Forum: General F-35 Forum

Last edited by spazsinbad on Feb 24, 2012 - 12:51 AM; edited 2 times in total

AFA: Eglin’s trainer F-35s could fly in coming weeks By John Reed, February 23rd, 2012

http://www.dodbuzz.com/2012/02/23/afa-w ... -in-weeks/

"ORLANDO — After sitting on the ground at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida for months, the Pentagon’s fleet of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter training jets could beging flying in a matter of weeks, the Air Force’s top training officer said Thursday.

“We’re not certainly talking months away at this point, it’s a matter of weeks in my mind and we’ll see how all that comes together,” said Gen. Edward Rice, commander of Air Education and Training Command, during a press conference at the Air Force Association’s winter conference here....

...Only after the system is validated will student pilots be cleared to slowly begin training in the jet...."

Much MUCH MORE at the JUMP!

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Great news, and a sensible approach. Now if only LM can get the other three LRIP 2 "Bees" down to Eglin and start delivering LRIP 3 a/c! Heck!, a flight formation of the three "Bees" would be a welcomed sight to the Marines at Eglin. Smile

Salute!

At our briefing three weeks ago at the 33rd Wing, the Wing King predicted flights by next week or first week of March.

The pilot leading my group around and the maintenance troops in the hangar said that they had been doing the "taxi to runway and run up, then come back" drill. So they are training the wrenchbenders really well, and they are eager!!.

BTW, we did that same drill in the Viper and SLUF when they had their engine or FLCS problems. It's how I got my wife in the back seat of the "family" model and she actually steered the thing down the taxiway and made a few radio calls, heh heh.

We didn't get to see the three Bees in the next hangar, but crawled all over the six "A" models.

Will provide a PIREP soon as I see them flying around. As cadre for the Viper, we flew a lot even before we had "students". All we trained until late fall of 1979 were other IP's, and that included Dutch and Norwegians and Danes.

Gums sends...

Okay...well this is good news...but if you wanted to be technical about things...they could have been flying already, they were told not too so that more testing could be done to mitigate risks. Thing is, no one is going to know about the more serious problems until you put pilots in the planes and fly them. All a waste of time as far as I'm concerned...except for taking care of the chute issue.

"The Pentagon’s stealthy tri-service F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is making progress with a military flight release expected soon, the program’s chief engineer [Doug Ebersole] said. But software development and problems with the jet’s helmet mounted display are still major challenges."

"“Yesterday, the Air Force had their airworthiness board for the LRIP-2 jets that are at Eglin. “Although we have not yet received the military flight release … yesterday at the airworthiness board we got certification of TACC [Tailored Airworthiness Certification Criteria] compliance — that’s really the output of that airworthiness board.”

This means the Air Force considers that the F-35A is safe to fly, and understands and accepts the risks where there are gaps in the jet’s compliance with service airworthiness regulations. The Air Force will issue a formal military flight release soon.

"The U.S. Navy’s Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) has also cleared its LRIP-2 jets to operate at Fort Worth, where the planes are built, but the sea service requires an additional independent safety audit before fleet pilots are allowed to fly the aircraft, Ebersole said. “We expect that to happen in the mid-to-late March timeframe. Probably late March,” he said."

Once that happens, Marines can start flying the F-35B at Eglin.

http://www.defensenews.com/article/2012 ... appen-Soon

Further to recent posts....

F-35 Local Area Flights Could Start This Week Feb. 26, 2012 By DAVE MAJUMDAR

"F-35A Lightning II local area flights might start as early as this week at Eglin Air Force Base (AFB), Fla., an Air Force source said. Such flights would commence once the Air Force issues a military flight release (MFR).

The Air Force Aeronautical Systems Center at Ohio’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base might issue such a military flight release as early as this week, sources said."...

...A MFR would allow qualified F-35 test pilots to begin flying the stealthy fifth-generation fighter around the Florida base. Eglin currently has two test pilots who are qualified to fly the jet: Air Force Lt. Col. Eric Smith and Marine Maj. Joseph Bachmann.

Once those local area flights prove that the aircraft and maintenance procedures at Eglin are robust enough to sustain a full-scale training course for transitioning instructor pilots and students, Air Education and Training Command (AETC) will start the syllabus.

Smith and Bachmann will act as the initial instructors for the rest of the cadre at the 33rd Fighter Wing....

...Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy’s Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) has also cleared the Marines’ F-35B short take-off vertical landing jets to operate at Fort Worth, Texas, where the planes are built.

However, the sea service requires an additional independent safety audit before fleet pilots are allowed to fly the aircraft, Ebersole said.

“We expect that to happen in the mid-to-late March timeframe,” he said. “Probably late March.”

More at the URL.

Two questions:

1. Does this mean that the electrical problems prohibiting the F-35 from flying within 25NM of thunderstorms have been resolved?

2. Will all student training require the student to be chased by an IP in another F-35 (requiring two flyable F-35s per student sortie), or will he student be chased by an IP in an F-16 (requiring one flyable F-35 per student sortie)?

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio – Officials at the Aeronautical Systems Center here issued a Military Flight Release today that will allow the F-35A Lightning II fighter to begin initial operations at Eglin AFB, Fla.

Read more: http://defensetech.org/2012/02/28/eglin ... z1niZqWxEh
Defense.org

Same story with pic here: http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123291745

http://www.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/ ... 28-002.jpg

Forum: General F-35 Forum

Eglin trainer F-35s could fly in coming weeks [23 Feb 2012]