Mildenhall

[Ubique]

Same as the Tornado..multi role aircraft binned..with regards to the C17, there is a new kid on the block now with more capability, the A400M (Atlas)
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True, at least the yanks still have C130's & Harrier - and changed their mind (for now) about the A10's - the two sounds that give me goosebumps are Wokka's and A10's on a strafing run... We have history of binning kit off shortly before we need it for something important (Vulcan for example). I'm too out of touch now to have an opinion on the A400M, there seems to be mainly good things said about it though.

 

[AVI_8]

American‘s have C17’s here at Prestwick every day.
I’ve watched today a couple take off and one doing circuits in the past couple of hours.
I can watch them from my rear decking, the touchdown zone from my house is is only about 150 metres, it’s a plane spotters dream, I’m not one of them though I do have aviation in my blood.
Last week there were about 18 warthogs departing and arriving, have seen a few Typhoons over the past week, albeit late in the evening when it’s dark, they like to make noise, I moved here in 2016, then there was practically no military traffic, now it seems they have an unofficial base here, on an average day there’s about 5-10 C17 movements, the local press say they’re carrying “lethal and non lethal cargo to the Ucraine”
So it’s an unofficial base as some of the aircraft are here overnight, Prestwick is a good stopover from the US by its location and free landing fees by our numpty government, what used to be a very quiet airport has become quite a lot an American military stop over, it’s quite interesting, I quite like it until on the odd occasion a C17 Globemaster decides to depart at 2am, I can sleep through most aircraft but not one of them, the windows shake!
But this evening there was a C17 and a Ryanair 737 doing circuits, I was sitting on my decking watching them either landing or making a mistake on their landing and carrying out a missed approach, The C17’s though got it right every time unlike the Ryanair Cadets …… Not unsurprisingly!

 

[roofman]

True, at least the yanks still have C130's & Harrier - and changed their mind (for now) about the A10's - the two sounds that give me goosebumps are Wokka's and A10's on a strafing run... We have history of binning kit off shortly before we need it for something important (Vulcan for example). I'm too out of touch now to have an opinion on the A400M, there seems to be mainly good things said about it though.

What's refreshing is the A400M is an airbus product which has amazingly powerful engines giving it fantastic climb rates out of a hostile field..Saw one at Farnborough once when they were released and on take off it gave an unrestricted climb which was that steep it looked like it defied the laws of physics

 

[AVI_8]

What's refreshing is the A400M is an airbus product which has amazingly powerful engines giving it fantastic climb rates out of a hostile field..Saw one at Farnborough once when they were released and on take off it gave an unrestricted climb which was that steep it looked like it defied the laws of physics

One of them was doing circuits over my house yesterday, they’re noisy bar stewards

 

[Ubique]

What's refreshing is the A400M is an airbus product which has amazingly powerful engines giving it fantastic climb rates out of a hostile field..Saw one at Farnborough once when they were released and on take off it gave an unrestricted climb which was that steep it looked like it defied the laws of physics

Not great if you're self-loading cargo! There was one of the C-17's that did the usual 'tac approach' - i.e. from very high to very low (short finals) very quickly and managed to scrape a wingtip on the tarmac on landing!

 

[atomant48]

And I wouldn't fancy doing this on a C17...

View attachment 407871

Plenty folk do - it seems pretty good at it ?

 

[AVI_8]

Not great if you're self-loading cargo! There was one of the C-17's that did the usual 'tac approach' - i.e. from very high to very low (short finals) very quickly and managed to scrape a wingtip on the tarmac on landing!

Where was that?

 

[Ubique]

Plenty folk do - it seems pretty good at it ?

I meant hanging out of the para door - jets are inherently less stable at 'slow' speeds compared to turboprops, given the altitudes we used to fly at in the C130's was 'quite low' any instability would/could be an issue. I suppose I was just used to and comfortable with the C130's

This was low, not 'very low'...

 

[Ubique]

Where was that?

Kabul, 2002, possibly 2003 - there was also a C130 that damaged a wing tip, managed to scrape it along the control tower, we had the 'trophy' in our bar for a while until the RAFP got quite angry about it and sent a couple of bobbies from UK to retrieve it....

 

[AVI_8]

I meant hanging out of the para door - jets are inherently less stable at 'slow' speeds compared to turboprops, given the altitudes we used to fly at in the C130's was 'quite low' any instability would/could be an issue. I suppose I was just used to and comfortable with the C130's

This was low, not 'very low'...
View attachment 407878

I bet you’ve some interesting stories that you could tell !

 

[AVI_8]

Kabul, 2002, possibly 2003 - there was also a C130 that damaged a wing tip, managed to scrape it along the control tower, we had the 'trophy' in our bar for a while until the RAFP got quite angry about it and sent a couple of bobbies from UK to retrieve it....

I’ve been luckily to fly with a few ex RAF tornado pilots who flew in the initial gulf war, I’ve listened to their stories, and it was an experience from what I was told, these guys didn‘t think that they would get back, they were convinced that they’d get shot down during the sortie due to the amount of ordinance, they got back every time though.
I‘ve often thought that wow how good would it be to fly a fast jet, comes with the slight complication though that you might actually have to go to war!
Its not all about the practice fun!

 

[Ubique]

Interesting stories - yes, telling them, it depends!
TBH, unless you know the environment, they would get boring pretty quickly without understanding a lot of the background and ethos.

 

[Ubique]

We also got tasked to Iraq for GWII
One of Saddam's palaces

SIA, Baghdad

Six weeks in country then back to Afghanistan - direct flight too, no chance of a stopover in UK, b'stards....

 

[AVI_8]

Interesting stories - yes, telling them, it depends!
TBH, unless you know the environment, they would get boring pretty quickly without understanding a lot of the background and ethos.

Oh I don’t know, I could talk to someone like you all night over a few beers, I’d be interested in the stories!

 

[Ubique]

There were lots of 'interesting' stopovers at Bucharest between Lyneham & Kabul when C130's were used after the initial surge, one of the Armourers was fed all the stories about waking up in a bath of iced water if you'd had your kidneys harvested, of course, being an Armourer he passed out in the hotel bar after a night in the clubs, was taken to his (shared with the GE) room but put in the bath, the GE's task was to gently fill it up in the morning with tepid water and top it off with ice from the corridor ice machine before loudly waking him... Unfortunately I can't share the video.

 

[Ubique]

Oh I don’t know, I could talk to someone like you all night over a few beers, I’d be interested in the stories!

Beers you say? hmmm....

These chaps liked a beer too

Afgan airport civ-side 'security' drifted onto the mil side (past the French!) to join in with one of the 'pan parties'.

 

[roofman]

Beers you say? hmmm....

These chaps liked a beer too
View attachment 407899

Afgan airport civ-side 'security' drifted onto the mil side (past the French!) to join in with one of the 'pan parties'.

Interesting to see "non alcoholic" members of the community enjoying a good old pi 55 up

 

[Ubique]

Interesting to see "non alcoholic" members of the community enjoying a good old pi 55 up

There were two types, drinkers & liars....

 

[AVI_8]

Beers you say? hmmm....

These chaps liked a beer too
View attachment 407899

Afgan airport civ-side 'security' drifted onto the mil side (past the French!) to join in with one of the 'pan parties'.

Yeh I was meaning after the experience, I’m obviously not military, I could have done Raf but I was too old to join before I got into aviation, just circumstances, if I could have rewound life maybe!

 

[Ubique]

I was a defence contractor for twelve years or so, mainly on government work - sometimes commercial (petrochem etc.) I'd do it all again, even the really bad times. Lost a few mates, gained a lot more.