Flying the F-111 in the Vietnam War - Brad Insley (Part 1) 

IMHO your interviewing style is superb; your questions so well thought through. How did you manage to find such an incredible pilot to interview? I don't see any way to support you by patreon or channel membership?

Thank you for this. I was the guy who worked on the INS and TFR systems at Nellis (428TFS, 1969-72), and got out just before the redeployment back to Thailand. I never knew what happened, during the Linebacker II missions, or any of the other missions flown in SEA by the aircrews and F-111A's that I worked on. The squadron wanted me to extend so that I could go to Thailand, and even promised me a stripe if I would extend for 6 months. I had already been accepted to Fresno State, and had moved my family to Fresno CA, so extending was not an option. Things worked out for me because I managed to get a BA and MA from Fresno State, so that was the right decision made back so many years ago. I'm glad that this interview was posted because it gave me so much insight into what I had worked on for three years. Thank you!

Thanks so much for doing this interview with Brad...priceless. I flew with Brad as my first IP in 1989 and he's the MAN! Thanks to Steve and Brad for recording this.

A legend in the Vark community, and more than that, a hero. Respect...

Have known Brad for 13 years now, never when we were active though. One of the most humblest men I know, with an "I didn't do much" attitude, but a gentle giant in the deeds he did. Yes, as Brad said, the F model aircraft had no speed limit, other than the materials of the airframe. The aluminum would not melt, but you always had a chance of blowing the temper of the material, weakening it. The most visible evidence was ALL the coatings. We had a F model, 71-892, at Lakenheath, doing a Functional Check Flight (FCF) over the North Sea, (1981?) and it tested those limits. The pilot mentioned he had been curious whether the speed tape could register Mach 3, said he was surprised it did! We did have to do a lot of recovery work though as all the originally painted leading edges were bare, no paint, speed tape on the comm/IFF antennas was melted, and the radome edges had bubbles in the neoprene. The F model was also the airplane that could rival the F-15 for fastest time to altitude with a near 1 to 1 thrust ratio on take-off, albeit with a wings empty fuel load. You could do a lot with a 45,000 airframe weight and 52,000 pounds of thrust. It WAS political that the airplane was not allowed to prove its worth, as F-15's and F-16's were the 'sexy' choices for the white scarf type pilots in charge of the USAF at the time.

Brad's mention of the requirement to bury the F-111s (to satisfy the SALT agreement) is of interest. I was at a business dinner in Linlithgow (near Edinburgh) in 2004, seated next to Lord James Douglas Hamilton, whose family has a rich aviation history (his father and three uncles each commanded RAF Spitfire squadrons during the Second World War). When he learned of my history, he asked if I could investigate the possibility of acquiring an F-111 for the National Museum Of Flight in East Lothian. I did, and it was feasible, but would have cost in the region of £150-£200K. Plus, this was in the wake of the second Gulf War, and the sentiment against the war was strong enough that gathering sufficient British support for importing an American fighter jet would have been very difficult to obtain. So after an exchange of letters, we left it there.

As a person who worked on these aircraft in Takhli, I was a bomb/nav tech: 32652 afsc. This is an awesome aircraft, and in my opinion, the pilots were fearless to take this thing into battle. Grab your ass at night and fly auto TFR into Hanoi took guts. I am now a retired electrical engineer and can admire the technology in this aircraft for this era. My comments concern my looking back at the challenges of maintaining these aircraft in that environment. So, my responsibilities were to work on the attack radar, INS, and TFR, with challenges for all these systems. This was an era at the dawn of digital avionics and before GPS. Having a taste of digital avionics with the F-111F, the F-111A seemed a model T to work on, having analog computers and an earlier model INS. TFR seemed the same, but all the systems seemed a little dated, having been spoiled on the "F" model. Big wake up, and I think a missed detail was that these aircraft were from Nellis AFB, which is a desert. This aircraft was loaded with avionics requiring airconditioned dry air, much like the challenges of present day aircraft like the F-35, and we were now in a jungle. Some aircraft I worked on had water dripping from the black boxes we replaced on aircraft returning from missions. The attack radar was frequency agile to resist jamming and used waveguides to deliver rf from the magnetron transmitter to the antenna in the raydome, (think of your microwave oven). This required dry air in the waveguides to prevent arcing and there was a desiccant cannister to accomplish this. But, this was never an issue in a desert environment, and many techs had not seen these issues. I only had one pilot to come out and see what the techs were doing in maintaining their aircraft, we called him Mr. TFR and I don't remember his name. I wished more pilots would do the same. I did mission de-briefing for bomb/nav squawks and pilots gave me the radar bomb film for processing. Worked on the F-111D at Cannon AFB. Too advanced for its time, Dopler radar, glass cockpit, but we couldn't keep it in the air, it was broke all the time. Many more memories, and a big shout out to SMSGT Bruce Norton, who ran our shop in Takhli. As an aside, we rarely did TF tie-in tests, which involved testing the auto TFR mode to control the hydraulic flight controls.

1:16:30 there are still a few F-111s around in Australia in museums but the only one that hasn't been truly gutted is the one at RAAF base Amberley. The museum is on the base and as such, it still has all the original internals. It's a great exhibit and well worth visiting if you're in Brisbane.

It's Pave Tack system was incredible. Many years ahead of it's time!!!

Logged a whopping 79 hours in the Vark as we said goodbye to them and sent them down under. What a magnificent airplane. Always felt like I was flying something special. Infinite respect to the Vietnam crews flying under the ribbons of ack ack.

This really is the definitive F111 flight crew interview. What an insight to the operational nature of that aeroplane and the people who flew it. Congrats to you both for recording and preserving this legacy. Keep up the great work.

I had the honor to serve with him in the 80s in the UK. Great guy to work with. TIGER, TIGER!

f-111A and D crew chief here. Cannon AFB and over seas Korat, Thailand 347 Tac ftr wing Life changing time in my life

I remember the first time I saw a F-111, My dad took me to work with him one morning at Nellis in 1967-68, he had been in Vietnam and now was flying the F-111. We stopped at a store and got some bullet hole decals and he wanted to prank another pilot and I got a bowl of water to put the decals in and then he had me put them on the windscreen. The pilot showed up, they had a laugh and then a maintenance guy removed them. Dad sometimes came home very upset about failures and crew losses over the years. One time at Nellis a F-111 ejection escape module had landed in the desert, and we had seen it sitting there with scorched and burned brush around it. When he came back from Vietnam with the F-111 he also was not happy about the experience although he had been to V/N several times in A-1s, A-37s and F-105s. He did keep flying the F-111 at Cannon AFB and Upper Heyford AFB England before he retired.

Just stumbled upon this outstanding interview - thanks very much, Steve @10percenttrue. You have a superb interviewing style (well considered questions, allowing plenty of space for the interviewee and an excellent radio voice on your part, based on my living in the UK for 36 years, sounds familiar... hints of historian Michael Wood). As it happens, I may be the guy with the fewest F-111 hours (only 65, as I had cataracts discovered in both eyes whilst finishing RTU at Mtn Home AFB in the latter half of 1982, before being posted to RAF Lakenheath). Brad Insley's name sounds familiar and I certainly heard many stories like his. He provides so many top insights in this interview, and in a humble way. I admire how he comes across. In fact, my first Deputy of Operations commander at Lakenheath was Col Robert Sponeybarger, who had been shot down in his F-111 and was captured and as a result was a PoW N Vietnam for the final six months before the PoWs were released. Anyhoo, thanks very much for this excellent blast from the past.

I was in the 429 TFS, the other squadron, same time, same experiences. Brad Insley's comments about our Squadron Commander, Lt Col "Matt" Mattheson, were inaccurate. He was the bravest officer I ever had the serve with.

Great interview with the master ,met him at the Dec2010 closeout -a true gentleman and raconteur.Shot many pictures of him for his own use and mine.

We had problems with the Canadian Marconi Doppler system at Cannon AFB in the early 1970's on our D models. The rumor circulated that our tech rep from Canadian Marconi discovered a factory assembled part was the culprit and re-assembled by hand the component properly.

In high school I was lucky enough to see an F-111 from Cannon fly at low altitude! Well it was only moderate low but unmistakable and low enough to be loud and impressive, wings swept close to fully back but in 1994 it was now forbidden in law for AC to fly supersonic over civilian areas even if rural. Very cool and glad to experience this as the plane was pretty much fully retired from USAF service by the end of 94!

My favorite plane is F-111. It's so ahead of its time but its engines, weapons and materials just could not catch up...

Very interesting, have always wondered about F-111 SE Asia ops.

Fascinating interview. New information for me on one of the most underrated aircraft in history. The USAF and RAAF put the time and effort in to mature that plane and got a lot out of it. I wad fortunate that I got to see the FBs at Pease AFB in New Hampshire many times. If you think about it the Vark was sort of the F-117 of it's day.

Wonderful interview. I maintained F111s for 16 years until they were retired. Lots of things that I had never heard about before. The 111 was dancing on the razor edge of technology and I hold all of the pilots in high esteem as they were well aware that the tech was prone to failure.

I'm pretty sure I remember being told about the F-111E models (and maybe the F-models) launching from Gander in Newfoundland to cross the Atlantic, to be based at Upper Heyford and Lakenheath, respectively.

Met Brad when I was stationed at Mountain Home…1989-1990

Great channel, fascinating interview! Good insight into the F111 teething problems in Vietnam. Looking forward to the Upper Heyford stories. I used to fly over the disused base every day in the mighty Seneca when training at Oxford. It must’ve been heaving with air traffic, back in the day.

Great interview - thank you for your service Mr. Insley!

This was great! I'm so glad Brad's recollections are now part of recorded history. Nice intuitive interview style also.

It feels like dipping into history as it happened. Very engaging!

Wow !! I can’t wait for the upcoming guests. Those will be great to listen to!

Great interview. For those who do not know "departing controlled flight" means losing control of the aircraft :)

Very good channel, your stuff is top notch and historically important.

I sat in on a maintenance debriefing of an F111D at Cannon AFB around 1972. The pilot reported a max Mach of 2.7 like it was nothing special. I was an instrument\autopilot tech and later an FTD (full time drunks) instructor on the F111s. I grew to love and respect the F111. The sofistication of the AFCS was something special that even some of the pilots didn't understand. I think it could have saved the government a lot of money over its lifetime if the Navy had accepted it. I think the Navy rejected it because they didn't want a trend of AC selection by the Pentagon to get started and there is a hiring trend of top brass hiring by AC companies that probably weighed heavily on the decision makers. Most of cost of an AC program is not the purchase of the AC but in the pilot/maintenance training and repair of components over the lifetime of the AC. A lot of money could have been saved if the Navy had accepted it.

We used to get RAAF F111 here in NZ.. 2 of them crashed in separate incidents.. thanks from NZ 👍🇳🇿

Brad Insley USAF pilot in Vietnam war . Excellent pilot F111 aardvark

RAAF F-111C had the wing extensions.

Thanks for the interview! I have heard very interesting things for me!

Miss the F-111 .. was just a nice two seat medium bomber that the USAF could still use in a stealthy form. Hopefully they will get a new bomber ..and we need at the least 200 and carry hypersonic missiles in its bay. Long range as well and laser defense system.

Regarding comments of not caring for the F-111, didn’t want a 2-place, etc., it’s mind blowing to me a single pilot could handle the workload.

The f-14 was the better plane for the navy but curious if it could’ve been side by side seating for the f-14 same as the f-111? Well if in visual range dogfight it’s best for a fighter to have the canopy glassing close to body to have unobstructed view for majority of angles and the side seating doesn’t allow for the pilot as main trigger guy to see out one side having to look over the WSO location though it’s great arrangement for a bomber to have side seating adjacent crew. Only reason I bring up the two different seating is the reality that even though the F-14 is tandem seating, the forward fuselage width of the f-14 is at least as wide as that of the F-111 maybe even slightly fatter! This can be seen if they are compared to each other but otherwise people would instinctively consider the f-14 nose to be thinner than an f-111 due to the seating being tandem. In summary I’m just pointing out the fact that the f-14 is quite bulky, or the f-111 for such a large aircraft is quite sleek! I don’t care for McNamara policy in many things he was a clown, but the F-111 was I believe THE best attack bomber aircraft the US military ever had even if it was just an air force plane and was correctly rejected by the navy! McNamara was correct in getting the GD f-111 into service even if just in USAF service and the navy was correct for rejecting it! I’ll stand by this argument even if it makes the f111 out to be a failure. The F111 was a major success for both SAC and tacair, even if it being a naval aircraft was a failed idea!

F111 was used as the reason to cancel the TSR2 for the RAF. So many delays RAF went with the Phantom. You hear the faults that a new design can bring in development. You had to fly the F111 carefully high loss rate. The TSR2 was flying those who know the test pilots gave a pretty factual statements about the loss of the plane they where disgusted. The TSR2 on one.afterburner made the English Electric Lightning fighter use both afterburners and that was a Mach 2 plus fighter. Shame too many committees and know nothings involved slowed development. Example of how to screw up development.

Haha my father is the other pilot who has 4,500 hours!!!

When DCS makes an F-111F, I'm going go make sure everyone knows it can go mach 3.

كابتن ليست جميله f111وسبب مقدمة الطائرة أي جهة قائد الطائرة مفروض أن تكون مثل mig 23ms أنا من ليبيا 🇱🇾

you do great work sir. do you have an RSS podcast?

Are there any biographies of F-111 pilots over Vietnam or the Gulf?

All this and the little men on bicycles chased you out

I have flown both the A model and the F model, including as chief of FCF section at Lakenheath (so plenty of time above Mach 2). The Mach 3 story is pure BS. Mach 2.5, no problem, but 3, no way.