Category Archives: F-16 Operations

Everything you wanted me to tell you about the mighty Viper

Whether or Not There’s Weather

Posted on Fri, 20 July 2007 by Chris Penningroth

     Today was the final day of our bilateral exercise.  The game plan for today was for our F-15Cs to join up with a four-ship of F-15Js from Chitose to play Red Air for another large-force employment exercise.  It was … Continue reading →

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A Need for SEAD

Posted on Thu, 19 July 2007 by Chris Penningroth

     Scrappy and I got paired up again today to help a strike package perform a simulated attack on a surface-to-air missile site.  The plan was for a four ship of USAF F-15s and our two-ship of F-16CJs to take … Continue reading →

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Counter Air – The Best Defense

Posted on Tue, 17 July 2007 by Chris Penningroth

     I learned today that sometimes the best defense is your opponents’ defense.      Scrappy, Cash, Bender, and I all went out to defend an imaginary lane in the sky today.  Four F-15Js from Chitose were to play our adversaries.  … Continue reading →

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B, F, and M

Posted on Mon, 16 July 2007 by Chris Penningroth

     Upon return from our journey to the summit of Mt Fuji, Paul and I RTB’d to the home-drome to discover that we were scheduled to fly a BFM hop together! Could life possibly be any better?      We decided … Continue reading →

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Fight-Tank-Fight-Tank-Fight-Pit-Fight

Posted on Wed, 27 June 2007 by Chris Penningroth

     Yesterday was my first flight in over a month.  And whoa! what a flight! Actually, it was technically two sorties.  It was probably the most physically challenging flight I’ve ever made.       I wasn’t originally going to get to … Continue reading →

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Switching to Guns

Posted on Wed, 02 May 2007 by Chris Penningroth

     Monday I flew an iron-oxide-laden BFM hop with Lt Col Z.  I had the most bizarre gunsight glitch I’ve ever seen on a Viper, and the usually spot-on, trusty sight led me astray more than a couple times.  That … Continue reading →

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Chris the Red

Posted on Wed, 18 April 2007 by Chris Penningroth

     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 … Continue reading →

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Chris vs the Volcano

Posted on Thu, 12 April 2007 by Chris Penningroth

     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 … Continue reading →

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Wild Once More

Posted on Sat, 07 April 2007 by Chris Penningroth

     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 … Continue reading →

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Go Low, Go Fast

Posted on Wed, 28 March 2007 by Chris Penningroth

     Today I re-hacked my low altitude currency.  There’s nothing like flying 500 mph 500 feet above the terrain! After the low-level across northern Honshu, we buzzed over to the range and simulated dropping 500# laser guided bombs and designating … Continue reading →

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