Nellis
AFB & Red Flag Tanker
Flight - 07/02/2007
During
the first day of the trip
to the 'Left Coast' of the
United States, I was fortunate
enough to be able to take
in a flight on a KC-135R from
the 92nd ARW during a Red
Flag 07-2 refuelling mission.
The
aircraft we were due to fly
on (belonging to the 319th
ARW) ground aborted at the
engines running stage, so
we were forced into jumping
on the spare jet that was
already running just in case.
Unfortunately, the 'boom operator's'
window on this aircraft was
absolutely covered in some
kind of hydraulic fluid which
made it impossible to get
any decent shots through,
but we did get one or two
shots off the wing and also
through the very small panes
of glass to the left of the
main boom window as the aircraft
were breaking away.
It
was still an unbelievable
experience to have Raptors,
Eagles and Vipers coming up
for fuel, and as my first
taste of air-to-air not something
I'm likely to forget in a
hurry!
The
four KC-135s involved shared
the ramp at Nellis with the
two C-130Hs of the RAAF who
were also taking part in the
exercise.
I
was lucky enough to be offered
the jumpseat on departure
- another highlight of the
day.
Sitting
waiting for clearance at the
end of the runway were a number
of Raptors and 64th AGRS F-16Cs
- the resident Viper 'Aggressor'
unit.
After
a short wait we were cleared
to line-up and depart.
We
climbed to 21,000ft and headed
for the "Beano Line"
where we started to fly a
racetrack, waiting for our
first receivers to show up.
Off in front of us was another
KC-135 and we could see a
Raptor taking fuel from him
- just a bit too far away
to get any worthwhile shots
of.
Finally,
there on the boom appeared
a bright green HUD. It was
a Raptor. In fact, it was
a pair of Raptors, both aircraft
belonging to the 1st FW "The
Fighting First", based
at Langley AFB, VA.
What
should have been another highlight
of the flight sadly didn't
come to fruition. "Digger
flight", a pair of F-111Cs
from 1 Sqn of the RAAF were
due to come to us for fuel
as we had two PAO representatives
from their Air Force with
us on the flight. They called
up and spoke to the boom operator,
but for whatever reason didn't
actually come to us, so with
nothing else booked in we
headed home....
All
told we had eleven receivers
during the flight - four F-22As,
four F-15Cs and three F-16Cs,
between them taking 63 tons
of fuel.
My
sincere thanks for a truly
amazing experience goes to
AMC, Randi Norton of the Grand
Forks PAO team, Justin McVay
of the Nellis PAO team, all
of the guys on the crew of
the tanker and to Martin Keen
for making it all possible.
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