02 Jul 2018, 21:42
I was one of the first lucky guys that got to go do operational test and development on the F-22. They wanted F-15C guys who were Fighter Weapons School grads, IPs, all that. I was one of the 8 who got to go to Edwards to do it, just lucky.
When we first did Raptor DEMVAL against combat-ready Langley squadron F-15Cs over the Nellis Test Range, everything worked as advertised. There was nothing they could do against us. We did high, low, offset, everything. We did 5-8 intercepts that first day, first time it had ever been tried in history. We killed them all every time no matter what they did. First time or two, they're like, "Where are you guys at?"
"We're a mile off your tail."
"What! You gotta be kidding me."
We said, Holy Mackerel, I have seen the light. We came back and wrote out test reports, and said, "I have seen the future. This thing really does work."
We had these guys that had been working on the jet their whole career, and one of them came up crying, "You just validated my whole life's work."
We were flying against F-16s at Nellis, and it got to the point where they said, "Are you guys really in the airspace, or are you just coming up on the radio and calling kills?"
One of my favorite 4 v 12's was where we got cocky and arrogant, and just decided, "Let's see how fast we can just kill 'em all. We went right up to Mach 2 and just ran 'em down hard. From something like 80nm separation, it took us 2 minutes and 22 seconds to kill all 12, they never saw us or took a shot.
I remember once, a 2 ship turned around and they're running away at Mach 1....and I got like Mach 1 in closure running them down. Flown right, it's basically untouchable.
https://youtu.be/6pivtRMOf8s
If someone could embed, that would be great. Amazing interview. Starts out with his experience getting into the F-15C, the War against Serbia, his detailed rundown of shooting down a MiG-29 of the Serbian Air Force with a brand new pilot to the squadron in tow as his wingman, and then how he got into the Raptor program.
