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Late Gear Down for One Warthog

The normal operations at Nellis continue even while Red Flag is on. The local units try to fly their missions at times that fit between the larger exercises. A four ship of A-10s launched in the morning and they were recovering shortly before the Red Flag launch. Rather than run in and break, they flew a straight in approach to runway 21R. Strangely the first jet came passed and it was still gear up as it came close. I have no idea whether they were just keeping it late or had got a call from the tower but the gear came down alongside us. The following three jets were gear down a lot earlier. Let’s say it was deliberate…

A Couple of Connie’s “Finest”

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Red Flag is a time for lots of military aircraft to do their thing. However, it isn’t only the military that show up. Transporting everything that is required to support lots of deploying jets might be done by military transports but it is not unusual for civilian organizations to get some work. Whether it was Red Flag support or something else, we got to see a couple of 747-400 freighters while we were there. Both of them came from the same company, Kalitta.

One of the jets was fully painted up and showed up on the approach one day. It flew a straight in approach and landed to either deposit or pick up some bulky items. The second jet was a bit different. First, it was in plane white with just some Kalitta markings. More importantly, it arrived during a Red a Flag mission. It ended up holding overhead for a long time while the launch was underway. Finally they brought them down for an approach. However, it wasn’t clear which way they would come. Nellis has a habit of bringing jets in from different ends almost at whim.

At first it looked like they would land on the 21s. Then they looked like they would go to the other end. We jumped in the car and headed that way. Just as we were getting close, the jet turned away and headed east. We did a quick about turn and followed suit. We hadn’t gone too far when they reversed course. Where they deliberately toying with us? Another quick reversal and we were getting close but now they were turning on to final. Time ran out and we pulled in to a parking lot by a tire dealership just as it came in to view. We had to work for that one.

Head to Head With the Aggressors

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Shooting at Nellis always requires choices to be made. Aside from determining which end you will go to, there is the question about how far up you will go at the Speedway. Some jets turn very tight, others turn long. Some departing jets flex, some flex more tightly than others. Where to go? Paul and I headed up near Gate 7 to see whether we would do alright. As it happened, quite a few of the jets were flexing right overhead us. This didn’t provide the sort of shots we had originally envisaged but, as it turned out, I was rather pleased with the different look.

I was getting some very head on shots of some of the aggressor F-16s as the turned towards the ranges. There was even a bit of moisture in the air and the vortices over the root extensions were showing up. That angle has a very dynamic look, even though the lighting in that location is not great for such an angle. The other benefit was as they had passed overhead. You got a close look at the top side of the jet from behind as they flew away. It might not have been what we intended but I was rather pleased with the outcome anyway.

A Lot More of the Talon Hate

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I got some shots of the Talon Hate jet on a previous visit and posted about it here. On this trip to Nellis, not only was it very active but it managed to come our way whenever it flew. Whether it was views of it flexing on departure or tight approaches to bring it passed us on the speedway, it all seemed to work out well. I love the F-15 anyway but getting this special one was a lot of fun. I’m sure the wingman in the F-15D knows that the single-seater is the one we are looking at but they certainly made a good effort to be in position for us to get some good shots of them too. Here are a few of the two of them including a very nice two-ship run in and break.

Some Spare Oxygen – Just in Case

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There have been quite a few Raptor posts recently. I guess seeing a bunch of them at Nellis triggered a few things of interest to me. One was as I looked at the jets after they had passed me by on their approach. A few years ago, the F-22 fleet was grounded by some issues with the oxygen system. Like most modern jets, the F-22 doesn’t carry bottled oxygen but instead generates it onboard for the pilot. There were some issues with the oxygen being generated that resulted in pilots feeling unwell and, potentially, losing awareness of what they were doing. As you can image, this is not a good thing in a fast jet and was believed to have contributed to loss of an aircraft with its pilot!

A backup oxygen system was implemented to provide the pilots with something in the event that they felt symptoms of the problem recurring. Not so much of a solution as a fallback plan. As I looked at the jets, I saw green tanks behind the ejection seat. These are pretty big tanks and seem rather unsubtle in the way that something that has been added after the fact often is. I wonder whether these are the spare tanks for the pilots to breathe should the onboard generation system cease to be reliable.

Typhoons are Back in Town

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The Royal Air Force was back at Red Flag and the Typhoons were a big part of what they brought. It’s always nice to see Typhoons up and about but, sadly, the RAF has adopted an approach of combining the squadron jets into a maintenance pool. This means that they don’t carry individual squadron colors. A couple off the jets still had markings – one from 6 Squadron and one from 41 Squadron – but, sadly, the rest of the jets were all plain gray. Nothing colorful about them at all. We did get some nice winter light to photograph them in but even that is not going to make them look that great.

: Two Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 jets run in to break for landing at Nellis AFB NV.

I’m Glad He’s Waving Because the Alternative…

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I was directly under the flightpath of an HH-60 Pave Hawk as it headed out on a mission. Looking up at the helo as it passed over, it was possible to see the feet of the crewman/gunner. What I didn’t realize until I looked at the photos afterwards was that he was waving at me! I wish I had waved back. Given the large weapon mounted to the side of the airframe that he uses in action, I am glad that waving is what he chose to do!

Lots of “Daves” to See

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If you ask Nancy about a name that I think has good comic potential, it is Dave. It is not that the name Dave is strange in any way but, if you asked me to name something, my first choice would be Dave. It has something that just works for being offbeat. Apparently, I am not alone in this (which will come as a great disappointment to Nancy who will now know I am not alone and will never stop). The online forum for aerospace, PPRUNE, has apparently decided to call the F-35 Lightning II the Dave. Tornados are Tonkas, F-16s are Vipers and now F-35s are Daves. I love it!

Red Flag 17-1 was the first of the Red Flag exercises to which the USAF brought the F-35A. The Marine Corps had brought the F-35B previously but they tended to go out in pairs. This time the Air Force took the jets out in significant numbers. Consequently, I was able to get lots of shots of the jets. Whether it was groups returning as four ships, individual jets departing or odd Daves in formation with other jets, there were plenty of options. They also turned in really nicely on approach for the spot I had chosen so some nice close top sides were also possible.

I won’t yet say that I have grown to like the look of the jet but I am certainly starting to thaw. Since they are all new and spotlessly clean, the colors (is that right given how variations of gray are what we are talking about) really come out nicely in the low light. There are some nice lines to the jet. It may be a bit chunky but it doesn’t have the same problems as the F-22 with angles at which it looks positively uncomfortable. Hopefully, the time will come when the operators are able to move away from the purely gray and adopt some nice colors on the jets. We shall see.

Will the Scooters Beat Me Again?

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My previous effort at photographing the Draken A-4s at Red Flag had not gone well. I got shots of them but the conditions were far from ideal. I had hoped for better and been a bit frustrated. When I went back for Red Flag 17-1, the Draken team had become fully integrated into the aggressor program and were launching on all of the missions we saw. I was optimistic about getting some better shots. However, while the first day was a cracking day for us. One disappointment was that the A-4s went left and away from us on recovery.

Launch was a bit better. I had some close encounters with the jets as they flexed towards us during the departures. However, launch does not give great light so, while the angles were good, the shots were t as good as I would have liked. Our second day did better on the recoveries though. Some of the A-4s came our way and we got some good angles on their turn to final approach. I was a happy boy. The light had finally been good and the angles were nice. Hurrah! The special jet or a two seater would have been even better but I am not complaining. I got both the Kiwi jets and the Israeli jets so it went well.

Smokey the E-8

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A jet I don’t often get to see in action is the E-8 JSTARS. There aren’t a huge number of them and they often fly at times that don’t suit photography so I have not previously got a lot of shots of them and certainly not too many in flight. Based on the 707-300 airframe, they were pretty old when they were selected for conversion to the JSTARs mission. They are definitely showing their age and the USAF is in the process of competing for a replacement program. There are a few years left for the E-8 but they won’t be around for too much longer.

One feature of their age is the engines that they have. The jets are fitted with old JT3D engines. A program had been put in place to re-engine them with JT8Ds and a modified jet did fly. However, the program was put on hold due to the potential for a replacement aircraft making the payback period unviable. As a result, we got the old smoky jets. It isn’t as bad as the old pure jet days of the KC-135s and B-52s but it still is easy to track the jet as it climbs out courtesy of the black trail it leaves behind.