Forum: General

Vark,
How about sticking a video cam on the probe and feeding that to the pilots display?

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After about the third barrel roll around the bouncing basket in the weather at night, I think it would be back to the old drawing board on the probe cam concept.

If the pilot couldn’t directly see the probe, you’d be better off going back to the old KC-97 short drogue maneuvering basket system where the boomer “gently” placed the basket on the probe. Some of those guys were really good. A lost art.

I think all the IAF tankers have the long hose, however. Basically, probe & drogue refueling is challenging enough, the probe really needs to be in the pilot’s FOV with the tanker, even if it's only peripheral.

OL

outlaw162 wrote:

If the pilot couldn’t directly see the probe, you’d be better off going back to the old KC-97 short drogue maneuvering basket system where the boomer “gently” placed the basket on the probe. Some of those guys were really good. A lost art.
OL

What do you mean a lost art? I have personally gotten on, and kept on many a probe equipped reciever that was having a little trouble. To me P/D is a crappy way to refuel. It's fine if you are in no hurry, the pilot has no fatigue, and the weather is good. However we all know how often those situations arise, especially in the fog of war.

If you’re talking about a KC-135, we were always told that the boomer could not use the maneuvering boom with a basket on the F-100 or F-105 because his vision was at times obstructed. We always drogue refueled off the 135 with a fixed boom in the F-100 & F-105. The only approved maneuvering boom drogue system was on the KC-97 for us.

Maybe it was an airspeed/force thing also (310K v 230K). Anyway, we weren't allowed to. And normally the preferred method to refuel the F-105 was boom/receptacle, probe was used rarely, other than for currency and as a "friendly" gesture on the ramp.

What kinds of aircraft do you do this for? Are you talking KC-10? I never did P/D off a KC-10. I vaguely remember what looked like a stowed reeled basket of some sort up there somewhere. Never saw a basket on the boom.

Agreed, boom/receptacle is a piece of cake compared to probe & drogue, especially in rough weather. However, we actually got very good at it in the Hun (even from the front of the two-seater, probe further aft) under any conditions.

OL

(in a pinch, to get hooked up, I guess you do what you've got to do though.....I always appreciated any help I could get)

Not for UAE, just tested with the Lockheed borrowed bird. It was a requirement for the IN aircraft, this is their method of getting gas take a look at there other aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ai ... of_the_IAF

Most have probes...

Forum: General

Alt F-16 refueling methode for the UAE