Warbird Information Exchange

The weather looks fine to me, Shirt sleave weather in fact! Thanks for the up date Randy.

Rgs Cking

P.S. If you are ever up near Manchester, divert into the airport. You will be sure of a good reception. We don't see many fast jets in this neck of the woods

Whoaa, was two blind???????

cool shots Randy have fun and fly safe.

_________________
"There are two types of people here; airshow whores and airshow prostitutes. The whores, like you and I, do airshow stuff for free, whereas the prostitutes are paid" - Reg Urschler

Thanks much for taking the time to share this with us. This internet thingy is pretty neat huh?

The next time I file IFR I should use some of that UK ATC lingo, and speak with a fake English accent just to mess with the controllers.

"Alarus 4LF Islip airport is 12 o'clock and 8 miles report the field in sight"
"Yes New York we'll be Happy to Continue"

Pete

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Glad you liked the photos and narrative. Since it's legal to take a camera up in the cockpit with me over here, I'll keep taking photos and posting 'em. On to the comments:



The anti-exposure suit is required any time the water temperature is below 60F. Even then, the average survival is only something like 3 or 4 hours. This current suit fits me well, and isn't too uncomfortable. The neck seal can be VERY uncomfortable if it's not fitted correctly. The worst part is the zipper across the chest line -- it is very bulky near my shoulders and armpits and makes reaching across the cockpit a bit of a pain. I'm hoping that as I wear it more it will loosen up a little.

The suit also has sealed booties around the feet, so putting the suit on and taking it off is the toughest part of wearing it -- boots have to be taken off and put back on....

I'm a big fan of the amber "high contrast" visor on an overcast day. On a sunny day, it's downright painful, but on a hazy gray day it really increases visual acuity.



I'm with the 48th Fighter Wing, 492nd Fighter Squadron. It's one with an interesting heritage, although not as interesting as the 4th FG, IMHO.

As for noseart, we'll have to see what happens when/if we deploy. When I was deployed for OIF, I had the blessing to put on the noseart from both my Squadron and Wing Commanders. I'll have to get that before I do it this time around.

I'm still thinking about some more heritage noseart, though!



sing it with me....
"It's times like this that I feel a bit resigned, to just f*cking eject rather than admit that I was blind!"

Randy, caution from a mate who has just been inspecting the LN runway, keep your rotation gentle to avoid trashing the pavement with the reheat! (I think he was joking!) As for me, Randy, welcome to Blighty!

I'm a big fan of the amber "high contrast" visor on an overcast day. On a sunny day, it's downright painful, but on a hazy gray day it really increases visual acuity.

Randy,

Great pics, great story--so much aviation history and you get to carry the torch into the 21st century! I'm very interested in your thoughts on the helmet visor tints. I flew a T-33 sortie this week with a dark visor where I was flipping it up and down repeatedly--bright outside, dark in the cockpit. After I saw the picture of you with the amber/dual visors, I searched the internet and ordered an amber and am considering a gradient tinted visor. I'd appreciate any feedback you have on the gradient tint. Fly safe!

Cheerio, pip pip and all that rot!!

The dual visor is actually a somewhat custom modification. The helmet shop in my squadron punched male snaps on to the strap for the amber visor, allowing the gray one to be snapped on top of it. It works well, although it can be awkward switching between the two if you're in an intensive phase of flight (sometimes it takes both hands).

The gradient visors are nice, although I do not fly with one personally. They come in two versions -- one with a blue-ish tint and another with a brown-ish tine. I prefer the blue-tint one, but that's just personal preference.

They are very nice for use on a dark or cloudy day. They are dark up top where you're looking outside and almost clear down low where it touches your cheeks so you can see the instruments easily.

Again, I use the amber visor on overcast days because it provides much better sky/cloud contrast as well as making it easier to see traffic.

Well, now, you're in Norfolk, you will have to meet up with some of the forumites from the 'other' board!

Curry in Norwich?

I'll be watching you tearing up the skies over Martham in the coming weeks in any case!


Bruce

Please don't drive in to me as you rumble around SE England at 500 feet, if you fancy looking over a proper (American) fighter let me know.

Randy ... is the high contrast visor still something that has to be OK'd by the flight surgeon for each individual ?

I know at one time IT was a required before being able to fly with it ..

The gradient visors are nice, although I do not fly with one personally. They come in two versions -- one with a blue-ish tint and another with a brown-ish tine. I prefer the blue-tint one, but that's just personal preference.
They are very nice for use on a dark or cloudy day. They are dark up top where you're looking outside and almost clear down low where it touches your cheeks so you can see the instruments easily.

I'm intrigued...I'll have to hunt down a blue tint gradient visor and try it out. It may work quite nicely on a clear winter day with the shorter daylight hours and low sunlight.

Again, I use the amber visor on overcast days because it provides much better sky/cloud contrast as well as making it easier to see traffic.[/quote]

I'm willing to bet I'll like the amber visor for flying in the grey winter skies so typical here in the midwest. I imagine the dual setup you have will be ideal in the UK, where you can be in and out of the soup. Thanks for the tip!

Welcome to the UK from an old Buccaneer back seater. The UK certainly is very free for low flying compared to many other countries. Enjoy, but be aware of how quickly the weather can change when you are down in the weeds. I'm a bit old to have come across the F-15E, but enjoyed flying against the A model on both Red Flag (when they played baddies) and on the ACMI range at Decimommanu in Sardinia (I was in the back of a Hawk).
When you have got a bit more acclimatised I look forward to a fast fly-by: the co-ordinates are 5150.176N 00502.812W.
I look forward with real anticipation.
Regards, Fatnav

P.S. Let me know if you want to find out my favourite valleys in the UK.

Yes, that's still the case. The issue, as I understand it, is that people with certain types of color vision deficiencies -- good enough to still pass the flying physical, though -- can have problems with it.



If you mean 'Mustang' by proper American fighter, then by all means YES!!

As for running into another aircraft while raging around down low -- that's always an issue, of course. I wonder how that is handled here in the UK, since in the US the low-fly training routes are published on the VFR sectional charts so that civilian pilots can keep their eyes peeled while transiting them.

Randy, in that picture where we see the ferry boat, are those 3 towers possibly part of the coastal radar "Chain Home Low" from the BOB era?
I enjoyed the overview of the technical differences with altimeter settings etc. I would think if QFE is the reference datam, then it could only be valid at one locale. Do they reference all obstructions as AGL?
The Canadians have a similar phraseology too. Such as "overshoot". My first instuctor in the CL-215 was Canadian, and while on final once, he asked if I was going to overshoot. Perplexed, I explained that I was not "high" and would make a normal landing. Hence, a vernacular discussion followed.
I haven't been to Britain in 4 yrs., and have never flown there. But, I hope to do some flying there in the future.

Randy, here in the UK civilian VFR traffic are advised to stay out of the 0 - 500 - 1,000 ft range as much as possible, especially during weekdays. We can get help from RIS (Radar Information Service) provided by the LARS (Lower Airspace Radar Services) units if we ask for it. In East Anglia Norwich provide a good LARS, and of course the military do while transiting the MATZs.

Whenever you fly VFR in the eastern UK you always get fast jets and other military passing below you, it all adds to the fun

Here is some LARS info for those interested ....

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/224/SRG_GA_LARS_in_SEE.pdf