While reading the German F 35 thread and info searching I came upon this video of the EA-18G Growler.Just thought I would share.

Cool. The music is irritating.

Yeah, that brought back some memories! Thanks for posting this up, triggertreat.

At 0:56 for about 5 seconds there's two shots of tanking from the KC-135 Strato-Bladder. These tankers must be configured with a short, stiff hose for the USN to tank with. That hose has a knuckle just ahead of the basket which must be pushed open to get fuel, and this happens by continuing to press forward when you make contact with the basket.

0:56 has a great shot of the perfect tanking position with the hose bent and the knuckle open. The shot at 0:59 shows the Hornet a bit too far forward which puts a lot of strain on the refueling probe.

The challenge with this setup is that after contact the pilot must position the nose of the Hornet low and left of the boom and fly formation off of it. New guys have to learn to really finesse the airplane (using both stick and throttle) so they don't beat up the nose with the hose or damage the AOA probe on the right side (which was conveniently designed to be so near the refueling probe ). Mix in some turbulence and it becomes a real bitch to keep the hose at the one or two o'clock position. Doing it at night is even more of a challenge because the visual cues to maintain formation are fewer, and depending on the weather or visibility can be vertigo-inducing.

A good friend on his 3rd cruise was having a rough night while tanking off a KC-135 in turbulence. He inadvertently not only bent the probe but also broke the extension link which opens and closes the probe. Since the probe couldn't be retracted, had had to abort the mission, jettison his bombs and land with it out. During the arrested landing the bent probe slammed down out of the probe slot causing some damage.

One of the greatest disappointments in life is to be low on gas leaving Indian Country at night, then getting to the tanker tracks and forming up on a KC-135 that's not configured with a hose.

Very cool!

quote:

Originally posted by Tailhook 84:
Yeah, that brought back some memories! Thanks for posting this up, triggertreat.

Thanks for the first hand account.
The KC 135 is a neat plane.I was in Peru Indiana 2-3 times a week for about 10 years. Got to watch them doing touch and goes at Grissom. You could sit near the east end of the runway and they would fly low over you on their approach.

I guess they are done drawing penises in the sky!

Well done video - it does remind me of the carrier and the 3.2% of the stuff I miss (operational flying with your good buddies in high performance jet fighters). Ship living and the standard Navy bullshit? No thanks! I've had my fill!

quote:

Originally posted by Tailhook 84:
One of the greatest disappointments in life is to be low on gas leaving Indian Country at night, then getting to the tanker tracks and forming up on a KC-135 that's not configured with a hose.

Yeah, equally as un-fun is reaching the tanker track in Northern Afghanistan, out of AWACs/C2 comm range, and meeting a KC-10 (which could do both Navy and USAF style tanking in the same mission) who waited until the last minute to tell us it's Navy drogue refueling system was 'inop' and they could only tank USAF style - which didn't help since there were no USAF planes (other than tankers) that day... You shoulda heard the Hornet guys about 250 miles behind us FREAK out, as they were in the no-mans land between tankers and in the hurt locker, fuel wise.

Thankfully there was a British L10ll Tristar hanging out up there below the broken KC-10 who said on the tanker freq...

"Tomcat, Tristar is at your left 11 o'clock for 3 miles - comeon down, we've got plenty of extra give...." it an awesome British accent.

They saved about 8 jets that day (2 Toms and 6 Hornets) who would have had to do the very undesirable divert north into one of the semi friendly 'Stans' to the north at some SOF base with dubious facilities.

"Oooh yeah, we're jammin'" - Bob Marley

What is the pod that has a little propeller?

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
What is the pod that has a little propeller?

AN/ALQ99 ECM pods

EF and F-111 carried them. We did testing on them at Eglin.

quote:

Originally posted by f2:
...The music is irritating.

Yes, mon, it is irie-tating!!!

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
What is the pod that has a little propeller?

ALQ-99 pods, aka jammer pods. The little props power them to some degree (in simplistic, Fighter guy terms).



The older EA-6B and now the EA-18G use them for jamming, carrying 2-3 pods.

With these pods blasting at full power, are there concern that they might cause long term health issues for the crew??

Its been said before but this forum is amazing.No matter what is posted or asked there is always someone that has been there-done that or knows the answer.

Fighter guys: why are there two different type of refueling pods? Seems like the dumbest thing ever. Joint fight is how we win, brining everyone together to compliment our services strengths and offset our weaknesses. Lack of standardized refueling is antithetical to joint fighting, what am I missing?

quote:

Originally posted by saigonsmuggler:
With these pods blasting at full power, are there concern that they might cause long term health issues for the crew??

Issue is about 2 meters for RF radiating, and that is mostly for maintenance folks during any testing or troubleshooting. The pods mounted are either far enough away, from aircrew or they are shielded by the air-frame.

Carry a chocolate bar in your back pocket. If someone points at you and laughs, you might be too close to some radar...

You'll see a Growler during the Super Bowl flyover.

"A pair of stealthy F-35s will fly at the Super Bowl in Miami in formation with an F/A-18 Super Hornet like those based in Virginia Beach and an EA-18G Growler."

Complete article:

https://www.military.com/daily...18-super-hornet.html

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
Carry a chocolate bar in your back pocket. If someone points at you and laughs, you might be too close to some radar...

When I was working on the ramp I always carried a small fluorescent tube in my shirt pocket

quote:

Originally posted by arabiancowboy:
Fighter guys: why are there two different type of refueling pods?

Navy aircraft are not big enough to carry the same refueling system as USAF assets which is why the probe and drogue system is used. But probe and drogue doesn't work for the USAF because trying to plug a basket would be near impossible in a B-52 and other similarly-sized aircraft. That, and the pressure flow through a probe and drogue system is lower which would cause even longer refueling times for large USAF aircraft.

Even if they could be forced to do it, the USAF does not have enough assets to provide all the tanking requirements for the Navy during carrier flight operations. This is especially true when the Navy is flying too far from a suitable divert, meaning long transit times for USAF tankers just to get on station near the ship. For all recoveries, airborne fuel is a requirement in case somebody can't catch a wire in the first few tries and needs fuel before trying again. That's why the Navy supplies it's own airborne tankers.

So operational requirements for each service drives the necessity for different refueling systems.