My Favorite Airshows (Static Displays) in the F-16 

-Funny Falcon 4 manual stuff: "Dont mess up the startup or you will empty the bottle and you will end up with an annoyed and sweaty chief having to pump it back to pressure" -Reality chief: Oh you messed up the start... here have the handle.. XD

That's an awesome story Mover, I know your Dad was so very proud. My son is currently a Viper pilot who will be switching to the F35 at the end of the year. It is my dream to someday see him fly or see him at an airshow static display! Thanks for all the great content..... keep it coming!

What an emotional back story to this. Very heartwarming. Many years ago I went to Mildenhall Air show and there was a F16 on static display with the American pilot and the plane was roped off to the public. At the time I was in a virtual f16 squadron and had a chat with the pilot, I honestly thought he’d think my hobby silly, far from. I had a great chat with him about weapons, radar avionics etc and he let me through the rope barrier to have a pic next to the aircraft, much to the jealousy of my squadron. That guy make a real positive impact on me that day over 20 years ago and I’m still dabbling on the F16. I’ve got a feeling based on your content you’d have been as welcoming and nice as he was. Keep up the great contact 😊👍

I envy you mover, having your day to be a part of this was awesome. Unfortunately my passed when I was 17 so he never got to see me wing out. Thanks for sharing this.

Thanks for sharing the footage Mover. That crew chief was a great guy. Really cool of him to come over and help out.

Mover couldn’t get it up & got sweaty pumping😂

Best Airshow experience was when Pt Mugu had some weather issues and they were forced to switch to a low altitude format. I saw a cloud low on the horizon approaching the base, after a few seconds I see the dot in the middle of the cloud then it came over the runway, it was an F-14, wings fully swept, with everything from the wings back covered in vapor as it flew over the runway just slightly above rooftop height

That is the coolest thing for your Dad and family. Good for you. That is awesome.

Hi Mover, Is there much difference in the flight characteristics between the F-16 and the T-38?

I love this format Mover! You and Gonky put on one hell of a show for us Civi’s!

What a great moment to share with your old man.

Very rare a JFS craps out like that. Had to happen when Moover was trying to look cool in front of family. 😂

The F-15 was something like 500 actuations of the piston. I would assume the F-16 was somewhere near that. What most people dont understand is its a short through piston and it requires your entire body to move it each direction. It requires 3,000psi per bottle for JFS start. 💪

Great memory of a lifetime for you, Mover. I'm sure your Dad was SO proud of you!!

That's really cool, back when I was a new pilot, 25 years old and was fortunate to be flying a Learjet 45. Just really randomly the place we were flying that day happened to be the same city my parents had spent the night on a cross country drive. My mom and dad came out to the airport and I was able to give them a tour of the airplane, they were so proud. They're both gone now so it's a memory I treasure.

1979 i was 14 and my older cousin was was an A6 pilot flew into a blue angel show for a static display. He flew over our house on the way to the Rochester airport. He let me sit in the cockpit. I recall thinking it didnt look as high tech as i thought. Great day.

It's about 500 pumps to recharge the accumulators. That's why we always had a mule on stand by at home. And I was at thunder over Louisville supporting them in like 03, had a Ft Wayne bird have a no start, and handed the pilot the t-bar and watched do half and I assisted with the other half.

I have managed the Static Ramp at Spirit of St Louis Air show since 2014 and love when Pilots do the pattern when arriving and leaving. It’s the best part of the airshow. Thank you for all you do.

Of all the things I miss about being a Viper crew chief, I don’t miss pumping up the JFS/brake accumulators.

Great video , thanks . This , definitely being sent to my son who was an F-16 Crew Chief . 👍😎👍 I know your dad was popping buttons proud . I know I am for my Crew Chief son.

I went through a phase where I was constantly going to shows around SoCal in the early 00s. I've been to every base except North Island. I'm sure you were cool, but... Frankly, there was a number of guys I ran into who acted like the only reason why they were there was because they drew the short straw. Which I didn't really understand, since the whole thing is supposed to promote the mil in a positive light. But I mainly stopped going because the shows in the old days were a lot better. Each base was more responsible for their individual show, and so they would focus more on their specific missions. I remember the days when Edwards would wheel out all kinds of crazy stuff. But then they let these air show promotions companies take over all of them, and then the shows just all kind of started seeming the same.

Had an aircraft, for which I was the crew chief, which started up on Start 1, just fine, if it had been flown in the last 24 hours. If not, such as first thing Monday morning, we told the pilot to go straight to Start 2. It wasn't that the hydraulic or pneumatic pressure was low; the gauges were right where they should be. We were really nit-picky about making sure the pneumatic pre-charge was right and making sure nothing was leaking. Once you got to know the bird, you knew the eccentricities and knew what to tell the pilot to make life as easy as possible for both of you. In the Block 30, I wanna say it was 250 - 275 full strokes on the handle to recharge the accumulators. It was double-acting; you were pushing and pulling against resistance. As the pressure built-up, you were fighting against more and more resistance. If you had to pump up after dumping both bottles, it felt like doing 500 push-ups; it was NOT something you wanted to do. If time was tight, we'd usually have three crew chiefs rotating through the wheel well. The first one would get the pressure > halfway up there (in addition to the pneumatic pre-charge), the second one would get somewhere past 3/4 and the last one would knock themselves out getting it to 100%.

I watch the makos practice all the time at homestead every once in a while they will give me a nice afterburner pass

I did watch the fulll episode but appreciate these clips and the added content (your dad's video, especially). Thank you, Mover!

Thanks for sharing Mover. I had not seen that WW1 bi-plane start method for a Viper before : )

That is a GREAT story Mover. Thanks for sharing. Watching you take off near the end of the video . . . that's priceless, with your family and friends watching.

I am sure your dad was incredibly proud of you. I am also sure it made the maintainer in him smile seeing his O-3 son sweating away under that jet cranking a handle a few hundred times. What a perfect moment in a career.

I’ll be walking around at Oshkosh on the 29 and the 30th! Y’all come find me and say Hello!! 3 Gs toppa T, No WCs fuel is good for bout an owwa clear clear clear. Lester

😢Reminds of the trouble I would have getting a Mazda Rx-7 Rotary to work. Playing with transmission fluid , spark plugs, unflooding the engine. Giant smoke screens.🙄🚗💨💨💨

That’s sooooo cool. I saw Avex in the background and knew you were in New Iberia. I dad was working at Bristow at the time you were there.

You make for the coolest big brother. Bless him.❤

8 year f-16 cc. 100’s of pumps is accurate. It’s exhausting.

My favorite airshow (static display) with an F-16, I wasn't even "officially" at. 1988, London Ontario, the legendary F-4 Phantom anniversary show. I was a crew chief on F-16A's at MacDill with the 56th, but home on leave in Central New York. Dad and I always went to London each year, we'd volunteered with the show for more than a decade by then, so I threw my BDU's into a bag, and we went over for the weekend. Friday morning, on arrival day, had the camera out and hitting it hard. In uniform, on foreign soil without orders, I'm still not positive that I didn't actually invade Canada. Sorry Canada. One of the first pair to come in was two of our own birds from Florida. Happened to be there when the crews were coming down the ladder, they took one look at me in my uniform, and said, "Wait, Kopack, what are you doing here? We didn't bring any crew chiefs. But since you're here, will you post-flight the jets?" By the end of the day, word had gotten out that I was around, and I did BPO inspections on all of the F-16's on the ramp - including 78-0001, the very first production aircraft (so my name is in her 781's from long, long ago.) Brush with history. 26 Phantoms, parked wingtip, to wingtip. Four more flying over. Signed a million autographs for little kids. Found that although I had a media pass, being a crew chief is the ultimate "all access pass" at an airshow. Ran starter carts for everybody, marshalled everything from fighters to bombers to helicopters. Assisted on a Phantom wheel and tire change with some guys from Selfridge. Crawled up the ladder when the Seymour Johnson Wing King's bird came in, carried his helmet and gear down to the ground, my camera over my shoulder. After a quick debrief, one of my fellow photographers said, "You know who that was, right? That's Charles DeBellevue, he's an ace. Six kills in SEA." What a great weekend of friends and aviation.

One of the downsides to only having one engine. I remember reading in the F-15C manual they have two bottles and two chances for a start. I wonder if all two engine jets have two bottles.

Love your content, And the way of your explanation about fighter jets 💪💪

I can’t imagine being twenty something and being able to just walk up to an F-16 like it’s a car and take off. I wonder if Mover realizes just how lucky he was to be able do that.

53's had a similar thing. There was a hydraulic accumulator which would fire up the APP. Needed the APP to start the engines and for electrical. When it wouldn't go we would have to rebuild that pressure, just like you did. At least the pump was in the cabin and you could do it standing up. Laying on the ground like that would really suck. That hyd hand pump was the source for many practical jokes with the ground pounders.

F-15 JFS was the same way. I was an avionics tech, but as a fire guard, helped the crew chief pump it up several times. I was at Tyndall when they were training new F-15 pilots, and every time a new student screwed up the JFS pull, I felt like giving them the handle and telling them to do it themselves

“Let’s let ol’ Karl take a look at it. Karl…think you can figure out what’s wrong?” “It ain’t got no gas in it. Mmm hmm.”

I think the F16s is just a sexy aircraft, when you see it upfront it just reminds me of being an aircraft sport car... Idk if that makes sense but it is just a great looking aircraft. I love all these stories from Mover and his other buddies, it really puts things in perspective for thee normal average person of what these pilots that put there lives on the line for us, after there career or even during or whatever it might be, but i really appreciate the honesty and just talking about it. It has to be hard to leave that lifestyle of being an Airforce fighter pilot. It has to be a trip just flying in general, i cant imagine.

Great story! Im sure when you started your afterburner, take off roll your dad was saying to himself, "That's My Boy!"

I remember doing that with f-18s too. Did a lot of pumping in those wheel wells.....so to speak.

This means a lot to me as I had a very similar experience. I got to fly an Army Helicopter into a static with my dad there. Now.....to be fair, I didn't have to throw my hips into like you did. Very cool story. If I remember correctly your dad was an Army Warrant.

Different topic, but until recently I did not know the French heritage in Louisiana is strongly linked to that in Easter Canada.

The last pumps on getting the accumulator bottles are hard man; and i’m just an avionics specialist🤣 so not daily work for me. No Jet air starter unit on site?

Your dad must have been very proud of you. I wish I could say the same about mine, I have let him down so many times it breaks my heart.

I have a question for the podcast and it’s what was it like changing battle spaces did you do that as a pilot on the ground we would cross into other battle spaces and have to check in and change radio frequencies was it similar in a plane in Iraq

Hey mover

I'm from Germany. since ramstein '88 air shows are not like in other countries 😢

what a cool video of your dad watching you having issues starting a fighter jet haha

Using that crank to get a fighter jet started is really anticlimactic....

The Legacy 405!! Had my name on the front gear door!!

I have a set of Makos patches from the time they flew F-4's.

I was working on an old Hamilton JFS today 😅.

Great story and home video to accompany! 😊

Why do the Viper carry the 120's on the wingtip and the sidewinders under the wings? Always thought you carry the heavier ones closer to the fuselage.

Great story. Thanks for sharing.

Went to the RIAT in the UK a week ago (15th of July) and got to see a whole bunch of my favorite aircraft. F-15s, F-16s, F-18, Saab Grippen, Typhoon, Tornado, F-35 (incl the B VTOL variant flying), F-4 Phantom. It was great. Only thing lacking was the Russian aircraft sadly (migs and sukhois) due to the war in Ukraine. Spoke to and took a pic with one of hte F-15 pilots who's personal craft was on display. Felt like a little kid!

One time on a det another PC n me tag-teamed that pump!

Thanks for the back story Mover ,our parents can every easily make us feel very special ,you Dad must have been one proud guy NOT MANY can say my son's a fighter Pilot ,and actually show of son and Jet 😊😊😊😊 Kym Adelaide

We always said 250-300 pumps from pre-charge? I haven't seen a START 1 since JP8 became the norm. 2 seems to be more reliable overall, of course then you are pumping for sure if it fails to light.

I had been a Skydiving instructor for a couple of years and even after hundreds of jumps my parents had never seen me jump. They finally attended a football stadium where I had previously made a couple of demonstrations jumps and was assigned to do another. An hour before flying out to do the jump I took a student load up at our regular drop zone and sprained my ankle on my landing and unable to do the demonstration. My parents never saw me do what I loved doing best.

This video is gold. Amazing.

I was in the Navy stationed at NAS Memphis at the T-Line. The Airforce was big on SOAP samples. I first heard that and i thought it was a joke. But nope. Taken many of them from the F-16. And had to help with the same thing that happen to you.

Another just great story. Thanks for sharing. I know you fighter pilots will talk about anything fighter related at any time. But seriously, these are the really cool stories that you cannot find on the internet. You have to know a guy, sitting around and shooting the (SH*** --- I mean, you know what) with to hear these kind of real stories.

That's an awesome story. Always great to see the families of the airmen/women and crews at airshows. A lot of love and support shown. I do a photo tour at my local airshow in Sacramento and it's a lot of fun to watch everyone flying in. The Navy guys are always easy to spot because they do the break and then hit the runway hard, lol

Great clips and comments Mover and Gonky The annual local airshow is coming up at Kline Brogel this year instead of Sanicole, I have been taking my grandson since he was 2 years old to the airshow and he is now 13. KB Air base is just a few km from my house and the F-16s turn from base to finals over head my garden, so I get some great views of F-16 undercarriages 🙃. Really looking forward to this year and hoping the weather is going to be better than last year. The US demo pilot is due to show off the F-35 to the crowds, she was there last year demoing the aircraft but is was so cold and wet that I had to take the grandson home as he was getting undercooled and we missed it. Keep the tales coming thanks.

I never counted the number of pumps, but gettting both bottles back up to 3000 psi expediently was always a tag-team effort anyway. Expo would roll up with the handle, I'd pin it and go, then I'd rotate with the fire-guard until we reached pressure. If it dumped again we'd all jump to the spare.

Damn, no pyro start for F-16, Eh? Pretty cool, Mover nonetheless. Thanks for sharing.

Dear Mover, Thank you so much for your service as a fighter pilot. My most memorable moment in an air show was when the F16 Thunderbirds were there and one of them did a high speed low altitude pass right over my head. Thank you again.

Incredible Mover. The good thing is that I never work on my resurrected aircraft alone. I always have someone by my side.

Fun fact, in the manual there is a part number and a whole procedure for a pneumatic drive for the JFS bottle hand pump... However comma, I never saw one, nor did I ever serve with anyone who had.

0:45 shows you guys are human too. With clearances, ntk’s etc, it’s nice to see we are all human. Thanks for sharing!

So essentially you hand started an F-16.That's pretty cool.

Can you do a breakdown on the Israeli F16 that is like the new block 70? FYI this story is so cool, your dad and brother had to be so proud of you.

No idea you had a brother with CP, my little boy just turned 3 and has CP and is into all things jets, the only movie he sits through is Top Gun!

Amazing your the one

Like cranking a Model T

I can relate. I got to give my mom a tour of an awacs we had torn up in phase dock. That was one of the highlights of my enlistment.

Man, that's so cool, such a good memory and story

Best video so far! :)

Amazing tale of what I am sure is one of your fondest moments as a Viper Pilot.

Bet your dad was Proud .

That was an awesome experience for your family! Very cool

Beautiful familly sacrifice and proud story

So many memories of watching the airshow in my town as a youngster :)

This was really intriguing, thanks for sharing

Awesome vid!

Pumped up many a JFS in my day, F-15's and F-16's.

Excellent story and stunning work

You gotta get the accumulators to 3000 psi so it’s a lot of pumps lol

Speaking of Airshows, are you coming up to Oshkosh?

very cool!

Just cool

I hated that JFS pump. Yea, probably a couple hundred pumps. Always happens at the wrong times.

Indeed a good story 👌

Why is afterburner used on takeoffs? I only ask because if a massive jumbo jet can take off without A/B, then can't an F-16?

Love your content!!!! Love your books!!!! Please keep up the excellent work! ❤

What a special moment