Air Force Aerial Refueling Methods: Flying Boom versusHose-and-Drogue
Took a couple of days off.
Ed Rasimus wrote:
On Sun, 02 Jul 2006 19:54:29 GMT, Guy Alcala
wrote:
snip
We had a souvenier basket in the squadron briefing room in the 4526th
CCTS at Nellis when I checked out. A student in a prior class had
brought it home on a flight.
So, was part of the hose still attached when he landed, or had it broken off? Making a
landing in the former case would be, uh, interesting;-)
Guy
Hah! You recall I mentioned that the hose was twelve feet from
connection knuckle to basket fitting. If you've ever stood next to a
Thunderchief you would appreciated that even if all 12 feet had been
grabbed, the hose would not quite reach the ground.
The only time I had the chance to standunder a Thud on its wheels was at airshow at Travis
many years ago. They'd just got a D model, 62-4299, in for their museum (which hadn't
opened yet) from the AFR unit at Hill. ISTR it was about 9 feet from the ground to the
bottom of the wing.
He only had about three feet of hose and most of it shredded away. The
real concern was that either the basket was going to come off the
probe or the probe was going to break off and go down the intake to
FOD the engine.
Keeps the job from getting too routine ;-) Happy Fourth, although personally I've always
thought September 17th would be a more appropriate date. But I know I'm swimming against
the tide.
Guy
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