Piloting an AC-130 Spectre

"Kev" wrote in message
ups.com...

Jay Honeck wrote:
[...] And, don't forget, you've got 14 guys and
gals seated behind you, working radar and weapons systems, most with no
view outside, so you can't yank and crank TOO hard or you'll have
barf-covered equipment from stem to stern.

Heh, in my experience, military pilots aren't that concerned about us
people in back :-) If they need to yank and bank, that's what they'll
do.

The Spectres are scary to troops on the ground. I remember in the
desert one time, I could vaguely hear something above. No lights on
the plane, of course, and no moon that night either. We were hunkered
down, and I was on guard duty. Suddenly I saw a mesa nearby light up,
just like you see in Close Encounters, with a beam from nowhere. It
lasted maybe a second.

A minute or so later, our mesa got lit the same way. For one short
moment, you could read a newspaper. Your hair goes up on the back of
your neck, I can tell you.

Can't say if it's true or not, but the story goes that if they read
your name on your BDUs, then they call down and you get into trouble
for being too exposed :-)

Kev
(ex-SSGT,USASA)

Interesting that you mention this...

I recall attending an airshow somwhere several years ago and being told by
an AC-130 crewperson that the fire-control system not only knows where to
shoot but also knows where *not* to shoot.

Jay B