@ChristopherByrumHarris 2 жыл бұрын
I am a former Boom Operator on the KC-135. I've spent many hours managing the MPRS and BDA platforms. Both were a pain in the ass to manage. The MPRS platform had a very confusing control panel but was far less stress inducing to manage during the actual refueling. However, it was one of those systems that failed a lot and was known to just lose hoses and baskets out of for no reason. The BDA was a nightmare because we had to maintain a safe distance between the tip of the boom (not the basket) away from the aircraft while still giving the pilots enough slack to maneuver. The F-18s were the best at this, the EA-6's were the worst, lol. I remember an instance where a green F-18 pilot was doing it for the first time, solo, and just would not listen to my commands about the hose length and he'd get the hose in a configuration that would just slap the nose cone, he beat the hell out of that airplane, all on a Cornet east over the Atlantic. I felt bad for whoever had to fix that aircraft. I will say, I never witnessed any fuel probes getting broken but I left before it could happen to me. We had a saying about that for boom operators, there are those who have and those who will have it happen. We boom operators hated having to do any sort of drogue refueling because the way the literature reads for our job, we're the safety observer and in control of the refueling mission during that phase and not having any real physical control over the equipment during drogue missions is a bit nerve wracking, especially during moments when the receiving pilots are already stressed from a rough mission. I have quite a few stories of having to talk an F-18 pilot into contact who was in an emergency situation and low on gas. We had to nurse him back to the carrier and man did I earn my pay that mission. That pilot actually tracked me down to thank me during that deployment. Man, I miss flying and love hearing these sort of stories from the receiver's perspective. Keep it up!
@magdalena_emilia Жыл бұрын
Great episode! I didn't think aerial refuelling will be so interesting to listen. Kudos to you and your guest, you made it wortha while with all these great stories👍Btw I started listening to your podcast thanks to the Top Gun episodes but I've found myself drawn into the fighter pilots world and I'm now listening to all the previous episodes with great pleasure. Thank you🙏🏻
@VitorMoura 6 жыл бұрын
That was great! Thank you guys for the excellent podcasts.
@alexvan1622 5 жыл бұрын
Cant thank you enough for your channel.
@FighterPilotPodcast 5 жыл бұрын
Thanks, glad you like it! There’s even more on our Patreon.com page 😎
@RioFalconBmsBrasil 6 жыл бұрын
Thank god I found your podcast, sir!! Awesome content! Thank you!!!
@andresgarcia4570 5 жыл бұрын
I'm glued to your channel! Thank you for your hard work!!!
@FighterPilotPodcast 5 жыл бұрын
andres garcia you’re welcome!
@IkeThe9th 5 жыл бұрын
Another great episode fellas. I thought about another navy bird that refuels the boom way... hours after. The USN P-8 Poseidon!
@infotechsailor 6 жыл бұрын
thank you for uploading these. It was taking forever to download the podcast audio from your website.
@FighterPilotPodcast 6 жыл бұрын
Yeah, sorry about that, Josh. We are upgrading the website which should hopefully make that easier in the future. Looking to launch it in July...
@ShamuXEagleDriver 2 жыл бұрын
From an Air Force (AF) perspective, aerial refueling capability (i.e. KC-10/135/46) is the unheralded backbone to the AF's five "core missions of airpower-air superiority; global strike; rapid global mobility; command and control; and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance" (ISR). Without air refueling capability, none of these missions would be global or rapid in a time frame relevant to modern conflict. Cheers, Shamu
@FighterPilotPodcast 2 жыл бұрын
Just wait, there is an entire episode dedicated to big wing tanking.
@gregory.chalenko 4 жыл бұрын
Thank you for another great episode! I'd had little idea how military pilots pass gas in flight :-D It might be a stupid question, but for me the reason for aerial refueling is still not quite obvious (excluding the emergency recovery part). You say, that there are no gas stations in the sky, and that's why you refuel from an airborne tanker, but... said airborne tanker is also an airplane which has to come from an aerodrome. Is it that first, the tankers have much greater range than, say F-18 to be able to come from places out of reach for the F-18, and second, even staying in the air for prolonged time they burn overall less fuel than the receiving F-18s if they'd have to land and take off?
@alpteknbaser7773 2 жыл бұрын
🙏👍
@luichek1858 6 жыл бұрын
Cool Podcast! Just a question: I did acomplish Inverted AAR with the DCS F/A-18C, would be possible to do it with real f18c ??? Thanks!
@FighterPilotPodcast 6 жыл бұрын
No. But why on earth would you want to? (In real life that is...)
@SurfVR 4 жыл бұрын
You must have had some serious oil pressure issues doing that. Haha. DCS models that pretty well.
@user-vb4tl8vk8c Жыл бұрын
기원전제2지구별 1984년 이령초등학교 3학년짝꿍 윤은실 2023년현재 아가씨 아니던가 예 그녀는 내가 가장 신뢰하는 조언자이자 가장 좋은 친구이며 내가 알고 있는 중에서 가장 친절하고 현명하고 생각이 깊은 사람이기도 하다 이령초등학교 짱꿍 윤은실 여보야 아니던가 예
@kentscoffey 2 жыл бұрын
Caller #1: The answer is simple, if you want to fly but have "psychological" issues with killing someone, go fly for the airlines. Stay out of the military.
@FighterPilotPodcast 2 жыл бұрын
Just wait until a later episode when a listener wrote to say he was leaving the show because he found out I hunt dove.
@lazyhominid 4 жыл бұрын
At 3:40 on, quoting "a friend" and guessing, and getting the answer wrong in the process, really makes me lose respect for this podcast. That's really sad. :(
@FighterPilotPodcast 4 жыл бұрын
Well, this was early in my podcasting journey and I quickly improved. But that said, I accept the fact I’ll never be able to please everyone.
@lazyhominid 4 жыл бұрын
@@FighterPilotPodcast A lot of people quote this podcast by linking to specific times on it as a source of authoritative answers. I'm not saying that is your doing, or even intent, and it is a testament to how great a job you do. And pretty much always they are correct to do this. In this instance though, this has caused damage in a tight knit community. I examined why people were so adamantly holding fast to the view that F-16's in use in the US do not use AIM-120's on the wingtip when they rather clearly and evidently do, just about all of them, and the root cause was here.
@FighterPilotPodcast 4 жыл бұрын
@@lazyhominid Understood. That was the information I had at the time.