Keith
My squadron was the first USMC Helicopter unit invited to participate in red
flag back in '84. I had the opportunity to fly two F-16 jocks out in the
Twin Huey on a gun hop (Twin GAU 2B miniguns with about 10,000 rounds of
ammo). Our max altitude for the exercise was 200' but I never got over 100'.
100 knots at 50' with your legs hanging out of the open door and the fire
hose of death with a 2'000 or 4,000 round per minute trigger in each of their
hands. You couldn't wipe the grin off their faces and I couldn't buy a beer
for the rest of the exercise.
The only thing better was driving my buddies "Texas Stallion" (Texas Cobra
replica with a 460 V8) 150+ in Ft Worth one night.
Curt Arndt
'55 BN1, '60 AN5
AA MD80/90 (450 knots in a jet is boring)
In a message dated 1/12/01 11:38:58 AM Pacific Standard Time, kturk@ala.net
writes:
<< Mach 1.3 don't look like much up in the wild blue....
We were trading F 16 Trainer rides for rides in the Cobra back then....
also traded a ride in a T 37 and a T 38.... Army sure was alot more fun
back then... To take someone for a ride in the Apache you had to have a
Major General's permission.... and you had to be an SIP ...(standardization
instructor pilot ) which I was....
You should have seen those Air Force guys hanging out in the front seat..
from the Mirror you could see the Terror in their Eyes.... running around
10' off of the trees....at a 100kts.... Speed is truly relative...
Kinda like Bonneville... you really don't feel the speed.... Now Two
hundred miles an hour at Maxton because your on a Runway.... well it's VERY
fast to say the least.....
Keith >>
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