Forum: F-35 Units

Salute!

Got a chance to see, touch and examine the "A" models, but not the "B" in the next hangar.

We had a huge turnout, so the sim visit portion was cancelled. My group of interested retirees and contractor folks are trying for a small group visit as soon as we can.
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The new facilities are cosmic. I cracked up when entering the humongous training building, which handles everything except the simulator stuff for the pilots. Well, almost.

I recalled setting up the initial Viper training rooms in 1979 and had a small auditorium for about 30 folks and a learning center with AV media and such. I even built the shelf units for our material in my basement, then hauled it to the base and set the things up, heh heh.

The main building has a huge bay that can house four complete jets/mockups. So we crawled all over the one they had, stood in the bays, etc.

There were at least two other training buildings for armament load training and other things. They retained the old squadron buildings except for the 58th Sq, which was brand new. Same for Wing HQ and the maintenance HQ.

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We had the dog and pony show from the Wing King, but the dancing bears and kangaroos didn't make it.

The really good news, and this is highly speculative is that they expect to be flying by the end of February!!!!! May have something to do with Panetta's visits and decisions last week or so.

There were only two pilots that were actually flying the jet, and one was gone and the other was on an F-16 training flight.

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The helmet is a blast, and on next tour I hope to try one on, maybe in the sim. The projection doofers are back from the forehead more than I thot, and then there's the tracker gizmo to use the pilot's eye direction. It's not as big as a lot of the pictures indicate.

Pilots there would not comment on problems with the flutter/bugget that is alleged to screw up the helmet display.

The new gee suit is another story, and I'll have to go back and get one on one with a pilot/life support troop.

The pilots said getting into the cockpit is harder than getting out.

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The Wing King claimed that the "A" model has no problems engaging the standard USAF barrier cables. See other thread.

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The sensors are invisible/flush except one large doofer( maybe a foot + long and 6 - 7 inches tall) that is just under the front of the canopy. The thing has the basic "gold" coating on the flat panes it has and it not a "bubble". You can hardly find the others that are flush mounted.

The gun protrusion is different than what I saw on the mockup 6 years ago, and I expected more like the Eagle or Viper gun port.

Hard point panels are easy to see.

Unlike the F-117, the air data sensors looked like the Viper's, but smaller.

The bays are huge!! Need to find a good diagram, but if you can get access to a jet, check them out. No trapezes for weapons, so everything is ejected using pneumatics versus the "carts" we dinosaurs were used to. My impression is that the jet can carry more/bigger ordnance than we realize.

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The pilots and ground crews are chomping at the bit, especially the ground crews. They have been firing up the jets and taxiiing them and learning about all the electronic trouble-shooting gear. It sends stuff back via datalink, so the repair boxes are waiting for the jet to get to parking ramp.

Hopefully, our next tour will be after they start flying in a month, and we can talk with the ground crews and pilots at the 58th's snack bar.

Gums sends...

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Many thanks for your insights Gums. Look forward to whatever else can be shared during subsequent visits. Do you have any more close up photos to share please? Tah.

Forum: F-35 Units

Eglin 33rd Training Wing tour 20 Jan