Gathering of Mustangs

[ANDY M]

Today started the pre-show setup, and there are already a few birds here.
Early morning shot

[ANDY M]

Rickenbacker is home to the 162nd OANG air refueling wing.




They have a bunch of KC130's at one end of the base, the other end of the field is FedEx and air freight.

That's all for today, more to come.

[427TJ]

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Hey! That's my old airplane! Got 2000 hours in that beauty in both seats plus 38 combat missions during the '91 war. Man, she still looks good!

One time on takeoff from Incirlik, Turkey with a new copilot, I decided to show him what the KC-135R could do with all that power. We were light-ish, about 160K gross, and I used MAX power for takeoff. I briefed my copilot to retract the flaps FIRST and then the landing gear because the jet was going to build speed fast and I didn't want to over-speed the flaps. (The gear had a higher speed limit than the flaps.) So, I lined'er up on the runway, ran it up to 70% power with the brakes on, checked all four and then released the brakes and commanded "set MAX power" to the copilot. He set MAX and we were off like a raped ape. I rotated her just off the runway and said, "FLAPS UP" and then "GEAR UP." Up they came as I held her down flat at about 50 feet off the runway. I stopped trimming nose-down at 250 knots and then jusy held the nose down with arm force as we approached 300 knots, still 50 feet off the deck. As we got to the far end of Incirlik's runway and close to the max indicated airspeed of 340 knots I saw a guy jogging on the perimter road and we were about to blow his head off. I said, "HEY, LOOK AT THAT GUY!" and the guy stops jogging and just stares at this big gray bird bearing down on him at 330 knots. My crew broke out laughing at the poor jogger and I let the nose start coming up for the grand finale: a zoom climb. The four fans were growling hard on the air and I let the nose come up and up until I had to look out my side window to confirm what my artificial horizon was telling me. I stopped her at 65-degrees nose high and let her eat as we went upstairs at 300 knots. My navigator saw the artificial horizon and said, "HOLY [censored], 65 DEGREES NOSE HIGH, WHOOOOOO!!!" As the speed bled off below 300, then 280, then 240, 220, I kept the nose coming back down and we leveled-off at about 8,000 feet above the north end of the base. As we were climbing out I heard an F-15 pilot, who had been waiting to take-off with his flight of four Eagles, say "Hey, look at that guy" on the Command Post radio I was monitoring. (Control Tower in the other radio.) I assumed the F-15 guys had never seen a fat/not sexy old KC-135 do anything like that. We roared up to cruise altitude and flew on to England for an overnight before coming home to the states. Later that evening a second KC-135R crew showed up in England from Incirlik and they said guys were running out from under airplanes and out of hangars when I was accelerating down the runway--they could tell I was doing something special--and the second KC crew was still breathless at the acceleration/climb demonstration I had performed. Ah, she was a great bird. Nothing like 88,000 pounds of thrust in a light-weight airplane and clearance for an unrestricted climb. Don't ask me about the times we played "spaceman" between refuelings over the Turkey/Iraq border.

Thanks for posting that KC photo Andy.

[mockingbird812]

"Nothing like 88,000 pounds of thrust in a light-weight airplane "

Works for cars, works for jets. Great story.

[SS427]

Great story Bill! That would have been a ride for sure.

Andy, you are killing me already. There was just no way I could make it with all the other trips I have made this year. Sucks as this would have been a show to end all shows. I pray that these guys stay safe and have a great week at the show and no accidents happen. Keep the photos coming.
Rick

[Charley Lillard]

I wish I had hauled the 55 there..... arrgh.

[Mr70]

Ha!

[Xplantdad]

Ah...so that explains your last "trip" over my house...LOL

[budnate]

NICE!!

[427TJ]

By the way Andy, my friend's P-51D couldn't make it to the Gathering because they found metal in the engine oil screens recently and the Merlin had to come out and be fully rebuilt. I think it was bearing failure on either the crank or rods but I can't remember which. He and the owner hopped on the airlines and are there spectating (and drinking beer and BSing with the rest of them).