A little levity

[Brians356]

Yep, the BUFF cannot do the wing low and crab technique to align the fuselage for landing -- the wing tip gear, fuel tank and outboard engine pod will hit the ground. So Boeing created the cross wind crab system to turn the front and rear trucks. I have almost 2,000 hours in the BUFF, and it was always weird rolling down the runway sideways. The most crab I ever set was an April Fools day coming home to Minot from Fairford England, landing in a blizzard.
Didn't realize one went to Scottland in '06. Must have been a Barksdale bird. Lots of crosswind on that video.

Awesome music to the U-2 video in post #1. Hours of boredom interrupted by seconds of shear terror. If their diaper wasn't full before those landings, I'm sure a few were after.

The BUFF also lacks ailerons. It has spoilers instead. So low-slow maneuvers are somewhat limited! Also in recovery from turning flight stalls, as the poor buggers in (and the idiot cowboy flying) the BUFF at Fairchild AFB in 1994 found out. (You'll correct where I went wrong please.)
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[drano38]

B-52H models do not have ailerons. I don't think the G did either. But the ones before that did have ailerons.
Since the air brakes (spoilers) are also controlled by the yoke, we used air brakes 2 for air refueling and air brakes 4 on approach to landing (air brakes 6 was full up). With partial air brakes, when the yoke is turned, one side goes up, the other goes down, producing a faster, more responsive roll rate (ok, that's relative when talking about a BUFF and "more responsive" )
Yea, Bud Holland at Fairchild was a wild card. Sad that the rest of the crew got killed too. And it was an air show practice, so lots of family out watching -- can't imagine the horror of the wives. The best ailerons in the world would not have saved them once he got into that much bank though.
But low and fast in the BUFF works well. I've been down to 150-200 feet at Red Flag. We climbed when doing agressive turns so the wingtip wouldn't get any lower to the ground.

 

[Brians356]

Yea, Bud Holland at Fairchild was a wild card. Sad that the rest of the crew got killed too. And it was an air show practice, so lots of family out watching -- can't imagine the horror of the wives. The best ailerons in the world would not have saved them once he got into that much bank though.

As I gather, there was enough concern about Holland that a bird colonel was in the right seat to "keep an eye on him". The colonel's wife was there watching. A sad day for the families, but also for the Air Force. Holland, like a bad priest, was tolerated and passed around beyond all reason.
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[centerlineseal]

B-52H models do not have ailerons. I don't think the G did either. But the ones before that did have ailerons.
Since the air brakes (spoilers) are also controlled by the yoke, we used air brakes 2 for air refueling and air brakes 4 on approach to landing (air brakes 6 was full up). With partial air brakes, when the yoke is turned, one side goes up, the other goes down, producing a faster, more responsive roll rate (ok, that's relative when talking about a BUFF and "more responsive" )
Yea, Bud Holland at Fairchild was a wild card. Sad that the rest of the crew got killed too. And it was an air show practice, so lots of family out watching -- can't imagine the horror of the wives. The best ailerons in the world would not have saved them once he got into that much bank though.
But low and fast in the BUFF works well. I've been down to 150-200 feet at Red Flag. We climbed when doing agressive turns so the wingtip wouldn't get any lower to the ground.

"But low and fast in the BUFF works well. I've been down to 150-200 feet at Red Flag."

Years ago, I was hunting sage grouse out of Arco, ID. Two B-52s shot over the ridge we were on at very low altitude. I did not emulate Bormann!

 

[Brians356]

"But low and fast in the BUFF works well. I've been down to 150-200 feet at Red Flag."

Years ago, I was hunting sage grouse out of Arco, ID. Two B-52s shot over the ridge we were on at very low altitude. I did not emulate Bormann!

In the 1970s driving north on US 95 south of tiny McDermitt on the NV / OR border. Long straight stretch in the outback. Dead ahead on the horizon appeared a small black cloud. It got closer, fast. I stopped and waved at a B-52 screaming along probably 100 feet off the deck alongside the road. That cured the highway hypnosis!

PS I just learned there were two B-52s stationed at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, from 1969 to 1975.
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[INTJ]

Now that is interesting. A Buff creates a huge amount of turbulence so seems counter intuitive. Not at all "calling" you out - nope, not. I simply do not understand. I only have 22 hrs of stick time so not even anywhere near experienced or knowledgeable.

You stay slightly above and you are out of the wake turbulence. I have flown formation interval takeoffs in T-38s, C-130s, and T-1s. When you get into the turbulence you climb. Over a drop zone and initial in a C-130 it is especially bad in certain wind conditions, and the only answer is to stack slightly high.

Now those were all planes of the same size. A smaller plane following a bigger plane has an even bigger issue, but little planes fly behind big planes all the time. For example, fighters refueling behind a tanker. You just have to know where the wake turbulence is, and sometimes you can actually see it.

 

[Brians356]

my uncle was the circulation manager of the local paper and i would work summers running the papers in his old 62 ford falcon station wagon.

Heh. I had a '62 Falcon station wagon, around 1980. I even lived in it a short time between rentals. Fire engine red 4-door, black/white interior, 6-cyl and 2-spd Fordomatic. Not a scratch on it when I bought it, but I cured that! Junked it after several crashes. Ah, youth!
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[INTJ]

B-52H models do not have ailerons. I don't think the G did either. But the ones before that did have ailerons.
Since the air brakes (spoilers) are also controlled by the yoke, we used air brakes 2 for air refueling and air brakes 4 on approach to landing (air brakes 6 was full up). With partial air brakes, when the yoke is turned, one side goes up, the other goes down, producing a faster, more responsive roll rate (ok, that's relative when talking about a BUFF and "more responsive" )
Yea, Bud Holland at Fairchild was a wild card. Sad that the rest of the crew got killed too. And it was an air show practice, so lots of family out watching -- can't imagine the horror of the wives. The best ailerons in the world would not have saved them once he got into that much bank though.
But low and fast in the BUFF works well. I've been down to 150-200 feet at Red Flag. We climbed when doing agressive turns so the wingtip wouldn't get any lower to the ground.

@drano38 knows all this but others might find it interesting.

We were able to maneuver the Herc very aggressively low level. 250 KIAS, 60 degrees of bank, level turn at 300' AGL. However, you really had to pay attention. Even though the Herc can roll reasonably quickly, if you don't pull enough G you start descending. That happens in any airplane, but the heavy planes have a lot of inertia that is hard to stop if you don't catch it right away.

With a fighter type plane like the T-38 you can go a little more into the descent and still recover, but it's not much more. 90% of low level impacts with the ground happen during turns, and turns are only 10% of the low level.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

At little rock national you can hit the deck real quick in a cessna because there is a c-130 doing touch n go exercises all day every day. You learn wake turbulence real quick taking lessons there

 

[pdog2225]

Chad was stationed 2 times at Osan. He learned to like Kimchi.

One thing I would like to add to my U2 story. I have never seen any airplane take off like a U2. Now it may have been because of it being at Osan South Korea. I watched a them take off several times and they NEVER cleared the end of the runway! Those suckers would go into a climbing right spiral right after lift off and in a few minutes they were out of sight even on cloudless days, wow.

 

[INTJ]

At little rock national you can hit the deck real quick in a cessna because there is a c-130 doing touch n go exercises all day every day. You learn wake turbulence real quick taking lessons there

And don't fish in your boat near the bridge at the West end of lake Maumelle. That was the initial point for our run in, and we'd stay especially low if we saw a boat.

 

[338 Mollett]

Speaking of BUFF's I have a friend that flew the last 12 missions against Hanoi .He also flew for SAC ,I think for 3 years.

 

[JoeMcNeill]

I was working on a job outside Osceola, AR back when Blytheville AFB was an active SAC base. Living in a trailer just outside the job site I was awaken early one morning with the ground shaking and a defending roar and since that is the New Madrin (sp) fault area that was my first thought. I went outside thinking the trailer was about to end up in the Mississippi River and was greeted by a formation of B 52's in full thrust heading out to who knows where!! Beautiful!

JDM

 

[Brians356]

One thing I would like to add to my U2 story. I have never seen any airplane take off like a U2. Now it may have been because of it being at Osan South Korea. I watched a them take off several times and they NEVER cleared the end of the runway! Those suckers would go into a climbing right spiral right after lift off and in a few minutes they were out of sight even on cloudless days, wow.

I'm told that's a not atypical egress by guys who've live spent time near Beale AFB.

The most impressive civilian takeoff I've seen (or heard) was a Concorde leaving Reno's midtown airport. The public had a heads up on the schedule, so I got a parking spot along a street just outside the fence, and behind the bird. It's an 11,000-ft runway at 4500 ft ASL, but it rotated less than halfway then set what looked like a 60-degree deck angle and climbed like a homesick angel, with an earthshaking crackling roar. Oh, and no passengers as I recall, so ...
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[Brians356]

Here's a story about a new upgrade to a Beale U-2:

USAF U-2 spy plane becomes first military aircraft to fly with artificial intelligence as its copilot - The Aviation Geek Club

USAF U-2 spy plane becomes first military aircraft to fly with artificial intelligence as its copilot

theaviationgeekclub.com

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