Chris Penningroth’s Weltanschauung

     Yesterday I helped play Red Air for Colt’s flight lead upgrade SEAD mission.  Shep, Agent, and I had to try to defend a point target, we had theoretical SAM backup, so Blue Air had the tougher job. 

     Since we had to mimic other airplanes, that made life tougher for us.  That, and Agent and I both had two wing tanks while Shep had a single centerline tank (and otherwise clean for FCF) D-model, so every time Shep went to MIL power, I had to use at least min-AB to keep up.  On the other hand, I had an ECM pod to help make life worse for Blue Air. 

     Overall, we had a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, although a couple merges occurred, I didn’t get to turn with any other jets; Shep managed to sneak in a couple times.  Personally, I think whenever Blue Air was shooting BVR into our formation, he kill removed me so he could get to a merge.  I recall him being lit up with Blue Air’s radar a lot more often than I was! But he was the element lead, so it was his prerogative. 

     I need to get to FLUG myself so I can kick my wingmen out and get to more merges!

     Today’s flight was a quick hop up to the range to practice dry high-angle strafe (dry means we didn’t actually shoot anything, it was all simulated in our on-board computers).  Afterward we cruised north along the ‘Hatchet,’ the northernmost part of Honshu; then across the Tsugaru Strait over to Hokkaido, where we flew around E-san volcano.  There was a little activity there, some steam or vapor was rising from the crater.  It still had some snow on it, it was really beautiful.  After that, we flew a couple passes over a scenic lake nestled between two mountains, and then we flew back home.  The flight made for a pretty nice day. 

     Thursday I completed my mission checkride that had begun on Tuesday.  Tuesday was the standard emergency procedures simulator, and we covered a lot of stuff, so much that it took 20 minutes longer than normal.  My flight examiner du jour was Trigger, a good friend, and like a good friend in this business of war, he didn’t take it easy on me at all.  The flying portion on Thursday was actually a SAT ride instead of a SEAD ride.  I think it was the first time I’d taken a mission check with a LANTIRN pod.  Anyway, we took off with Torch as the lead/SEFE, me as #2, Gordo as #3, and FNG T as #4.  FNG K provided a Red Air look.  After the battle, Torch and I flew back to Misawa to try to knock out the mandatory SFO, only to find nothing but weather directly over the field between high key and base key.  We transitioned to a straight-in SFO, something I hadn’t done (even in the simulator) since the TX course back in June, and definitely not at Misawa! Normally you don’t want to do things like that for the first time on a checkride, but then, it was a valid option, so I tried (and succeeded).  All told, though, it was probably one of the most fun checkrides I’ve ever flown!

     Welcome to the world of the multi-role fighter! My mission readiness for a SEAD/DEAD squadron was determined by a day SAT ride with an archaic targeting pod by a bunch of guys getting ready to deploy to the desert and flying primarily CAS!

     It’s nice to finally get the checkride out of the way.  The problem is, I enter the zone for my instrument check next month!

     Plus, it’s nice to be a Wild Weasel for the first time since 2002!