ZEEOH6

Off the top of my head. C-130, KC-135, U-2, UH-1, T-38

I was actually just an engine troop at Nellis. I did take the pictures above at Elmo though when we were TDY there.

You are right, the contractor may be wrong about whether or not the warhead detonated. But looking at the damage, there is very little radial damage I would think would be associated with a continous tod warhead (I’ve never seen what that damage would look like). He did say there was no shrapnel of any sort (We have jets with shrapnel damage, not from munitions but from engines shelling out and throwing shrapnel through the fuselage, so I know what that looks like). When we did drone shoots, the missiles did not contain a wathead, just a tocket motor. I’ve been a part way more bombs dropped compared to missiles shot (hundreds of thousands of pounds compared to like 8 missile shots). Duds are really not that uncommon. I know it’s not the same comparison though.

Where is the source that the top of the vertical stab was broken off? The contractor I asked said there was no other damage besides the horizontal stab.

Canopy closes after #1 engine starts. The only time I can think of the canopy being closed while starting is when engines 1/2 are already started, but they have to shutdown #2 to rekey FDL which require opening a door in front of the #2 intake. #2 started, #1 off, ladder removed, canopy open.

Also the crew ladder or built in steps is placed on the left side in front of the #1 inlet. Can only remove canopy strut after engine start if the canopy is flat (lost pressure), because you are not gonna close an inoperable canopy on a pilot in case there is an emergency during engine start and they need to egress. So we start #2 first. Once its idle, the crew chief will pull the nose gear down lock and reset the ASP in the nose gear well, hand pin to B-man, climb ladder and remove strut (if needed on a flat canopy, hand to B-man, climb down and remove or stow ladder, then #1. Has no effect in game. Just real life procedures and the reason it’s done that way.

My unit I was at before had an F-15 that was involved in an A2A collision with another F-15 (you can find the black and white HUD video on youtube). The -15 that got hit had half of its right horizontal stab missing and was able to RTB. That jet was still flying when I left. Doesn’t look like it. The contractor didn’t say anything about shrapnel. I will ask though. ETA: No warhead detonation, all kinetic.

Yes, that was removed from the airfraft that was hit. It’s placed upside down on the dunnage, so the top is actually the bottom.

Was told by the contractor doing the repair.

The Saudi F-15 did not get shot down. Did it get hit? Yes, but it did not crash. It was hit on the right stab.

Lights will not come on until aircraft is started or connected to external power which is not used for start. There’s no battery power. Correct, right engine is started first. IDG’s come on at JFS cutoutat about 48% ish, which is when you would get electrical power. I believe flaps get lowered first and than the pilot checks flight controls (I’ve been off the F-15 for a few years) This is what the USAF does at least

You can hear the switches if you flick them with headsets on and engines running. Heck, I even hear circuit breakers popping 5 feet behind my head. If you gentle with the switch and moving it slowly, you wont hear that. Never heard an audible noise when pushing the F-15's throttle past the mil detent, so the no sound is accurate in that regards. Just my personal real world experience.

IRL, only the lap belt is tight to hold you in the seat. The shoulder harness from the seat that plugs into your flight gear is on a reel to pull you into the seat if you eject. Other than that, your upper body has free range of motion, similar to your cars shoulder belt minus the inertia lock. I can't say I ever felt my upper body being restricted by the shoulder straps during my flight. You have to look through a turn so you don't get sick. It's like riding a motorcycle, you look through the turn. I didn't have a problem looking through the turns when pulling G's.

Mvgas, I worked with a guy that PCS’ed from 117’s back in 2005ish. Where you working 117’s around that time? Akarhu, are you Canadian by any chance? I was up in Cold Lake and their hangars were pretty nice. Probably the nicest one I’ve worked out of. We didn’t use run fences to often on 15’s. If it was a maintenance run for ECS stuff, which was right in front and between the inlets or running in the hush house, those were really the only times I’ve used the run fence. On the B-52’s we have to use a run fence anytime theres maintenance being done on an operating engine. The run fence doesn’t install on the aircraft. It’s just a big home plate shaped fence on casters that we’ll park in front of the pod.

I didn't know how the multi quote on this forum works, so I put it in bold to separate it. But now I see that it quotes them individually rather than having them as a collapsible cascade. How is starting an engine while its snowing damaging it? I know that an ice cube wont destroy an engine. Can it? of course, depending on how big it is and where it strikes. There are repair limits for everything. A majority of blade damage can be blended out, which returns them to service. I can hacksaw off a 2" piece of fan blade in certain areas and it's within limits. While some parts even a 1/8" nick rejects the engine. Even if they are out of limits, we can get waivers for them making it serviceable and not destroyed so it will continue to stay on wing. FOD damage is not the main reason for engine removal. I have changed 0 engines in the past 3 months due to FOD damage, but I've changed 8 engines for other reasons in that time span. Our FOD protection is maintenance practice, tool control, FOD walks, FOD checks, keeping the airfield clean, etc. We don't need mechanical devices to stop FOD. Mechanical devices are inherently man made with nuts and bolts. Those nuts and bolts require safety wires, safety wires break all the time. Now where did that piece of safety wire go? How do you feel about inlet x-rays then? I've personally launched Col. Fornoff's F-15. He was the 422nd TE squadron commander when I was there. Hes the colonel in the youtube video posted by Fri13 about the Indian Su-30MKI coming to Red Flag for the first time. I also got to walk around India's Su-30MKI (heck, I like to think that I'm one of the first USAF maintainers to be able to check out the Su-30MKI with no red tape). While watching them recover the jets, they had a jet taxi in with it's #2 intake ramp stuck in the up position. You know how they fixed it? They beat it down with a mallet. I also noticed during my walkaround that they have have borescope access ports that leads directly to the engine's AP plugs. Why else would they easily accessible AP plugs if their engine was so FOD proof? Unless they feel their engine is gonna grenade ever sortie and requires you to scope it that frequently, or they realize that it is just as prone to FOD as any other fighter, if not more so. :beer:

I'm just throwing this out there from first hand experience as an aircraft maintainer at probably the second coldest base that has an actual flying squadron the USAF has to offer... From my personal experience -15ºC (5ºF) isn't that cold and hanve't seen parts fail anymore than usual. That is a warm winter day where I work. The only thing that doesn't work as well is our fuel control since we use JP-8. We had to change all the fuel controls to one fith FEV (Fuel enrichment Valve) that helps with cold weather starting. It was never an issue with JP-4 None of the aircrafts I've worked on had any sort of airframe anti-ice. We just de-ice and it flies. Cant say I've ever seen a single jet come down with ice on any of the leading edge or control surfaces. Controlled FOD (man induced), i.e. lost tools, assembling components with loose hardware/items floating around or rocks, hardware, rags, uniforms, sitting on the ground unsecured that could be sucked up into the engines that is the real problem. It all comes down to housekeeping and maintenance practices. Shitty tool control and/or airfield management = more FOD damage. Uncontrolled FOD (wildlife/weather) isn't a phobia. Those are inherit risks with day to day operation. We don't cancel flying just because our runway just happens to be in the middle of one of the largest waterfowl migration routes in north america. We'll just suck them up, spit em out, get feather samples, clean bird splatter, borescope the engine, and return to service if there's no internal damage. Very rarely do we cancel flying due to weather. The times we have cancel for weather were because we were getting like 12" of snow in 24 hrs. The problem is that people can't drive on the roads to get to work to remove snow from the ramp, taxiways and runways because the highway gets shutdown. Manpower is the real limiting factor. From first hand experience, the worst condition to start engines is when there is fog and below freezing. Ring cowls and IGV start to form ice almost immediately, so you must anti-ice right after it reaches idle. Heck we launch jets all the time with snow on top of the engines and see they get sucked into the engine all the time. We don't even remove the snow on the ground in front of the engines, just where the landing gear is. B-52's have bleed air anti-ice on the ring cowls/PT2 probe and IGV's/ nose cone. B-52's dont blow air over the windshield to de-ice. The glass panes themselves are embedded with wires around the perimeter of the window that electrically heat it. No anti-ice on any part of the airframe other than that and pitot probes. F-15/16's with PW F-100-220/220E/229 have an electrically heated PS2 probe, with bleed air anti-ice on 17 of the 21 CIVV's (a moveable IGV) and nose cone. I haven't worked on a jet with slats, so I can't comment on that. F-15's engine anti ice probe is on the left intake as well. F-16's also have an electrically heated strut(?) in the inlet intake, I have no clue what the strut is since I've never been assigned to 16's. Also on the PW F100-220/229's installed in F-15/16's, just because you have the engine anti-ice switch on, it doesn't mean that the DEEC will allow engine ant-ice. It can say no and inhibit anti-ice Warm hangar space is a luxury. We have 9 hangars that can be use for aircraft maintenance. Of the 9, 4 are nose dock hangars, meaning only the front half is in the hangar, the tail still sticks out. Those are old hangars with heaters that sometimes work. the remaining 5 are full hangars but they're often used for scheduled maintenance. You have a jet for WLT, phase and wash, that takes up 3 of the 5 "nice hangar". The last nice hangar is for fuels. So any fuel system maintenance can only be done in that hangar. 90% of unscheduled mx still has to happen out on the ramp in the elements including engine changes. We pray that it gets below -45ºF, since that's the temperature that our regulation says that no work may be performed. But of course that is always waiverable for real world situations.

Don’t believe I’ve ever heard of that, lol

I was a F-15 engine guy for 4.5 years But yes, the F-15 has JFS for starting only, no APU or even battery power. If we needed power, we always used a -60.

It’s still missing a bunch of Class A mishaps including totall airframe losses that aren’t on there.

I have the 50mm Virpil. Super happy with it because I wanted a shorter extension mainly to offset the grip. The price with shipping to the US is cheaper than the Sahaj before shipping as well.

Just look at what you need and lean in. I lean in to read gauges all the time IRL

I have the additional soft spring as well. Same experience as Ranma13, it's to light for fixed wing for me. I don't fly any helos yet, but I'm sure they'll be perfect for it.

Do you use a center stick? If so the TM is gonna be super uncomfortable. The pedals are rrally close together so you wil be sitting bow legged if the stick is in the center. Mine feels a little gritty and off center movements can be tricky due to some stiction. Mine came free with the Warthog when it was on sale which is why I have them. They are retired now since I just took delivery of my MFG crosswinds 2 days ago! You can try to tune the brake axis and give it a bit of dead zone to alleviate the unintentional braking.

I ordered mine Apr 7 and was shipped Apr 16

Couldn't hear the airframe complain. The wind noise changed, like a turbulent sound. Most of the sounds you hear was the hick sounds from the breathing technique. You can feel the wings shuddering and see the flexing. It was a humid day so there's naturally less "air". Coupled with being heavy we could only managed 8.5g's. My aircraft had to fly cross country, so we had 2 externals. The other jet I went up with had a short flight from Florida so they didn't need externals so we were a bit heavier than they were. I'm sure they hit 9 g's no problem. I didn't see how much fuel we took of with, but we were landing on a wet runway so my pilot actually had to jettison fuel.