My Navy jets are supposed to leak story
On the last day of the Desert Storm Air War, nothing much was flying but they wanted jets to "boom" Baghdad on a regular basis to let them know we were still around as negotiations ensued. So instead of rush hour over Iraq like the weeks before, things were ominously quiet.
Our skipper asked me to take a brand new arrival from RAG (SERGRAD LT) who only had a couple fam flights over the Red Sea since arriving in country on the booming mission to be able to say he at least had one combat hop. He was a bit nervous tanking off KC-135 and bent the probe tip in the process. So now what to do?
We could almost make it back but would have to have a Ready Deck. We had been briefed that there was hot pit availability 24/7 at a SOF support field near the border that had A-10s and other CSAR assets staged there. I already had the coordinates in my INS so we dropped in to top off. Piece of cake I figured. We'd still be able to make the recovery. We pull into the pits next to an A-10 loaded for bear and shut down the right motor to refuel. Air Force had a small army of folks working the pits and one went right to correct spot to open the panel and hook us up.
No sooner than we had good flow and I'm thinking I wouldn't miss my daily slider, one of the small army starts pointing under the fuselage and signaling to cut off the JP. He was pointing where ECS ports water so I wasn't worried. I told the nugget to kneel the jet and cracked the canopy so he could approach. I showed him the Pocket Checklist diagrom and scribbled a note as what it was. He went below and came back with a bare wet hand and held it up nodding OK. So JP was flowing again. Less than a minute later, another member of the army points at another spot and we're shut down again. I figure out what it is and we exchange notes again. This repeats itself yet again so I write a note saying "It's a Navy jet, it's supposed to leak. If it isn't leaking, we're out of something!". He reads it and starts laughing and takes it to another member of the "army" which has now grown considerably. Guess not much was going on so everyone decided to come see the Tomcat and take pictures including some Saudis.
They were still passing the note from person to person and laughing while shaking their heads knowingly when we topped off. We finally got out of the pits and I asked my nugget if he had done a low transition to a max performance climb yet. He said no but was willing to try. I told him "Don;t F__ it up, our fan club is watching!). It wasn't as low as I would have liked or as aggressive a climb, but I'm sure it was the most entertainment they had all day.
On the last day of the Desert Storm Air War, nothing much was flying but they wanted jets to "boom" Baghdad on a regular basis to let them know we were still around as negotiations ensued. So instead of rush hour over Iraq like the weeks before, things were ominously quiet.
Our skipper asked me to take a brand new arrival from RAG (SERGRAD LT) who only had a couple fam flights over the Red Sea since arriving in country on the booming mission to be able to say he at least had one combat hop. He was a bit nervous tanking off KC-135 and bent the probe tip in the process. So now what to do?
We could almost make it back but would have to have a Ready Deck. We had been briefed that there was hot pit availability 24/7 at a SOF support field near the border that had A-10s and other CSAR assets staged there. I already had the coordinates in my INS so we dropped in to top off. Piece of cake I figured. We'd still be able to make the recovery. We pull into the pits next to an A-10 loaded for bear and shut down the right motor to refuel. Air Force had a small army of folks working the pits and one went right to correct spot to open the panel and hook us up.
No sooner than we had good flow and I'm thinking I wouldn't miss my daily slider, one of the small army starts pointing under the fuselage and signaling to cut off the JP. He was pointing where ECS ports water so I wasn't worried. I told the nugget to kneel the jet and cracked the canopy so he could approach. I showed him the Pocket Checklist diagrom and scribbled a note as what it was. He went below and came back with a bare wet hand and held it up nodding OK. So JP was flowing again. Less than a minute later, another member of the army points at another spot and we're shut down again. I figure out what it is and we exchange notes again. This repeats itself yet again so I write a note saying "It's a Navy jet, it's supposed to leak. If it isn't leaking, we're out of something!". He reads it and starts laughing and takes it to another member of the "army" which has now grown considerably. Guess not much was going on so everyone decided to come see the Tomcat and take pictures including some Saudis.
They were still passing the note from person to person and laughing while shaking their heads knowingly when we topped off. We finally got out of the pits and I asked my nugget if he had done a low transition to a max performance climb yet. He said no but was willing to try. I told him "Don;t F__ it up, our fan club is watching!). It wasn't as low as I would have liked or as aggressive a climb, but I'm sure it was the most entertainment they had all day.
