Flying the F-111 in the Cold War - Brad Insley (Part 2) 

It's obvious from the things he describes that the B-1B was very much influenced the F-111. I found myself thinking often that it was the same thing in the Bone.

Thanks to Brad. I love these stories and am glad he was willing to share them

Just finished watching the 1st episode. Really enjoying this old hand talk about his F-111 career. It doesn't get much better than this for this aircraft. Mr F-111 humself. Very hapoy to have discovered this chan. Good stuff, and very credible guests, Top shelf!. Especially intersting for me as someone in Ukraine as the strike aircraft in the UAF like the Su-25 have been very prominent and maybe just as important as the MiG-29's which are doing more low level stiuff as well as the Su-27 which have had AGM-88's adapted to them in a bodged up fashion! THe air space is too contested so forget air to air stuff with the tiny air force left for Ukraine currently. I'm just an "amrchair air vice marshall" so its all imho! It;s claimed the 29's can carry the 88 too but I've never seen any pictures top back that claim up. The Su-27 is a different story, can't paste the link as the comment gets zapped but search for "In Ukraine, AGM-88 HARM missiles were adapted for the Su-27 fighter" to get the mil in ua article

Brad and the el dorado canyon interview are absolutely amazing. Would love to hear something on the Tu-22m and plans for attacking carrier battlegroups. Kamikazes: The Soviet Legacy Maksim Y. Tokarev

Thanks for another great discussion!

I thoroughly enjoyed that! Great interview!

Thanks for capturing memories from the old heads. Brad's interview brought back memories, mostly good of flying in Europe. Low-level flying in Germany was a license to steal and so much fun but would bite you if not careful. The MiG 23 tactics memories are great. We heard the same things. We worked with the 'Vaarks" on exercises like Reforger and Distant Drum. We deployed several times with the 111Es and Fs down to Italy. Also flew to Lakenheath and Upper Haystack for cross country flights on weekends and had several friends in the squadrons there. My last TDY was to Lakenheath and spent a week flying formation low level over their bombing and electronic ranges to update their photos of the area. Our squadron flew RF-4s, reconnaissance Phantoms and in the 70s and 80s and was capable of low-level night and weather similar to the F-111 but only by hand. I may have chatted with Brad during one of those missions or hanging out at their O Club on a cross country. During Officer Training at university I was sent to Cannon AFB for 3 weeks and did get to fly a F-111D in 1977. My brother died in a crash flying the 'vaark on his first night low-level mission. The fighter world is a small one. Keep up the great episodes.- Ripper

This was a great follow-up to Part One. Thanks 10%! Brad's memory is amazing. I flew with him once in the RTU in the 523rd at Cannon AFB on my way to Lakenheath and the F-model for six years. I think he still remembers more about the Vark today than I ever knew. I would enjoy hearing what he knows about the F-111 actions during the Mayaquez rescue mission.

If I figure right, probably went to Iran in maintenance with this guy during joint operations with US Navy and Iranian forces in 77

What about the SRAM delivery tactics? How did they compare to gravity nuclear device delivery?

For those interested in the navigation system (specifically the TFR aspect) of the F-111, an interesting USAF training video can be found here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vSyDslyADv4.html

WIth Brad telling the story of the only damage they ever got was AK-47 damage, 'cos everyone came out firing their AK-47' and it was effective in that sense. The parrallels today in Ukraine all these years alter is striking. In Kyiv, the police bought down an Iran Shahid drone the same way, by a bunch of them concentrating their AK-74 fire (not a typo, 47's are old hat now) on the drone to bring it down. One AK = useless, you get a bunch out there they have a chance of scoring some hits!!!