Ever wonder what an in flight refueling looked like from the tanker side.

I hope this is ok for the video...



The begining of the video shows mishaps, the second half of the video shows how it is supposed to go.

I have seen this from the KC-135 side, B-52 cockpit, AWACS cockpit... I will honestly say I hated in flight refueling with a passion while on the receiving end, it was not to bad when passing the gas.

ETA: forgot to mention when you do In flight refueling you are released from ATC control because by their standards this is effectively an in flight incident, that would need reporting. (thats what I was told in training anyways)

a reply to: Irishhaf

Most dangerous, potentially.

You mention "Buffs", I had a friend served in the airforce back when, he worked as a boom operator in a refueling tanker. When refueling B52s sometimes the gas would leak in the cubby hole he was in and he would be up to his ankles in jet fuel.

(shudder)

a reply to: intrptr

Yup I was a flying crew chief on the B-52, an AWACS flight engineer, and a flying crew chief on the KC135...

Back in the day... yea... leaks were not unusual.. now a days, its pretty well cleaned up.

I never saw anything as bad as was shown on the video, only had 1 breakaway call when I was flying (that is when something has gone a little sideways and the boom or the pilot calls breakaway the guy passing gas climbs and the guy receiving descends) Had a new Co-pilot that could not grasp the idea of slow and steady coming in for the hook up, scared the piss out of me...started my hatred for flying.

a reply to: Irishhaf

Had a new Co-pilot that could not grasp the idea of slow and steady coming in for the hook up, scared the piss out of me...started my hatred for flying.

Trainees, the worst.

Chewing them up and down back on the tarmac.

a reply to: Irishhaf

wow some of those mishaps are scary, very close calls, especially the helicopter.. nice video, I enjoyed that.

The AWACS at 2:45 was a little hairy lol

Yeah. tanking is hard. We had 2 guys come back with "Party Favors" back to the ship. I'm sure the Air Force guys were not thrilled that a couple of Navy dudes broke their gear.

It would seem that tapping the long hose (a la KC-10) WARPS pod would be better, but those had that snapping, wave-like whip that could snap off the basket. I personally like the Iron Maiden (KC-135) because the heavy basket was more stable and it was easier to leave the basket the way you found it. (which is what you tried to do when backing out, if you were too high/low/sideways, after unclipping, the basket would slide across the fuel probe tip and potentially snap it off)

Thanks to those tanker crews, burning race tracks in the sky, giving the other aircraft more playtime. You guys rock.

Why couldn't they invent a drone-type refuelling system to land on the plane itself, perhaps with a new technologically advanced catchment arm or such - something like the Canadarm on the ISS?

originally posted by: cosmania
Yeah. tanking is hard. We had 2 guys come back with "Party Favors" back to the ship. I'm sure the Air Force guys were not thrilled that a couple of Navy dudes broke their gear.

It would seem that tapping the long hose (a la KC-10) WARPS pod would be better, but those had that snapping, wave-like whip that could snap off the basket. I personally like the Iron Maiden (KC-135) because the heavy basket was more stable and it was easier to leave the basket the way you found it. (which is what you tried to do when backing out, if you were too high/low/sideways, after unclipping, the basket would slide across the fuel probe tip and potentially snap it off)

Thanks to those tanker crews, burning race tracks in the sky, giving the other aircraft more playtime. You guys rock.

While I loved visiting Hawaii... I hated actually working rimpac cause guaranteed once a shift some swabby would take home a souvenir. which slowed us down on getting back and drinking on the beach... serious party foul.

Gaaaack! The first half of that video with failed fueling was so unsatisfying. It looks ridiculously difficult but I guess those pilots are quite amazing after all.

What happened to boomer? i'm sure he could regale us with stories what you give you nightmares.

It's amazing what we can do but seeing some of those mishaps i'm glad i'm not up there shall we say.

originally posted by: TheAlleghenyGentleman
Gaaaack! The first half of that video with failed fueling was so unsatisfying. It looks ridiculously difficult but I guess those pilots are quite amazing after all.

hehe there were a couple of times I was close enough to the boomer while in the receiving plane I could accurately describe them to a sketch artist afterwards..

after my first couple hundred hours as an engineer I stopped looking, I just monitored the instruments I had to and pretended the refueler did not exist, I could not have done a boomers job.

a reply to: Irishhaf

We stopped refueling Hornets directly for years. We'd allow the E-6 with buddy pods to refuel, and then they'd have to refuel the Hornets, because we were so sick of losing drogues to them.

a reply to: Irishhaf

See, that's nuts. I would love to have that view.

Were you able to take any pics?

a reply to: TheAlleghenyGentleman

I used to have a ton of pics from when I got to do incentive flights with them. They were all 35mm though, and are buried in boxes god only knows where. I even had some from a KC-10 flight during an exercise where we flew 1500 feet over a carrier as they were launching a pair of A-6s.

a reply to: Zaphod58

You need to unearth those pics and do a massive frame job. I'm sure you have some amazing images there that you didn't even know you had.

I would loved to have done that. I grew up in California and used to drive out to Edwards all the time with my stepfather and check out the aircraft. Those were nice times.

I have some from when we towed some F-18's across the pacific... horrible detail that was.. given an 8 hour turnaround in Guam... so of course in good maintainer fashion we put the bird to bed and proceeded to get sloppy drunk only to crawl back on the plane and try not to vomit.

Not sure where they are though, still in some box I havent bothered to unpack I expect.

a reply to: TheAlleghenyGentleman

I think the coolest ones I had were the time we were over Hawaii, and got a call that the Alert fighters were on the way. I got some pretty good shots of one of them off our wingtip, where you can see the missiles.

a reply to: Zaphod58

That's good stuff. Anytime you get that close that's either a real good day or a real bad day.

Well, if the Greens get their way, all the military planes will be solar and wind powered. Just think of the savings in fuel.