“Bloodhound 101, LA Center, switch Beaver control 354.5″ “Flight go.” I dialed the manual frequency in the UHF radio. “Beaver Control, Bloodhound 101 flight of four Phantoms checking in for your control.” “Roger Bloodhound, squawk 1001, have your section leader squawk 1002. Say tactical call sign.” I reached down and twisted in the numbers to [...]

“Tower, Bloodhound 101, flight of four, take off.” “Bloodhound 101, Point Mugu tower, you are clear to take off runway 11.” I tapped my helmit over the ear then held up 5 fingers to switch my flight to button 5 for departure frequency. Easing onto the runway I hugged the right side lining up on [...]

Weather blues most definitely. My trip today was cancelled for weather, specifically snow and ice here in St. Louis. You might think, “hey stop whinning you get the day off”; true, but no fly no pay. It brings up the question of why do we cancel? Good question, the answer is simple but does need [...]

It changes! I was climbing out on my way back to Florida yesterday. At 10,000 feet I held the nose down to allow the airspeed to build. We were late and trying to make up time to get back on DOT schedule. At 330 knots indicated (10 knots below a redline of 340), I pushed [...]

I eased the engines up to take off power feeling the comfortable push of 40 thousand pounds of thrust. The acceleration was slow at first, then built exponentially. At 141 knots (160MPH) I gently lifted the nose wheels off of the runway, stabilized for a second, then coaxed the main gear off as well. Continuing [...]

The first post on my blog! I’m new to this so be kind. I know being a pilot I am expected to be up on the latest technology. But the fact is most people would be suprised how old the tech is in the average aircraft. By the time you get thru development, flight test [...]