Keeping Me Out of Your Warbird?

On Mon, 09 Feb 2004 20:27:37 GMT, "Mark T. Evert"
wrote:


You would have needed a friend if stealing an F-4 though, since
someone had to do the switches on the INS in the back seat to get an
alignment. No nav and no expensive flight instruments without it.
Ditto no ability to run the radar. Also you might want to know a bit
about securing the rear cockpit straps, etc. or you could find the
stick jammed from belts, harnesses, buckles and shifting seat kits.

The Collings Foundation F4D (which I have worked on) has a GPS installed in
the front cockpit. You would still need some help with the ground
equipment for startup.

Gonna lose points at the "concours d'elegance" for that restoration!
Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8

The "Mildenhall Incident" made life on the transient flightline hell for a
couple of months, actually had to wear those flightline badges all the time.
Our a/c took to having the lead loadmaster check everyone as part of the
aircraft baggage drill. No badge, no bag and nobody wanted to explain to the
APs running around all ove the place.

oxmoron1
Almost like being on a SAC Aerodrome!

On Mon, 09 Feb 2004 21:13:53 GMT, "Dudley Henriques"
wrote:


For the the fast jets, as Ed and some others have already mentioned, they're
not all that difficult to fly, but for someone trying to steal one, it would
be a systems nightmare for the thief even if external power was available.

Lemme think about how many private pilot/fast-jet wannabes are gonna
survive a J-75 AB light and takeoff roll with the nosewheel still down
past 190 KIAS or coming into the overrun at 210 KIAS and getting it
down with sufficient runway to stop.

First try at a traditional "flare" is going to result in a balloon
that will have to be seen to be believed.

I recall a "re-qual" check for an old friend who needed "jet currency"
before going to A-10 school. In a T-38 he chopped the power and
"rounded out" at fifty feet in the air. I caught the bird on first
bounce with full AB and finessed it back into flight before a second
impact. Scared the bejesus (and maybe more) out of me.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8

(John S. Shinal)
Date: 2/9/2004 3:09 PM Central Standard Time
Message-id:

"Dudley Henriques" wrote:

A self inspired night checkout in the average warbird would kill all but the
most "inspired" I can assure you!! :-)))

"All right, time to rotate...hmmm...what the...why can't I...
AAAGH ! The gust locks !"

PRANG ! Boom.




That's how Les Towers put the Boeing 299, prototype for the B-17, into the
ground.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

"Ed Rasimus" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 09 Feb 2004 20:27:37 GMT, "Mark T. Evert"
wrote:


You would have needed a friend if stealing an F-4 though, since
someone had to do the switches on the INS in the back seat to get an
alignment. No nav and no expensive flight instruments without it.
Ditto no ability to run the radar. Also you might want to know a bit
about securing the rear cockpit straps, etc. or you could find the
stick jammed from belts, harnesses, buckles and shifting seat kits.

The Collings Foundation F4D (which I have worked on) has a GPS installed
in
the front cockpit. You would still need some help with the ground
equipment for startup.

Gonna lose points at the "concours d'elegance" for that restoration!

LOL There's not a lot of competition in the F4D category....


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8

"Ed Rasimus" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 09 Feb 2004 21:13:53 GMT, "Dudley Henriques"
wrote:


For the the fast jets, as Ed and some others have already mentioned,
they're
not all that difficult to fly, but for someone trying to steal one, it
would
be a systems nightmare for the thief even if external power was
available.

Lemme think about how many private pilot/fast-jet wannabes are gonna
survive a J-75 AB light and takeoff roll with the nosewheel still down
past 190 KIAS or coming into the overrun at 210 KIAS and getting it
down with sufficient runway to stop.

First try at a traditional "flare" is going to result in a balloon
that will have to be seen to be believed.

I recall a "re-qual" check for an old friend who needed "jet currency"
before going to A-10 school. In a T-38 he chopped the power and
"rounded out" at fifty feet in the air. I caught the bird on first
bounce with full AB and finessed it back into flight before a second
impact. Scared the bejesus (and maybe more) out of me.

Yeah...ain't it the truth :-) Many is the novice who learned about
uncontrollable sink by getting a 38 get behind .6 aoa on final!!!!
:-))))
I remember one ground technician who won a ride in the T38 on one of those
"incentive" programs they had for the great unwashed. He apparently had a
bit of light airplane time and a private ticket. We watched as he prepped
for the flight all week, after begging to be put in the front seat. One of
the fixed wing IP's volunteered to take him so the front seat was no
problem. They gave him a dash one to study to make it more interesting for
him. The big day arrived. The IP talked him through the start and taxi out.
The IP, a buddy of mine, being a FWTP, kept a running log of the flight as
it progressed. Here's what happened as I remember it anyway!!! :-))) It was
priceless!!!
He related later that the guy was an absolute hoot on the ICS; using all
kinds of "fighter pilot" slang talk as he was walked through the start and
on the way out to the active. He got himself lined up ok after a short
discussion about the do's and don't's of NWS as that applies to using
maximum differential brake and the NWS at the same time
:-)), and then the IP walked him
through the line up check and told him what to expect on the takeoff run.
"How bad can it be?" the guy said. "Oh, the first time can be pretty fast if
you're not used to it", said the IP. "Ah.......No sweat....and roger
that......" says the tech!!!
The IP had briefed for a max AB climb to give the guy a real shot at the
Talon's performance.
All through the line up check the guy was answering back with these
"ah....roger's....and......ahhhhhhh.........ro ger that". Then the IP walked
him through the throttles up and instrument checks and release...then he
turned him loose. Immediately after brake release, the guy just starts
shouting in the ICS. "Oh Baby!!!!....Oh Baby!!!!!!...Oh man..........Oh my
God!!!!........Jesus H. Christ!!!!........Oh God help me!!!!!"
The IP was laughing so hard he damn near forgot to take the airplane before
things got out of hand. He damn near overshot rotation and gear retract
max!!!
He said he was in balls ass hysterics as he finally took the airplane away
from the guy and rotated. The way he described it in the log was that the
"pilots respiration rate increased as the square of the aircraft
velocity"!!!!
He swore if he hadn't taken it away, the guy would still be accelerating
with the mains on the ground somewhere....to someplace.......and THAT was
back in 1975!!!! You can only imagine where the damn airplane would be by
NOW!!! :-)))))
Dudley

"Stephen Harding" wrote in message
...
Looking over recent photos of the P-38 "Glacier Girl", and reading
all ($$$) that was involved in its restoration, I was wondering...

What's stopping me from laying low during the next air show
and in the early hours of the morning, climbing into the cockpit
of my favorite warbird, and flying it off to my secret hideaway
runway and storage facility where I also keep my illicitly gained
Rembrandts, Van Goghs and pre-Columbian Indian art?


Not an aircraft, but an F-16 engine:

As the story goes:
Hill AFB, early '80's

A couple of SP's had been making off with lowlevel stuff, and fencing to a
mil surplus place downtown. Kept getting bigger and bigger, until the store
owners got nervous. They called the FBI.

"String em along. We'll be right there"

The FBI guys kept upping the stuff they wanted, and the SP's kept delivering

Finally, "Ok...we want an engine. An entire F-16 motor"
"OK"

So the two cops grabbed a bobtail tow truck, drove over to the engine shop,
hooked up to an engine on a trailer, and drove out the gate.
Look like you know what you're doing, and you may get away with it.

They're probably still in jail.

Pete

The Collings Foundation F4D (which I have worked on) has a GPS installed in
the front cockpit. You would still need some help with the ground
equipment for startup.


Finally. Last time I flew it, the INS would drift in quick order. Does
Ritchie know how to run the GPS???
VL

Unfortunate, but true: About 20 years ago, a friend had his award winning
Christen Eagle stolen from his locked hanger. It has not ever been found. The
insurance company was good to their word. (His hanger was 3 doors away from
my Pitts.....).
VL

"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
hlink.net...

snipped

Back in SAC days when I was a Command Post Controller I had two instances
where I sent the Supervisor of Flying and a security strike team to remove a
crew from the cockpit. One of the requirements then was a radio check
requiring authentication and an authenticated takeoff message for any
training flight. After the crew could not authenticate I asked the team to
go out. In both cases the crew had multiple days of authenticators and was
using the wrong day. Made me always a little leery of those two crews.

Many years ago at Nellis a crew chief was taxiing an F-100 and had always
wondered about afterburner. Yes he did...lost control, off the runway,
through the fence, across the road where the bird burned. All over the Air
Force crew chiefs were barred from moving aircraft under power which had
been common practice prior to the incident.

Regards,

Tex Houston