Small World
 

It was so fun to see Mark Pensenstadler's drawing on the front page of VAF. Mark, I'm guessing you didn't know this, but here's how small the world is, or how big Van's Air Force is, depending on how you want to interpret it.
Here's Mark's drawing again:

The middle aircraft paint scheme is a caricature of tail 509, an F-15C Aggressor jet that (for now) flies as a member of the 65th Aggressor Squadron out of Nellis AFB, Nevada. I'm an Aggressor pilot and the owner/co-builder (along with my wife) of an RV-6 and that jet happens to have my name on the side of it right now:

My current squadron (the 65th AGRS) is closing next week and that jet is about to leave Nellis to go to the National Guard, so I made a special effort to get some pics with "my" jet and our family's airplane together before it leaves:


Great work, Mark! Can I get an F-15 version of that thing to show off at the closing ceremonies next week?

Cheers,

Freakin' awesome! One of my biggest disappointments in life is that I've always wanted to be a fighter pilot. I had to settle for the airlines instead because of my stupid eyes. I did get to fly the F-16 once towards the end of my Air Force maintenance career, but man you're lucky to fly the F-15; especially for the Aggressor Squadron!

I actually drew your F-15 a while ago but just added the Splinter scheme to the RV-7 caricature a few days ago. These are all made on the computer using the mouse as an airbrush.

Here's two versions of the original drawing...





Here's me with the original print...

How do you click on "Like" in this forum?

Oops-I just realized the pic I'm holding isn't the splinter scheme-it's the regular blue camo scheme! Oh well, I don't thin I've ever actually printed the splinter scheme.

Sister Ship
 

Here's your sister squadron...

I made a special effort to get some pics with "my" jet and our family's airplane together before it leaves:


Great work, Mark! Can I get an F-15 version of that thing to show off at the closing ceremonies next week?

Cheers,[/quote]

Awesome picture! I miss that jet, spend 15 of my 24 USAF Maintenance years as an "Eagle Keeper" with almost 3 years on the Nellis ramp. INFO NOTE: the balance of my time was spent fixing Hogs (A-10s) Vipers (F-16s) and the mighty Buff (B-52).

Did you have much trouble getting authorization to land/park the RV on the base? Pretty cool they "bought off" on the family/two plane picture idea.

Gadget, you forgot to mention that 'Silo' could fly both planes as well...

Cheers! Great picture...

Twoop!
 

Amen, Fog!

Well, of course she can. And she can fix both of them, too, for that matter. Isn't that pretty standard?

No problemo. Like most things in the Air Force, it was mostly a paperwork drill. If you know what form to fill out and what color of ink to sign it with, you can get just about anything done!