Chris Penningroth’s Weltanschauung

     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!

     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 the target with LANTIRN targeting pods.  Finally, we capped the relatively short 1.2 hour mission with three simulated high-angle strafe passes, safed everything up, and RTB’d.  All in all, it was a good day.

     The weather was so cloudy today, we could have transported the entire fight one continent over to Europe and I couldn’t have felt more at home flying a training SEAD mission.  That said, this flight was replete with air-to-air action (I got two of the ‘bad guys’), and had plenty of air-to-ground hurdles as well.  The extra stuff on the jet (IFF interrogator, LINK-16, HMCS) just continues to make life easier!

     The only thing that happened today that was really different was we took off and landed on Runway 10.  There’s always a first time for everything! The approach coming home was interesting.  There’s nothing like getting a descent to 2000′ when there are mountains just 12 miles away from you.  Thank the good Lord for a radar with ground mapping capability!

     No, the title doesn’t refer to the third version of the reasonably successful 24-hour cable news channel.  Last week I had a few simulator flights, one 4vX tactical intercepts/air combat tactics, and a suppression of enemy air defense mission.  It was the first time I’d really had a chance to do a 4vX since 2003, and SEAD was even farther back in history.  It’s hard to believe how much you can forget in a few years.  But then, it’s nice to know the basics haven’t changed and most of the essentials learned long ago still apply. 

     I had to re-fly my local area orientation sortie today since I haven’t flown since December.  The plan was for Huck and I to fly out to the CHARLIE airspace, do a quick G-warmup, and take a look to see what we could see with our training mode of the HARM Targeting System Pod and to just view the coastline and some of the references out in the ocean.  Afterward we were going to go back to Misawa to beat up the pattern.  I was out of landing currency, so updating it was the primary feature of the mission.

     It was not to be.  The first problem was the solid undercast from about 800′ AGL up to 9,000′ MSL.  We couldn’t see any of Hokkaido or northern Honshu.  The second problem was after a couple of spins in the area, Huck had an issue with his jet which upon consulting the almighty checklist said to ‘Land as soon as practical.’  We buzzed straight back to RJSM, held over the field to burn down to a reasonable weight to land on the wet runway, and landed relatively uneventfully. 

     As for the new toys, I think I only hit the IFF interrogator once.  LINK-16 worked like a champ all day! The HMCS in my jet wasn’t very cooperative, but it worked to a limited extent.  Who needs a stinkin’ helmet-mounted sight, though!? I grew up as a HUD-baby, and I can fly with just a HUD quite easily!

     Some F-4 guy probably just read that and is snickering.  Clock-to-map-to-ground navigation is challenging enough, I must grant (they used to teach us that at pilot training).  But then, those guys had a back-seater to watch the radar for them. 

     I may have grown up in one of the best times in the F-16.  Active radar missiles, the dawn of the J-series weapons, and advanced targeting pods.  By the end of my career, the mighty Viper will still have some useful life in her, even if it is just a ‘legacy jet.’  It (and the F-15) will forever be the first of the fighter jets to max out human endurance.  The F-22 and F-35, as good as they are or will become, will still be 9G jets.  Sorry, Phantom, Starfighter, and Delta Dart guys!

     Semper Viper!