Now N Then

From the display of planes at the entrance to Tyndall AFB

We called them fastmovers. F-4 Phantoms

At the outdoor Special Operations Aircraft displays.

Pave Low MH-53

Hulburt Field Air Force Base is home of the Air Force Special Operations Command. We played the Gator Lakes Golf Course on Base last Wednesday. Played well and scored well but were disappointed that none of the many alligators that we had seen on previous visits there were around(or at least that we could see)

Just off one of the fairways was an old burned out plane (I think a C-130) that we assumed was used for fire training.

Better known as the old Officers Club although they have now changed the sign. Anyway inside the lobby are models of the two fighter planes that are use here at Tyndall. These are the F-22 on top and the F-15 on the bottom.

Just outside the club there is a nature trail. A sign warns all about alligators. Since we had not seen an alligator this year we were not worried. BUT guess what — two alligators. We couldn’t get close enough for good pictures but you get the idea.

For training pilots to fight enemy planes without killing pilots in the process, the Air Force uses drones for target planes. There are full scale (actual size of a plane because it is one) drones which are the old F-4’s from the Vietnam war. These are pilotless planes identifiable by their red painted tail and wing tips and by the inverted (downward) tail fins.

In the air

On the flight line.

F-15 that shot down a Mirage during the Gulf War

Tour Group watching the sidewinder loading demonstration

Sidewinders on a carrier

Sidewinder on the launch rack of an F-15

Moved from non sewer to a sewer site. Eighteen days from sewer site to sewer site. Only had to dump the black water tank once (more on this later).

The F-22 has two rear stabilizers that are angled outboard from vertical. The F-15 has two rear vertical stabilizers. Both are twin engine jets. FYI the F-16 is a single engine jet with one rear vertical stabilizer. It is noted that the Navy and Marine Corps like two engines in jets so they still have one if the other quits – especially over water.

F-15

Info on the F-15 (turn head sideways)(I will figure this out eventually)

On February 13th, 40 of the FamCampers (one bus load) were given a tour of the Air Base with permission to take pictures. We saw the F-22, a weapons loading demonstration on an F-15, a high altitude chamber and a Barnay Chair. Somewhere in there we all had lunch at the Heritage Club (old Officers Club). It was a Chinese buffet and was excellent.

Short Gals getting ready to go on tour.

An F-22 Raptor. This war plane has a bigger than you would think bomb bay and two (one on each side) missile compartments (that white rack hold the missiles internally) and therefore the plane has a very small radar signature. In fact in all training exercises to date the plane has not been detected.