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Every time I fly out of Fresno I see those aircraft in the photo above. Every time it is just a brief glimpse as we head for the terminal and the commencement of the long cross-country journey from the West Coast to the East. This last time I noted that they have both an F-102 and an F-106. Long time Chanter and fighter pilot extraordinaire Quad-D, or Dave, or Fuzz if you wish, flew one of those (both? Dave, help me out here) in addition to the mighty F-4 Phantom II.
The visual distinction between the two is easily demonstrated by putting the two side-by-side, as in the box art on this Hasegawa model kit -
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| F-102 on top, F-106 on the bottom. (Source) |
Now these aircraft on static display are near the entrance to Fresno Yosemite International Airport, which is also home to the Air National Guard's 144th Fighter Wing. Those folks used to fly the F-16, they now operate the F-15 Eagle, a bird near and dear to the heart of our very own juvat.
The 144th FW, which contains a single flying squadron, the 194th Fighter Squadron, and a number of support squadrons, gave up their Vipers in 2013. As I believe my first visit to California occurred in 2014, I'm quite sure I never saw the F-16s when they had 'em. I have seen their Eagles, every time I visit.
With the exception of their current mount and the Viper, the aircraft depicted above are those flown by the wing throughout its history. Here are some of them:
The Phantom in the last photo is actually the one on static display.
One of these days I'll have to make an effort to see those birds up close and personal. Every time I fly in, it's late and I forget about it until the next morning. There is usually no great desire to retrace our steps to Fresno the next day, after all, we're out there to visit the kids and the grandkids. Especially the grandkids (don't tell LUSH).
When I finally remember those aircraft, we're heading to the airport and I remember them as we drive by.
Now The Missus Herself would, no doubt, wonder why I wanted to see "a bunch of old airplanes." I mean, I get that, she doesn't have the same interest in those old birds, just the old coot who used to work on them (for which I am eternally grateful).
But still, one of these days.
I'll be back mañana, hopefully con más y mejores cosas. (Con disculpas a Suldog. Who is, I might add, on the mend from a serious medical thingee. He's getting better but spare the lad a kind thought and a prayer should ye be so inclined. He's a good lad.)
Update:
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| How could I say "No" to juvat? |
Re: 102 and 106.
ReplyDeleteNow that you've pointed out the differences I can see them and realize the sleep must not have left my eyes when I first looked. (kidding)
I find it amazing that people don't immediately see the differences between the 1911 and the 1911A1.
Hasta manana, y gracias.
Ahora, yo quiero visite Senior Suldog.
(apologies to those who really speak Spanish, my skills are from the Spanish course at FLETC in '98 and almost all the focus was on speaking Spanish, and not as much time was spent on reading and writing Spanish)
Y gracias a la academia de espanol del Servicio Immagration.
That was supposed to say, "....inmagracion." I blame the error on the first post excitement.
DeleteOur brain like to associate what it sees with what it knows, it's all about pattern recognition. Once it thinks it sees the answer, it stops looking.
DeleteFirst post excitement, the struggle is real.
Delete;)
Quick prayer said for Suldog.
ReplyDeleteThanks Scott.
DeletePrayers out for Suldog. The 179th Fighter Squadron in my hometown flew the F-102A in the late sixties, then the Voodoo after which the RF-4C and F-4D with the F-16C/D comprising their steeds now. Always liked the lines of the F16, it's wrapped around the pilot.
ReplyDeleteI had a chance to sit in an F-16 at Kunsan. Felt weird at first, no stick between your legs, that's a joystick on the right, throttle on the left, both covered with buttons. You're practically laying down in the seat. Visibility from the cockpit is incredible, the reclined seat increases one's resistance to G-forces and the side stick controller feels natural after a bit. An absolutely marvelous jet. Of course, The WSO topped my "I got to sit in one" as she got to fly in one down in Key West. Yeah, I'm jealous.
DeleteNeat airplane, once they got over the Lawn Dart phase.
DeleteVery neat aircraft.
DeleteHalf an airplane. One Engine....One Tail....Barcalounger for a seat.
DeleteJust sayin'
Said the Eagle driver.
Delete;)
An Eagle Driver who would dearly love a ride in one.
DeleteI thought as much. Moi aussi!
DeleteWould the Texas ANG give you a ride, if you asked nice?
DeleteWorse that can happen is they say no.
DeleteI worked with a 102 mechanic a few years ago. Before he retired, he told me about rebuilding one, basically started with the stick grip. He mentioned the attitude you had to land in. Check out that 106. It's nose is so long and high, it looks like you have to keep your eye on the edge of the runway to keep aligned. I can't imagine that's easy.
ReplyDeleteI saw a P47 pilot explain why they land like they do. Me mentioned the nose and the attitude, and said that's why they slipped in to land instead of lining up for a long final. Crabbing gave better visibility of the runway.... Gives me shivers.....
Glad you made it back from the left coast safe.
Lots of issues when the Corsair was first introduced, that long nose made it a bear to line up and land on a carrier. The Royal Navy would land by crabbing as you describe.
DeleteRiding in the front seat of an SNJ-6 a few years back, noted that we had to do a lot of zigging and zagging as we taxied out to the runway. Couldn't see squat over that long nose!
Most carrier aircraft of WWII did that, though not to that degree. I can't recall how many films of Hellcats and Corsairs turning left and only lining up with the deck a few seconds before cut-off. No long finals there at all.
DeleteIndeed.
DeleteHellcat final approach
DeleteNice!
DeleteThe next time I visit my sister, in Clovis, I’ll have to check out the display at FAT.
ReplyDeleteBeen keeping a close watch on Sully and sending lots of prayers.
I feel bad for him that his Celtics were eliminated.
Bruins move on, Celtics go home.
DeleteJust because I KNOW you are busy and would never knowingly forget to post this picture.
ReplyDeleteThings here on the shores of Lake Juvat are going swimmingly. Got a very severe pothole where the water was streaming off our road onto the county road. It's about 10' long by about a foot wide, but the front section of it is about a foot deep'. Yes, it's all on my property. So we've got that going for us.
Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
Suldog is added to the prayer list.
And it is such a lovely picture of the Eagle.
DeleteLake Juvat - has the county assessor been by yet to up your tax rates? I mean dude, you're on waterfront property now.
Good thing you're retired now, God is giving you a honey-do list.
Where's a pile of Marston Matt when you need it.
DeleteAnd it's not the county assessor you have to watch out for, it's whether some FedGov department of anal muscles will determine your ponds are 'navigable waters' or 'protected wetlands' and hit you with fines and forfeitures over their determination. So if you see any shady FedGov employees wandering around, you may have to pull a 'Cliven Bundy.'
Though, come to think of it, Dad told a few 'sliding jet on mud and slick Marston Matt' stories when he was at Tegue. So, maybe a truckload of gravel after you dig out and install a culvert where the water is showing it wants to go. Or a box drain with some sort of perforated or barred top or something.
DeleteIn other words, I do believe you will be spending some of your munificent retirement funds on a shovel ready infrastructure project. 1 more than the previous administration ever did...
Beans the 1st - Before the Ogf shows up and climbs all over you, should be Mat, not Matt.
Delete:)
Beans the 2nd - The Ogf might not notice but it's spelled 대구, er, I mean Taegu or Daegu, depending on the Romanization you prefer. (I'm a big McCune-Reischauer fan myself.)
DeleteI love preempting the Ogf...
Do NOT rouse the OGF!!
DeleteRelease the Kraken!
Deletei know, usually, how to spell. Apparently I lost the ability to properly do so last night some time. Now I have it back. Let's hope the grammar module is still working.
DeleteAnd a Kraken in one of juvat's stock ponds? That I gotta see!!!
Or is that the new denizen of the (ex)fish pond?
Yes!
DeleteOh....It's raining again. Yay!
Hhmm, an addition to the pond. We could then call it the Kraken Pond. (Still no new fish. Not sure if that will happen this year. I pick things up, I put them down.)
DeleteJuvat - You probably have room for a Kraken, especially with all the rain you guys are getting.
DeleteI hear that freshwater kraken are also called alligator snapping turtles, and they love muddy pond water.
DeleteWell, Lovecraft set a lot of his fiction in the New England states, and having Cthulhu take up residence in the fish pond is probably a very bad thing.
DeleteBeans - I did not know that. Fortunately our pond is crystal(ish) clear.
DeleteJohn - Yup, I'll be avoiding that, a very bad thing.
DeleteAs long as your children or grandchildren don't approach said pond(s) and start muttering, "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn..."
DeleteSo that's what that was...
DeleteI was leaning up against a fence at a track meet in Lorenzo, TX (if I remember correctly).... it was somewhere out near Lubbock, late 70's.... I noticed that the "fence" was Marston mat. I hollered out, "holy crap, this is all Marston mat!!" No one else knew what I was talking about.....
DeleteThe only trouble I had was the F-95/F-86D. I guess the Sabre Dog has the same relationship with the Sabre as the Super Hornet has with the Hornet.
ReplyDeleteDon't know what's up with Suldog, but I am sure hoping he pulls through.
And as to LUSH... well... I'm sure you're going to hear about that comment soon enough one way or another... In other words... You're in Trouuuuuuuubbbbblllleeeeeee!!!!
'Tis a fair analogy vis-à-vis the Sabre Dog and the Sabre.
DeleteSuldog is on the mend, touch and go for a bit, ticker issues as I recall.
As for LUSH, I dare her, I double dog dare her to chastise me, her beloved Father. She could write a post about it.
Now I'm really in trouble.
Oh, you are in so much t-rubble...
DeleteIt's doomed I am...
DeleteSuldog on the continues prayer list. Jeanie too, for that matter.
ReplyDeleteOAFS, ye gave this old heart a real twitter when I saw the picture of the assembled birds. I flew three of them, but not the 106. I first flew the Deuce at Perrin AFB, Sherman Texas (to learn) and Itazuke AB, Fukuoka, Kyushu (to learn to love and fly it). There, in the Zashnokuma House (residence), I learned how to shoot my watch and look with disdain at the Hun drivers. Our Squadron, 68FIS, ("We get ours at night"),was relocated to George AFB, Victorville CA. We turned into the 68 TFS and took TWA over to St Louis to pick up some new Phantoms for delivery to that secret place (1965). When that was over for us, "who better?" says MacNamara et al. to become instructors? Didn't make any difference if you could teach anyone anything, or even cared about it, if you'd been shot at, shot up, or shot down, you were a perfect fit. Ahh, now comes the third airplane. The twin seat P-80, well not really, they were T-33s. It seems that some of the guys who had a Phantom billet at Ubon, or somewhere else, weren't really comfortable flying the range and other things at 400+K or so. GREAT IDEA! They installed the guns back in the nose of the T Birds and we taught the range at 230K! Blue bombs and strafing. Quite fun,actually. Nothing like the smell of cordite in the morning. (!) Instead of BRRRRRRRRZZZ! The gun now went bang, bang, bang! Most of them learned how to pull out of a dive without fear in their hearts and we sent them SEA to get shot down. Couldn't "pink" em, sorry to say. Everybody had to get a combat tour for their career. It was an unfortunate thing that some of the O-4 and O-5 B-52, C-130, 124, folks insisted on going over. I don't feel too sorry for them, but I mourn over the back-seaters all the time. Enough said.
Ah yes, bomber pilots masquerading as fighter pilots. I think the only wingman Erich Hartmann ever lost in WWII was a bomber type converted to fly the Me-109. He liked to make nice wide turns, the Russian who shot him down liked it too!
DeleteYesterday's post on Thewarzone.com by Francesco Chierici, a Navy pilot that flew the F-14 and F5 in the Aggressor Squadron. An interesting read.
ReplyDeletePaco is an outstanding writer! He has a new book out which looks outstanding, I read an excerpt over at Fighter Sweep a couple of days ago. You can get it here.
Delete"Hint: It ain't just the pointy tail." No, but unless you have an overhead photo, it is the easiest way to tell. On the overhead photo, the air intakes are the give-away. I am always happy to see plane porn.
ReplyDeleteAs for LUSH, if she is so busy, does she even have time to read your blog. As she has never ( to my knowledge ) even written a comment, no worries mate.
Thanks for the post.
Paul L. Quandt
She has commented before. Once, just once. She is busy these days, she probably won't slow down until the girls graduate college!
DeleteYes, from above the intakes are the key. Good eye!
The intakes and the hump behind the cockpit of the 106.
DeleteAnd don't even start on the whole "What hump?" thingy.
It's pronounced "Eye-gore."
DeleteOff topic, I fear, but...
ReplyDeleteY'know, Sarge, it's a pity, but perhaps you might consider squeezing in a couple more Valkyries into your masthead. ROTC Cadet Riley Howell from UNC Charlotte and STEM School Highlands Ranch student Kendrick Castillo.
Both Ran.
TO.
The.
Gunfire.
I know, I'm still processing that particular tragedy. Good suggestion.
DeleteIMHO We should honor current heroes and remember those from history. YMMV!
DeleteHowell will receive full military honors at his funeral.
DeleteHow's that Heroes page coming along?
juvat - true.
DeleteBeans - I knew that.
DeleteF-102 to F-106: two words - Area Rule. F-102 could not go supersonic easily, too much drag. F-106 was given a wasp-waist, which reduced the drag and allowed easier supersonic flight. You can see the wasp-waist on an F-16, it's more pronounced.
ReplyDeleteTake a look at NAS Fallon for a different set of aircraft. Some "aren't from 'round these-here parts".
Wandering Neurons
I've seen the "not from around here" birds.
DeleteNever noticed that on the -106, makes perfect sense.
F-102 was a slug until area rule was applied. With area rule as the sole change, top speed increased 25%.
ReplyDeleteGeorge
Next time you’re in Fresno if you can spend an extra day and drive the 70 to 90 miles up to Atwater and see the collection at the old Castle Air Force Base. Absolutely amazing.
ReplyDeleteThey have some planes that even the Smithsonian doesn’t have. They have a B 36 bomber there. A B-50. Know what that is? A B-29 with different wing and engines
Yes, I need to get up that way.
Delete