Thanks for the invite, LL. Pardon my slow reply - It was quite a long article, and took me a few overnights on the road to finish it.
Overall, nice story. The Navy guy flew a light airframe Viper with a pretty big engine, clean, in an exclusively air-to-air mission. Sounds like fun, when your body is young, and your neck is (yet) undamaged. I flew similar, slightly heavier F-16s with even bigger engines for my career in the AF. The biggest challenge as an F-16 pilot was maintaining proficiency in several missions at once - it always gave you something to work on for the next mission.
A few observations:
It was interesting to hear him talk about learning, as a prior F-14 pilot, to run the radar while flying the airplane. It reminded me of when we Air Force F-16 pilots used to chuckle at the F-15E pilots who’d been convinced by their backseaters that just flying the airplane was a full-time job, and the Weapons System Operators were essential for operating the radar, running the air-to-ground targeting pod, and talking on the radio. Because Viper pilots routinely did all those things simultaneously. Just another insight into different “cultures” and expectations.
The author of the article sounds like a good guy to share a beer with and trade stories with the bar for an evening.
Here’s me, “back in the day” leaving the tanker to go back into Iraq.
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