Hey everyone here to complain about the music: Too bad. Your gripes feed my soul. Also the cockpit noise from the source video isn't nearly as interesting as you think it is. If you don't like the music feel free to mute the video and play whatever you want over top.
Used to sit at the W. end of the e/w runway when Fairchild used to be a SAC base for the B-52's and watch them do touch & go's. What a heart pounder. Was also the when the tanker crashed and seen the B-52 go down when it was practicing for the Open House.
Cool video! I lived at Fairchild AFB in the 1960s and my dad was a KC-135 pilot, when the aircraft was brand new to the Air Force. Sixty years later, still going strong. New engines and avionics help.
I was a KC-135A/R boom operator from 1979-1986. Back then MITO's were 12 seconds between tankers. Yeah it didn't look too good visually when you had water injection departures using J57 engines.
SOO many questions! (2500 135/1500 T-1; current STRAT/J5) Are 15 second MITOs back or what the hell? Was this part of GT or a Wing Commander demo thing??
1st question - yes, they've been back for a few years now. 2018ish IIRC. 2nd question - theaviationgeekclub.com/fairchild-sets-record-with-20-kc-135-stratotanker-minimum-interval-take-off-mito-departure/
Minimum Interval Take Offs were changed from 10 seconds to 30 seconds staying 150 feet behind the jet in front of you. It was fun. 10 seconds would be scary. After T/I you fan up wind 💨.
It's really not so bad. If you notice around the 2:20 mark in the video we bank off to the left, this is intentional as it moves us out of the wake turbulence of the preceding aircraft. We do hit some wake of the preceding aircraft and while it can be fairly sporty, it's nothing unmanageable. I've hit clear air turbulence more rough.
how is the stress when lining up behind a throttled up B52 at T/O and taking off so close? making sure u rotate soon enough ahead of it ? when all airborne what is next, i meet at a point and make a formation ? radar controller busy i assume or o u fly a prebriefed route with not too much radio talk?
MITOs are only used for EWO aircraft. The object is to get the aircraft airborne before the incoming ICBM's hit. 12 second interval due to the SLBM threat. Now for the "reality check". SAC EWO bomber and tanker alert ended in 1992, 30 years ago. No need for MITO takeoffs anymore. The more common formation is cell departures at 1 minute intervals
You would never mix aircraft types for MITO. After liftoff, each aircraft turns left or right to avoid the turbulence. The aircraft do not form up after takeoff, but each aircraft is assigned to meet up with a bomber out there somewhere.
Only remember more than 5 once. Coming out of Westover with an entire fighter wing coming to Spain in 72.. However launched my B58 in a pack of 20 at sunset at Little Rock. Totally awesome. J79s in afterburner
It is obvious that you were never in the military/Air Force. This is real sir, and I participated in many such exercises from 1979-1995 flying on KC-135 A, E, Q, R, and U models. With the A and Q models, we had water injection engines and did 12 second MITO’s. You definitely didn’t want to be the last tanker. No sir, this is not photo shopped!
