Week 40

Week 40

This was a pretty normal week of flying. I am enjoying these flights more and seem to be a little less stressed. We did not find out our drop this week because of the holiday, but I am told should be early next week. I really hope they have what we want. We took our last EPQ that counts for anything and our flights that go into our class standing stop next week. Something new we did start this week was the air refueling portion of our training. We train for both the tanker and the receiver parts. For the tanker I think it is a lot more mentally tasking, but for the receiver you really have to be on your game as far as flying is concerned. The tanker is responsible for the majority of the rendevous. He coordinates with air traffic control and the receiver to ensure timing and safety of the mission. The tanker also has to do in flight calculations to find out the closure speed of the two aircraft, offset, turn radius, and distance to begin the turn to roll out 1-3 miles in front of the receiver. How it works is like this, imagine a long straight line with the beginning called the initial point (IP) and a control point (CP) at the other end. The objective is to be refueling by the CP at an exact time. The tanker orbits the CP and waits for the receiver to call IP inbound. Once that happens the two fly right at each other. That is where the calculations come into play. You usually start your turn back around between 16-19 miles to roll out in front of the receiver headed towards the CP. Once both are going that way the receiver pretty much takes over from there and begins closing the distance until you are in a Pre-contact position with about 12 feet separation between the two aircraft. Then the tanker clears him for contact. The receiver closes the gap to about 3-5 feet and begins the simulated refueling. You have to stay in that position for a minute. It is pretty hard and even harder when the tanker has to turn. I do like the challenge of it though. Next week I am scheduled for my first formation air drop. That should be way cool.