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Fun Videos On The Way To Sebring.

Missed it

Sorry I missed Sebring this morning Turbo. Looks like you had lots of fun on the way. See you next week.
 
I like the second video. Pretty cool getting a looksy at the mock field. Here's the coordinates that can be pasted into google maps (or earth) 27.58437, -81.23193
 
Great videos!

I've always wondered why a location like the 2nd video isn't being used as a "Reno" of the south?

I would love to run the pylons of Reno, but flying 2 days out and 2 days back from FL?
 
nice to see my video on the front page. its also nice to see a father and son out having fun in their rv. :)
 
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I learned to fly in Florida, but it was so long ago that I'd forgotten how FLAT it can be! How does pilotage work without mountains?:D
 
I like the second video. Pretty cool getting a looksy at the mock field. Here's the coordinates that can be pasted into google maps (or earth) 27.58437, -81.23193

I always liked the "bullseye" targets that litter the Avon Park range. They take the old fly-in tradition of dropping flour bombs to a whole new level. The strafing pits for the A-10s are also cool.

Looks like you guys had a great morning out there, Turbo.
 
I learned to fly in Florida, but it was so long ago that I'd forgotten how FLAT it can be! How does pilotage work without mountains?:D
lakes work quite well in florida.

The strafing pits for the A-10s are also cool. Ryan, can you point out these?
 
Flashbacks

Wow! Does that ever send me back. Back to 1986 when I was an F-16 student at MacDill. Avon Park was our bombing range. The fake airfield you were flying over was the "tactical" section of the range, used to practice full-run attacks against. In the '80s that meant screaming in from an initial point a dozen miles away at 500' and 540KIAS and popping up at the last second to find your assigned target on the airfield, drop on it, and hunker back down to the ground and "get outta Dodge!".

The strafe pits you are looking for are in the "conventional" section of the range. It's all in the big triangle just northeast of the tactical airfield. On the SW side of the big triangle you'll see two round targets and two rectangular ones in between the round ones. The inner rectangular ones are the strafe pits. You would fly up the attack lines from the SW and strafe parachutes that were stretched between poles in those pits. If you zoom in real tight on the satellite pic, you'll see each pit has two sets of poles (aligned with the two run-in lines but no chutes on them in the current photo) just past the two rows of built-up dirt burms. The scoring was done with microphones protected by those dirt burms from any short rounds. The mics would count the supersonic shockwaves from the cannon rounds skimming just over the burm and compute which ones would have hit the rag.

The conventional targets were typically dropped on from a sort of "overhead traffic pattern" and not a real tactical attack. Just for getting reps of dropping at different angles and delivery styles and getting a bunch of planes through in a hurry.

I gotta figure out the best way to mount some guns on my -4 and get out there too :D
 
Can't believe I got paid to do this...

Turbo,

Nice video! Great range brief Chris! What you forgot to add on range stuff was how amazingly fun strafing is. Imagine smoking around the gunnery pattern at 400 Knots rolling into a 20 degree dive and pointing a 20MM cannon at something approaching you at 8 miles a minute, pulling the trigger and watching it disintegrate. Cool!
The Vulcan gatling gun on the Viper (F16) is not a new weapon, it's also on the F-18/F-15 and many others. It's cyclic fire rate is 6000 Rounds per minute, literally a squeeze on the stick trigger emits 100 rounds, The standard "practice run" on a controlled range like Avon Park is 2 passes/100 rounds planned for each pass. In combat with a full gun and when trying to kill something or someone you make longer bursts. I've seen the A-10's GAU8 30MM punch through 3 ft walls in Iraq. The Vipers 20MM is no slouch either.

The strafe targets you saw are full size round canopy parachutes tied between 2 telephone poles 30 feet apart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgXYgOaeFIE&feature=related

V/R
Smokey
RV4/HR2/RVX
F-16 (missed greatly)
 
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The strafing pits for the A-10s are also cool. Ryan, can you point out these?

Turbo, the other guys have done an awesome job of describing the pits, and learned me a thing or two in the process. Here is a link to show you exactly what they look like. These are in a few different locations out there in Avon. I bet you have no problem finding them....just watch out for the cables between the poles!
 
Turbo/Ryan

Who do you talk to for clearance into that restricted area? Miami Center? Freq?

Ryan - If i'm all put back together tomorrow, and you do stop by, assuming it isn't hot, maybe fly over there w/me in the RV and check it out?
 
carl, call miami on 127.2 in the area. it was cold all day today. found the strafing areas. made a few passes. fun stuff.

smokey. thanks for the utube links.

head NE out of SEF and you are there.

saw the start of the 12 hours of sebring today. F1 tonight.
 
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