BillD22 Posted December 14, 2014 Share Posted December 14, 2014 Here's a series from the late 1970s A USAF F-4E "Phantom" from the 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron sits on the Ready Alert parking space at Keflavik Naval Air Facility in Iceland. This is the "go" bird for unidentified aircraft approaching the Icelandic Air Defense Zone. The airplane is armed with an air intercept load out of AIM7 radar guided "Sparrow" and AIM9 heat seeking "Sidewinder" air to air missiles. All aircraft and electronic systems are powered up ready for immediate launch. The Alert duty crew (that would be us ;)) is standing by in the warm line shack ready to run out, man up the aircraft, and blast off if called on to ID unidentified radar contacts While we read the latest issue of Playboy Magazine in the line shack two Russian TU-95 "Bear" bomber and recon aircraft are approaching from the Northeast passing thru the gap between the UK and Iceland and heading into the mid Atlantic on an intelligence gathering and "show the flag" mission The TU-95 is a long range bomber and recon airplane. The planes in this shot are unarmed but the Bear can carry a wide variety of cruise missiles and other lethal standoff weapons - not to be messed with! We get an incoming call from one of the island early warning radar sites to the Alert shack. "2 unidentified targets approaching at high speed from the Northeast! Launch the Ready Alert crew." Dang!! Just when we were getting to this month's Playboy playmate centerfold!! :( Time to man up, kick the tires, light the fires, and head out. We're pre cleared for takeoff so it's a quick taxi to the active, hit the burners, and we're on our way We make an initial turn southeast toward the targets. We're under the direction of Ground Control Intercept (GCI) controllers who will give us radar vectors to put us in position behind and closing with the targets to make visual contact. That way we don't need to give away our approach and alert the Bears by using our own onboard aircraft radar to find them unless we run into IMC weather conditions. Even with these somewhat stealthy procedures our intercept won't be a surprise to the Bear crews. Here's the intercept geography and geometry. The Bears launched from bases up around the Kola peninsula and Murmansk regions in Northern Russia and then skirted the coast of Norway before heading for the Iceland-UK gap. Most likely they were intercepted by Norwegian AF fighters which then passed along the info to the UK and Iceland air defense organizations. Our intercept is set up to make contact at their closest point of approach to our base in Keflavik to minimize our transit fuel burn. Even so we need 2 external fuel tanks to give us the necessary range and staying power before we have to "Bingo" back to base Tally Ho! Targets in sight. We approach from below and behind to check things out The view from the rear Weapon Systems Officer cockpit toward one of the Bears. As long as everybody behaves this is a more or less friendly encounter so we won't need our weapons today "OK base - we visually ID'd the targets as 2 Russian Bear aircraft tracking south west into the mid Atlantic." Our work here is done. Time to RTB. If we push it we still have time to make Happy Hour at the "O" Club with all the friendly Icelandic girls. ;):) "Ciao Ivan - have a nice day - see you on the return trip" :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peer01 Posted December 14, 2014 Share Posted December 14, 2014 Very nice Bill! :eek::eek::cool: [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragtopjohnny Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Good job Bill. http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/ragtopjohnny/NewSig.jpg http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-greet013.gif Checkout my new Facebook Page! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Airplane-Porn/1505438883035386 HP Z820 Workstation Intel Xeon 3.30ghz 8 Core Processor 2TB Hard Drive 16 gig of Ram 1125 Power Supply and 2 Gig Nvidia Geforce GTX 970. (YIPPPIE!!!!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aharon Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 very impressive, well described, and well educational screenshots!! I am surprised you did not move your Phantom closer to the Bear plane to get close up view of the Bear's cockpit window showing Russian crew waving their Pepsi cans :) Remember??? Regards, Aharon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillD22 Posted December 15, 2014 Author Share Posted December 15, 2014 very impressive, well described, and well educational screenshots!! I am surprised you did not move your Phantom closer to the Bear plane to get close up view of the Bear's cockpit window showing Russian crew waving their Pepsi cans :) Remember??? Regards, Aharon Jan, Johnny, & Aharon - thanks for looking & the good words Aharon: We held up the Playboy playmate picture for them :D:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davecook Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Nice post Bill,I used to stand QRA with RAF Phantoms back in the '70's so I know what you are talking about! I enjoyed your storyboard approach: I like to do this myself rather than just posting pretty pictures.Looking forward to the next one.Dave. My rig specs: ASUS P8Z77-V Rev3 IZ77 4D3 LGA1155; Intel Core I7 3770K Ivy Bridge3 5gHz/8Mo; SSD 500Go Agility3; DD SATA-III, 1To, 7200T, 64Mo cache; DDRAM III PC-12800, 2 x 4 Go; NVidia 1060GTX TI SC 6Gb 1563-E3 (not over-clocked); Power supply - 850W Corsair HX850; Windows 7 Pro 64bits, FSX Gold (SP1+2, Acceleration). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omega7 Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Great shots and post Bill, the info report make it very interesting and historic, good job amigo!! :cool::cool::D Gonzalo [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillD22 Posted December 15, 2014 Author Share Posted December 15, 2014 Great shots and post Bill, the info report make it very interesting and historic, good job amigo!! :cool::cool::D Gonzalo Nice post Bill,I used to stand QRA with RAF Phantoms back in the '70's so I know what you are talking about! I enjoyed your storyboard approach: I like to do this myself rather than just posting pretty pictures.Looking forward to the next one.Dave. Many thanks Dave & Gonzalo Dave: when MILVIZ releases the final version of the F4 it's supposed to include some RAF liveries. My shots are from the beta release Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifejogger Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Nice shots and story Bill. I enjoyed your post. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NMLW Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Great aircraft and you captured them beautifully Bill. The narrative was the icing on the cake - fantastic! :cool: :cool: :D Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhantomTweak Posted December 16, 2014 Share Posted December 16, 2014 Loved the narrative, and I've been in love with the Phunky Phantom since I first got stationed at Yuma! I don't know about the Air Force, but in the Navy/Marine Corps, the Sparrow's designator is AIM-7F, and the pilots/RIOs hated them as they were grossly unreliable back in the day. Either fail to track or not light off and just fall harmlessly to the ground below. The only real trouble with the Sidewinder (AIM-9) was you had to watch where the sun was, or they would track it. Sadly, and I hate to admit it, the original AN/AWG-10A (Main radar in the nose of the bird) was horribly unreliable. We had a heck of a time just keep half of 101's birds flyable, let alone have a fully functional radar. Once we went to the AWG-10B version we actually got a few weekends off! I aint 'fraid of no HAWG! Have fun, and great flights to all! Pat☺ [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Had a thought...then there was the smell of something burning, and sparks, and then a big fire, and then the lights went out! I guess I better not do that again! Sgt, USMC, 10 years proud service, Inactive reserve now :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillD22 Posted December 16, 2014 Author Share Posted December 16, 2014 Loved the narrative, and I've been in love with the Phunky Phantom since I first got stationed at Yuma! I don't know about the Air Force, but in the Navy/Marine Corps, the Sparrow's designator is AIM-7F, and the pilots/RIOs hated them as they were grossly unreliable back in the day. Either fail to track or not light off and just fall harmlessly to the ground below. The only real trouble with the Sidewinder (AIM-9) was you had to watch where the sun was, or they would track it. Sadly, and I hate to admit it, the original AN/AWG-10A (Main radar in the nose of the bird) was horribly unreliable. We had a heck of a time just keep half of 101's birds flyable, let alone have a fully functional radar. Once we went to the AWG-10B version we actually got a few weekends off! I aint 'fraid of no HAWG! Have fun, and great flights to all! Pat☺ John, Larry, & Pat - many thanks for looking and the good words Pat: as always appreciate your r/w insider info. You're correct - the designator for the Sparrow was the AIM-7F across all the services in the 70s. AIM3 was the 1950s version - what was I thinking!? :D:D:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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