Forum: General F-35 Forum

F-35 flight training at Eglin picks up steam By Dave Majumdar, July 17, 2012

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-d ... lin-2.html

"...Additionally, the commander of VMFAT-501, Marine Lt Col David "Chip" Berke has started his transition to the F-35B. That makes him the third Marine pilot to start training at the Florida base, but unlike Maj Joseph "OD"Bachmann or vice-wing commander Col Arthur "Turbo" Tomassetti, Berke is not a test pilot. His first flight was on 11 June when I was at Farnborough--but it was also Elgin's 100th F-35 sortie.

"The realistic training of the Full Mission Simulator prepared me well for flying the F-35 for the first time," Berke says....

...The first Air National Guard pilots have started to train at the 33rd Fighter Wing...."

Best to read post at URL.

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First Marine pilot checked for Eglin F-35 July 17, 2012

http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/first- ... e-air.html

"...Hardy had just completed the sixth and final sortie required to become a fully qualified, non-test pilot of the F-35, the crown jewel of the Joint Strike Fighter program.

“The jet was great,” said Hardy, who had been going through academic-training and flight-simulators since April. “We did some handling exercises, dodged the weather. Everything worked the way it was supposed to.”

Hardy became just the fifth F-35 pilot to be formally checked-out, and the first Marine ever to be certified at Eglin. Hardy works with the Defense Contract Management Agency in Fort Worth, Texas as an F-35 acceptance pilot. This means that he will examine and fly the F-35’s which the government buys from Lockheed Martin. If he approves the airplane, he can then deliver it to bases, such as Eglin.

“There just aren’t enough F-35 pilots to go around right now,” said Col. Andrew Toth, commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing. “We needed him to be checked out so he can do those acceptance flights.”...

...Smith noted Hardy’s challenge, as a Marine working largely with airmen, of working with the two services’ sometimes contradicting vernaculars.

“The same visual signal could mean something different to an airman or a Marine,” said Smith. “You have to be careful.”

Lt. Col. Lee Kloos, commander of the 58th Fighter Squadron and himself the first Air Force non-test pilot, said that Hardy’s success reflected the preparedness of the wing for its planned future as a schoolhouse for F-35 pilots...."

All of it best read at URL.

Last edited by spazsinbad on Jul 18, 2012 - 07:46 AM; edited 1 time in total

First ANG pilot starts transitioning to the F-35 By Dave Majumdar on July 18, 2012

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-d ... ansit.html

"Major Jay Spohn, the 33rd Operations Group's chief of Standards and Evaluation, had his first F-35 flight yesterday. He needs to complete five more rides before he becomes fully qualified as an instructor in the jet. What's unique about Spohn is not that he's a Weapons School grad or that he flew both the Fairchild Republic A-10 Warthog and Boeing F-15C before transitioning to the F-35, but rather that he is the Air National Guard's first F-35 driver...."

More about HOW/WHO photos taken by at the URL. ['driver'? What's with that?]

GOOD VIEW PIC series at link above also: http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-d ... 60632.html

First Air National Guard pilot starts transition to F-35 By: Dave Majumdar 18 July 2012

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articl ... 35-374470/

SPOHN: "..."I felt much more comfortable on my very first flight in the F-35 than I did two and half years ago on my first flight in the [Boeing] F-15C or ten years ago on my first flight in the [Fairchild Republic] A-10," Spohn says. "I attribute that directly to the quality of training I received here at Eglin."

Spohn adds that the F-35 is a joy to fly. "The aircraft flies just like the simulator-which is a good thing," he says....

...But even with the limited flight envelop released to Eglin for training, Spohn says that some of the F-35's characteristics are already apparent. The jet's subsonic acceleration is excellent.

"I think it compares very favorably to the F-15C," Spohn says. "I would say the acceleration in a straight line is absolutely comparable to the F-15C equipped with [Pratt & Whitney F100-PW]-220 engines that aircraft is a pretty sp[r]y performer, if you will, and it compared very well with that."...

...Meanwhile ground crews are also finding the F-35 easy to work with compared to older machines, says Master Sergeant Brian Rowlands. "It is a lot simpler than the F-15C, which is what I came off of."..."

BEST read it all at the JUMP.

"...Meanwhile ground crews are also finding the F-35 easy to work with compared to older machines, says Master Sergeant Brian Rowlands. "It is a lot simpler than the F-15C..."

Weren't we just hearing that the services are budgeting vastly more for O&M? That O&M was going to break the bank?Wish they'd try to keep their story straight!

Pilot becomes Guard's first F-35 instructor pilot 09 Aug 2012 by Maj. Karen Roganov
Team Eglin Public Affairs

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123313380

"8/9/2012 - EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFNS) -- An Airman became the Guard's first F-35 Lightning II instructor pilot recently at Eglin's multi-service, multi-national F-35 Integrated Training Center.

Maj. Jay Spohn, assigned to the 33rd Fighter Wing here as the assistant director of operations for the 58th Fighter Squadron and the chief of standards and evaluation for the 33rd Operations Group, successfully flew his final of six flights Aug. 3 becoming fully qualified and able to teach follow-on pilots to fly the F-35A.

"It felt really good," said Spohn about the flight. "It's what they hired me to do; today's flight was the culmination of two and a half years of hard work."...

...Spohn is scheduled to train another 58th FS pilot, Lt. Col. Michael Ebner on the same five instructional sorties and one check ride Spohn helped develop as initial cadre and then flew as a student of his own curriculum.

Along with getting a feel for how the aircraft handles and several approaches to the runway, Spohn's first flight included some touch and goes he said....

...The second and third flights included a lot of the same plus instrument approaches.

On the fourth flight, Spohn flew with a wingman. The formation flight can be with another F-35 or an F-16 as the support aircraft.

On the fifth flight, "the wingman and lead pilot switch roles and the IP (instructor pilot) verifies you can teach," he said. On the last flight, there is an evaluation that includes the student again assuming an instructor role, plus dozens of tasks now graded, like ground operations, take-off and departure to the air spaces, instrument approaches and post landing...."

JUmp at tHe MORe? Yup.

Dave recycles headline....

F-35 training at Eglin picks up steam, 33rd FW commander shares first impressions of new ride
By Dave Majumdar on August 13 2012

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-d ... cks-u.html
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"...[Tomasseti says] "One noticeable example is the voice recognition feature being enabled so there is no need to manually switch between radio channels when talking through the mask."...

Above quote from MORE STORY HERE: http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articl ... fb-375444/
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"33rd FW commander Col Andrew Toth, an F-15C Weapons School grad and former commander of the elite 57th Adversary Tactics Group at Nellis AFB, Nevada, recently had his first flight in the F-35A on 8 August. Having countless hours in the Boeing F-15C Eagle and Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon (or Viper), Toth shares his impressions of that first ride:

Getting to fly the F-35 for the first time was quite an experience, the aircraft was easy to fly and felt very solid. In my opinion, the aircraft flies like a cross between an Eagle and a Viper on steroids. Even with our current operating limits, it was smooth and quiet with differing airspeed when straight and level like a Viper. At the same time, the jet talks to you when you increase the angle of attack on it like an Eagle as you get a light buffet when flying at 12 units AOA. ...

...The HMD [helmet-mounted display] worked well and was a great cross reference for approaches and landings as the velocity vector was accurate and the aircraft touches down smoothly.... Additionally, when the power is pushed up the response time from the Pratt and Whitney F135 motor was immediate...

...To think our very first sortie flown here at Eglin was only a few months ago, on 6 March, and now we have over 110 hours flown in the F-35A and over 80 in the F-35B is quite an accomplishment...."

More at blogpost or go to the MAIN URL above also.

PIC: http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-d ... othjpg.jpg

One more pilot that really hates the plane and is only saying it flies well because he has to. Good thing we have internet critics to clue us in to the truth...

hobo wrote:

One more pilot that really hates the plane and is only saying it flies well because he has to. Good thing we have internet critics to clue us in to the truth...

Dog gonna bark...Hater gonna hate.
Nothing to see here....

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Web Extra: Pilot explains flying the F-35 - vid

http://news.yahoo.com/video/burlingtonw ... 40367.html

"Web Extra: Col. Andrew Toth, 33rd Fighter Wing Commander, explains the thirll of flying an F-35." PSSST.... Don't tell ANY one... Very Happy

The short video has this or similar quote (from story above): "...Getting to fly the F-35 for the first time was quite an experience, the aircraft was easy to fly and felt very solid. In my opinion, the aircraft flies like a cross between an Eagle and a Viper on steroids. Even with our current operating limits, it was smooth and quiet with differing airspeed when straight and level like a Viper. At the same time, the jet talks to you when you increase the angle of attack on it like an Eagle as you get a light buffet when flying..."