Chris Penningroth’s Weltanschauung

     Tonight was the first time in my F-16 career that I got to fly back-to-back night sorties.  It was also the first time since about April 2002 that I got to fly night SEAD with NVGs.  To say I was rusty would be putting it mildly. 

     Huck, Prosac, Disco and I all flew on out to the CHARLIE airspace shortly ahead of Nash and Riddler who were playing strikers.  They would attack a pair of simulated SA-2 batteries with our help.  Kane and Shack flew out to the northern part of the airspace to play Red Air and to try to keep us from suppressing the SA-2s and to prevent them from getting attacked.  At the fight’s on, Huck took simulated shots at Kane, who acknowledged the valid shots and jumped out of the way and RTB’d.  The four of us SEAD players spun around and headed south to regroup when Riddler decided to try to attack us.  Disco and I spun back and took some simulated shots at Riddler, who followed in Kane’s fate.  We then sprang north and fired our way through the simulated SA-2 bands, decoying the SA-2s perfectly so that Nash and Riddler got in to drop their bombs unmolested from either Red Air or Red SAMs.  The only troubles I had were that I forgot how easy it can be to see other aircraft at night–I managed to get seven miles away from my wingman at one point, I had forgotten to cross-check my air-to-air TACAN after my long absence from night SEAD CAPs.  At least I was still visual!

     Afterward, everyone pointed back towards Misawa, landed, re-fueled, and launched for a repeat performance.  Unfortunately due to some air traffic control delays, Kane and Shack finished their second sortie before we ever got airborne, so we dispensed with the air-to-air engagement and re-ran the ground attack segment, which went pretty well again.  After a short twenty minutes in the area, we headed home again. 

     I don’t know when we’re going to fly at night again.  Probably not soon enough for my proficiency’s sake. 

     I flew three times this past week, but always as Red Air.  Oh, well, it’s better than not flying at all.

     On one of the Red Air sorties, we got to use the practice jamming pod.  That made life pretty interesting for our opponents du jour.  They managed to deal with us fairly well.  Our job for the day was to try to get around them and bomb a target while they performed defensive counter-air.  We almost got through twice.  Almost! Unfortunately the practice jamming pod doesn’t jam in all directions, and Blue Three happened to seredipitously be in one of the areas the pod wasn’t jamming as I was making my run for the roses.  He managed (with the help of GCI) to find me with his radar and shoot a simulated AMRAAM at me, ending my opportunity to put a simulated crater in his runway. 

     On one of the other ones, I got to fly with my ol’ buddy Bender, and that’s just always a good time.  We didn’t have jamming pods that day, so it was relatively easy work for the Blue force to find and schwack us at range. 

     On the third we flew in support of Toro (from the other squadron) as he tried to knock out a Weapons School Instructor Course spin-up intercepts ride.  We didn’t get practice jamming pods for that one, either, although we did get to pretend to be unidentifiable bogeys and forced Blue Air to merge with us.  This would normally have been exciting, but we were briefed limited maneuvering (the thrust of the mission was intercept geometry, merge acceptance decisions and execution, not intercepts to ACM).  So we flew by Blue Air rocking our wings as our GCI called us simulated killed a couple times. 

     I suspect I’ll have more of this in my future.  At least I’m getting to fly!

     Today’s exercise was a simulated Destruction of Enemy Air Defense mission in the good ‘ol DMT (Distributed Mission Trainer, the current fancy name for "simulator").  Huck, Beast, Nash, and I went up against a plethora of SAMs, ZSU-23-4s, AAA, and MiGs.  It was a pretty good ‘Piccolo Drill’ workout with HOTAS, every couple seconds it seemed like I was switching between air-to-air and air-to-ground mode.  That, and I seemed to be the IADS’ designated pincushion, as every simulated SAM launch seemed to be aimed at me.  Thank goodness it was just older SAMs! You don’t even have to punch your tanks off for them most of the time.  The really fun thing is when the bad guys shoot a SAM at you and your wingman’s HARM hits their radar first, then the SAM just falls out of the sky.  It’s even more fun to watch the closer the missile managed to get to your jet!

     Someone once told me what WOKSOF (or was it WOCSOF?) stood for.  I can’t actually remember the acronym, but it basically means the weather could charitably be described as fecal.  It wasn’t quite that bad today, but the training airspace was most definitely socked in. 

     Hoser and I went out to try to do some BFM, which both of us were looking forward to.  The uncooperative weather forced us to hang out in radar trail a lot.  We tried to do a couple heat-to-guns sets, but all we really ended up doing was playing strafe rag for the guy at six o’clock, we were primarily avoiding flying into clouds. 

     Normally the flight was the highlight of the day, but today got really interesting after we landed.  By ‘interesting’ I don’t in any sense mean to imply that any of us had any fun.  It just got really busy in unusual ways.  No, no combat, no starting a land war in Asia, no resurgent former Soviet States going for Cold War glory.  Just non-routine things that popped up unexpectedly. 

     At least I got to fly!

     Today was a pair of SEAD/Force Protection sorties.  Four of us jumped out in front of a four-ship of strikers and practiced weaving in and out of SAM rings and knocked a couple Red Air fighters back a peg or two. 

     Two sorties in one day! I’ve almost made RAP for the month.  Attached life. . . *sigh*.

     Let’s see, what did I do today to top off last night’s divert to Hachinohe?

     I had the brakes fail on taxi.  Then after "New jet, new day" I had the engine fail shortly after takeoff, followed quickly by a successful flame-out approach and landing.  Then I took off again with a similar engine problem that terminated in a flameout approach and landing.  Then I had an oil system malfunction after takeoff with the engine seizing, followed by a flameout approach and landing.  Then I had the flight controls nearly completely fail after takeoff, so I simply RTB’d to a no-HUD, no-AOA gauge visual straight-in.  Then I had the engine fail again.  Then while I was doing an unrestricted climb to 32,000′ the jet went out of control, so I simply let go of the controls and gave it ten seconds for HAL to try to fix itself before I intervened and showed the computer how to fly a modern, high-performance fighter jet.  Then I called it a day.

     I did mention this was situational emergency procedures training in a simulator, didn’t I?

     Tonight’s mission was the long-awaited NVG re-hack.  It was the first time I’ve flown at night since June.  June of 2006, that is. 

     The briefing and step were all routine, with the exception that both FNG F and I were out of NVG currency, so I got to be the lucky guy to take an IP along in the back of the family model.  Quattro was the IP of record for this flight.  He and I jumped out of the crew van after step to find a D-model (about 2,000# less gas) with two CATM-88 missiles (800# each), an ECM pod, and a LANTIRN targeting pod. . . a LANTIRN targeting pod?! That’s the first time I’ve ever flown that configuration.  Most of the time when we carry HARM missiles we also carry a HARM Targeting System Pod (HTSP).  Maybe we’re getting ready for MMC 4.2 upgrade and the R7 HTS pod.  The new system is supposed to be able to work together with a targeting pod.  Our current software tape isn’t double-pod friendly.  We closeted our surprise, slapped away the mosquitos that suddenly appeared in a swarm, finished the preflight inspection, hopped in, cranked the motor, aligned the INS, turned everything on, checked the flight controls and brakes and a myriad of other widgets and gizmos, and taxiied to the arming area and then to Runway 10 for takeoff.

     Night takeoffs in afterburner are always a great sight.  After the cleared-for-takeoff call from tower and the radio frequency change to departure control, the next thing that happens is the jet in front of you selects MAX on the throttle (which you don’t see), followed shortly by a 20′ long cone of orderly orange fire complete with five or six supersonic shock waves that appear streaking out of the nozzle as the Viper seeks liberation from the tyranny of the tarmac.  Within 15 seconds, the previous aircraft lifts off, you repeat the previous motions of the other pilot in your own cockpit; in two seconds you find yourself pressed back in your seat with the digital airspeed readout increasing faster than you can count.  At the point the readout passes through something resembling 155, about 10 pounds of back-pressure with the right hand on the side-stick controller and your own nose rotates into the inky blackness over the Pacific Ocean just two miles away.  Seconds after that, your ship breaks its tie with the ground and with one last check of that single engine’s ‘steam gauge’ instruments for certainty of operation, you throw the gear handle up and start making sure your vector takes you into the sky.  Night takeoffs just rock, no matter where you are when you see them, but I certainly get some of the best sights available to human eyes.

     Hoser, the DO had told us earlier in the mass brief that tonight would be "High Illumination," meaning there would be plenty of light for the NVGs and we would be able to see everything pretty well.  It turned out that we launched so close to sunset that although it’d been dark on the ground, the sky was so bright that the NVGs were nearly useless, everything was just washed-out-green.  All we could really see for the first five minutes of the departure was the anti-collision light on the other jet. 

     The 1v1 intercepts worked out much like any others.  We were going to try to get in a simulated JDAM attack at the end, but with all the extra drag from my CATMs and pods, I hit BINGO and we started our RTB.  Everything went fairly normally with the first half of the return.  We checked out of the airspace with SABRE, who pushed us over to Sapporo Control for IFR.  We finished our battle damage checks, then I called back to squadron ops to relay our aircraft maintenance status.  We then switched over to ATIS to find out what the weather was like back at the field.  It sounded pretty good, with no ceiling, scattered clouds here and there, and light winds.  After 10 minutes listening to Sapporo Control sequencing us around and below the airline routes that criss-cross the sky above our return route, they handed us off to Misawa approach, and that’s when the fun started.

      Upon contacting Misawa approach, they informed us a runway change was in progress, and they started vectoring us to the HI-TACAN initial approach fix and told us to plan to hold for about 10 minutes.  I did some quick mental math, and with 2600# of gas remaining, determined I could do just that, but no more.  So far, so good.  We flew to the IAF and entered holding, but just in case, I started looking up the approaches to Hachinohe Airport, our primary divert field.  It turned out to be a good thing.  During our first turn in holding, we’d talked to the SOF and told him what our situation was.  He figured we’d have no problem making it back, and he promised to get us priority getting back to the field.  Normally we’re supposed to get to the final approach fix with 1,500#, and it was going to take 600# to shoot most of the approach (500# if we got vectors direct to the FAF).  I expected to hit the IAF and be cleared to start the approach.

     What happened next, of course, was approach told us to execute one more turn in holding, and that we’d be cleared the HI-TACAN for Runway 28, and if the runway change wasn’t complete they were going to have us hold at the FAF.  No dice.  I was just below 2,200#, the next turn in holding would be another 300-400#, then 500# best case for the approch to Misawa, and the runway change that was supposed to have been completed by now was going to take an extra 12 minutes.  FNG F, Quattro, and I all decided we were going to Hachinohe, which was just 12 miles off our nose. 

     We were quickly cleared over to Hachinohe Tower’s frequency.  Tower informed us we’d be cleared for a visual approach to Runway 07, winds were light, and the field was VMC.  The approach turned out to be no problem, although the Hachinohe Airport sits in a little bit of a valley and we felt a little dragged in due to the elevated terrain under long final.  We landed, taxiied over to the Japanese Navy P-3 squadron, shut down, hopped out, and walked over to their base ops to arrange a trip home.

     We waited for about four hours on the ground before a team of maintainers and security forces finally showed up.  The maintainers picked us up, and after a 25-minute drive back to the squadron ops, we all hopped out, threw our gear in our lockers, and finally called it a night. 

     In sum, the day had been three hours of preparation; one hour of step, start, taxi, and takeoff; 1.5 hours of flight; and 4.5 hours of hurry up and wait before arrival at the squadron.  Luckily I’d only been in the office for 2.5 hours before I started the day.  Otherwise it’d've been a really long one!

     We always say the first time something unusual happens (like a divert) will be at the least convenient time.  Never mind the fact that it’d been 15 months since my last night/NVG flight, and never mind the fact that I’d never ever seen Hachinohe Airport from anything but the simulator’s Runway 25; it was also my wife’s and my first anniversary.  That, and I didn’t have any Yen in my G-suit pocket. 

     At least now I have Yen with me!

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Update 20071004:  It turns out the OG/CC was as surprised as I was about the 2xAGM-88 w/ LANTIRN pod configuration.  (For those of you not in the military, the OG/CC is the commander of the operations group, almost always a O-6/colonel type.  Surprise is the least favorite emotion of the O-6 and above).  He got the configurations changed the next day, from what I heard. 

     I haven’t been flying recently, and I won’t until about 1 Oct.  Between the end of the fiscal year and the minor surgery I just had, I’m just not going to be on the flying schedule at all for two weeks.

     I wish I could say I’ll have some free time to blog, but what will really happen is I’ll have to code up an Excel spreadsheet, write a performance report, write at least one quarterly awards package, and help author one or two PowerPoint presentations on the local FY07 flying hour program and the forecast for the FY08 flying hour program. 

     I’m on the schedule for an NVG re-hack on Mon, 1 Oct.  It ought to be pretty vanilla, which is probably a good thing.  It’ll be the first night flight in over a year (and a year ago it was only the one flight at Luke AFB, with no weather to worry about and visibility clear enough to see the next state over!). 

     Today was my instrument/qual checkride.  The tactical portion was pretty simple; our task would be to play two of a three-ship of Red Air for Quattro’s IPUG Force Protection ride.  He was dragging an MQT student, and so was his IP of record.  They didn’t want anything crazy anyway.  We got up really early in the AM, briefed up the sortie through a busy morning, launched into the partly-cloudy blue sky, and rallied up in the special-use airspace to start what would be a quick commit to a simulated death by AIM-120 from Blue Air.

     After the presentation, Lt Col T and I flew to back to Misawa’s HI-TACAN initial approach fix, Shoju.  I didn’t intend to stop for any holding, and was punished with two turns.  After holding, we commenced the approach and asked for vectors to the opposite direction runway for a PAR.  We finished the TACAN approach, climbed out to the southwest, and held for a couple minutes.  Meanwhile, about eight other flights showed up to beat up the pattern, and approach told us to plan to hold for 15 minutes while they brought everyone else home on runway 28 before we could shoot the approach to runway 10.  Having only 15 minutes of fuel all told, we knocked off the PAR attempt and went straight to high key to shoot a simulated flameout approach.  We got punished with two more turns in holding at high key, and I was about to knock it off and just go back to land when Spidey showed up at East IP and offered to hold for us while we shot the SFO.  The SFO worked like a champ, and I called for a closed pattern to a full stop, with the chase aircraft to re-enter at East IP.  Naturally since it was a checkride the landing couldn’t go completely smooth; I flared high and dropped it in, but at least I landed in the first 1,000′ of the runway!

     Today was a pit-n-go day, so I would theoretically get another chance to shoot the PAR to runway 10.  As it happened, we lined up for takeoff on runway 28, and after we got cleared for takeoff, the JASDF controllers decided to swap over to runway 10, so we decided to go straight out to the area since we’d be certain to get the PAR on the way home.  But wait! Not so fast. . . Lt Col T got an EQUIP HOT light in his jet.  He turned everything off and went back to base immediately, burned down to a landable weight, and put his jet on the deck.  After finishing chasing him, I shot another two SFOs and a couple VFR patterns, then called it a day. 

     But wait, there’s more! Since we have a set of advanced simulators at Misawa, we’re allowed to shoot our instrument approaches to update currency and they can be evaluated for checkride purposes.  So Lt Col T and I drove over to the sims, I hopped in, the sim crew set me up just northeast of Hachinohe, and I flew the ILS to runway 25 at the city just south of Misawa. 

     After that, we really were done. Done for one more year, until the next instrument/qual checkride comes up!