Air Spare

 Well.....They're Ba-ack

New teacher orientation is Wednesday and returning teachers start a week from today, students start on the 13th.  Installation of the connected classroom projectors and interactive boards starts today and already the "I don't have sound in my classroom" requests have started.

"Yes....we know.....the contractors have just begun the installation process.  I don't know....whenever they get to your room."

Which is usually followed by "I can't teach without a projector."

I generally stop listening after the third word in that sentence, because that's where the truth is.

However, as you probably undoubtedly don't want to hear about this, I thought I'd talk about a more exciting part of my life.

I ran across this video a month or two ago and stored it as a "just in case" post for use when Schmedlap decided not to whisper an idea in my ear.

She's good like that.

I've seen several Mach Loop vids before, but not one with C model Eagles.  For those unfamiliar with the term, the Mach Loop is a low altitude training area that covers most of Wales.  Aircraft are allowed to fly low and fast, but not supersonic despite the name.

While there are numerous areas like this in the states (there's a low level route that passes very near to Rancho Juvat) as well as in the Pacific, this one seems to be the most famous.  That's probably because the RAF posts the times it will be in use and aviation enthusiasts climb the hills along the route to photograph and film the aircraft.

Frequently from above.

But like I said, I've seen a lot of different videos both from within the cockpit and from the outside, but I'd not seen one with a 4 ship of Air to Air Eagles, so I spent a few (Ok quite a few) minutes watching it and noticed a few things.

The first thing I noticed is how difficult it is to see an Eagle when it's pointed directly at you.  I hadn't remembered that, but then realized that Air to Air tactics tend to minimize your closure after missile launch.

When you launch a missile, a large smoke plume follows the missile and points right to your aircraft.  You do not want to be there, you also don't want to follow the missile in as the adversary generally launches a heater in the hopes of a lockon, if he doesn't already have a Radar guided one on the way.

So to slow closure and increase the probability that your missile turns off the bad guy's radar (in a rather cataclysmic manner), you turn away from pointing directly at him, while still keeping him within the gimbal limit of the radar.

When I flew the Eagle, the standard configuration was a single external tank on the centerline.  It seems that now, the standard configuration is a wing tank on each inboard pylon.  I'm not sure why that decision was made and I don't remember whether there was a g-limit on the tank, but probably not after the fuel was gone.  But I thought it made the jet look a little "dowdy".

However, as I watched the video, I think that change may have made the jet a little harder to see.  The centerline bag made the jet bigger in the vertical direction, by tucking the tanks onto the wings, the vertical cross section is reduced while the horizontal cross section is not increased too drastically.

I could be wrong, maybe the schedulers are just trying to get more flying time.

You may ask why they roll inverted, or nearly so, as they come up and over the top of the hills.

Part of the answer is "Negative G's suck".  All the things in the cockpit start floating around, maps, dust, you, change in an unzipped flight suit pocket.  Besides, the jet's overstress limit for negative G's is significantly less than for positive G's.  IIRC (which is never a given) I think you had to bring the jet home if you went over 3 negative or 9 positive.

Also, the probability of killing yourself by hitting the ground is just ever so slightly under 100%.  I know of just two people who hit the ground while flying tactically and survived.  So knowing how high you are above the ground is critical.  When you "bunt" the aircraft by pushing negative g, the ground is below your nose, so judging the pull out is more difficult.  If you roll and pull, you can see the ground and your nose, so that helps with the pull out.

Yes, you can commit the nose too low and not have enough altitude to recover with both methods.

Finally, one is flying at low level to avoid detection as well as putting some granite between you and something that might have been shot at you.  So, we practiced coming as close to the terrain as possible, paralleling it if you could, then rolling into the terrain while pulling the nose up, so as to clear the top as close as you could and timing the roll so that you crested over the top inverted and immediately began the pull down so you were silhouetted against the sky for the absolute minimum time.

Yes...that took practice.  A lot of practice.  If you noticed, the Eagles made the loop several times.  Some of them did it better than others.  If I'd hazard a guess, the guys that did it right were the flight leads and may have even flown air to ground at one point, like someone you all know.  The ones that spent a lot of time with sky showing under them were less experienced.

But...Hey, we all get to learn.

I thought this was a cool photo. Mrs J saw this on FaceBook and sent it to me.  Unfortunately, I don't have any info on who to credit.  If anyone does, let me know in the comments and I'll fix it

While we're on the subject of Eagles, Instapundit cited an article in Popular Mechanics about the F-15X.  Supposedly the airplane will be able to carry up to 22 Air to Air Missiles and will be able to work in conjunction with the F-22 and F-35 as a "Missile Carrier".

Source

 Those tactics would be interesting to see.

And just because....well Eagles!

The Source article says they're "dated" and carrying 2 AIM-9 sidewinders and 4 AIM-120 AMRAAM.  Wadduino, but looks like 4 by 4 to me!  Photo by Getty Images

Finally, Sarge and I had a bit of fun with "If I won the Lottery" a while ago and I suggested this for my Bucket List.  Anybody out there want to hit the tip jar for about 20G each?

We'd certainly appreciate it.