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Viper Driver Flying Hours

  Col. Oscar C. "O.C." Hope (Ret.)

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Viper Driver

Name Col. Oscar C. "O.C." Hope (Ret.)
Country
Unit 466th Fighter Squadron "Diamondbacks"
Flying F-16s from 1984 until 1997
Viper Hours 1960
Flew F-4s from 1970 through 1978, including assignments to the 32TFS, Soesterberg AB, NL, 414FWIC, Nellis AFB, NV, 421TFS, Udorn RTAFB, Thailand, 3TFS, Clark AB, P and 34TFS, Hill AFB, UT. In 1978, recognizing that the active duty ws more interested in "managers" than fighter pilots, I transitioned to the Reserves. I continued to fly in the 466TFS (later the 466FS) for the next 19 years. I flew T-33s for 3 months (a blast) then f-105s for 5 years. In 1984 I transitioned to F-16As (first AFRES unit in F-16s). We flew block 5s and block 15s then transitioned to the block 30s. I served as Squadron/Wing Weapons Officer for 15 years, then OSS CC and Wing Cv beore retiring in 1997. I was fortunate to have some great flying experiences, great deployments, and the chance to fly with some of the best fighter pilots in the world at the time.

Deployments

I led a formation of 6 f-16Cs on a deployment fron Hill AFB to Elmendorf AFB in the late 1980s. We met a KC-10 near Ketchekan AL and took enough fuel to finish the flight as planned. No sooner than we dropped off the tanker we picked up an unforcast headwind of 120 KTS. As we all madly calculated our new estimated fuel remaining at arrival everyone became very concerned. The issue however was that we had no idea if the wind would hold or drop off and we were expecting to land in IFR conditions with a wet runway at PEDF. Meanwhile the tanker was climbing away. If we were going to take more fuel, it had to be done quicky before we seperated too far from the tanker, but this could make us overweight at landing and present stopping difficulties - especially if the cruise wind dropped off. As I was completing my calculations as to how much each plane should take, one of the wingmen announced that he was breaking formation to rejoin the tanker. Rather than get into a conflict with this otherwise very capable pilot, I let everyone know that we would all rejoin and take another 2000# as a precaution. In the end all landed safely, with only a bruised ego to show. The lesson for me was that the best course of action was taken, not who was "right or wrong."

F-16 Flying Hours

1,000 Hours # 1492 on the 1K list
Unit   466th Fighter Squadron "Diamondbacks" [Unit History]
Date unknown
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Flying Hours on other aircraft

F-4 Phantom II
Hours 1100
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