and getting lighter. I let the altitude creep upward slowly and I'm at FL 450 now. It's only going to take about twenty minutes to get from the coast to the city. I listen on the radio and the back-seater sweeps the radar antenna from level to look down for aircraft climbing toward us. Mach 1.6 now at FL 470. Sixty miles to Madrid.
There, below me on the right one o'clock I contrail rising toward me. It's the interceptor dedicated to my track. He's coming full blower and I've never seen anyone successfully intercept a track near M2. I'm certain a Spanish pilot won't have the chops to make it...He's starting his conversion turn and he's still well ahead of my two o'clock. He's going to make it! Twenty miles to go. He converts and is falling into shooting position as we reach Madrid. I'm impressed.
I ease the burners out, but honor his attack and his skill with a turn into him and with my excess energy ease the nose up and zoom through fifty, fifty-five, sixty, then sixty-five thousand feet as I slow to just over mach one. He follows inside my turn all of the way. I roll over and rock my wings in mock surrender as I start my descent to Torrejon. He passes me on my right and flashes a quick aileron roll and a return wing waggle then disappears back to Valencia.
That was the Mirage 3. A remarkable airplane and he was a remarkable driver. Here's some more French products, but these flown by French pilots:
2 comments:
Learned the definition of Mach Number from an Australian Mirage in the late 80s. Nose to nose at 50 miles, he turns and holds me 60 degrees off his nose until he swings my beam and rolls out 15 miles astern. I'm doing 1.2 in my Eagle thinking I've got nothing to worry about. He's doing 2.0. Pretty soon, I look over my shoulder and he's riding fingertip with me. But then they got FA-18s so that capability went away.
P.S. Were you trying to send subliminal messages earlier this week with the flashing pictures of Thuds?
This Friday’s posting of ‘No Corner on the Market’ was not only great; it may well be the best ever at what has become my favorite blog.
Like many others, my flying career was largely spent in transports, operating between M 0.78-0.86. Lots of hours above FL-390, but never above FL-450, our ceiling even after step climbs. So it was really nice to hear an F-4 pilot tell us about an operational mission where one of our Mach-2+ fighters actually went supersonic (and even higher than transports fly). Of particular interest were the details about how that heavy F-4 performed with and then without external fuel, as were the details about the intercept near Madrid. (Juvats posting re the F-15 was nice also.) Maybe we’ll be treated to more of these first person narratives in the future.
I have flown with countless TAC types (plus Navy) over the years, but none have given such a well-rounded picture of a particular aircraft on a particular mission. Nicely done Raz!
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