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		| Barry Hancock 
 
 
 Joined: 22 Feb 2006
 Posts: 53
 Location: Chino, CA
 
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				|  Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 8:57 pm    Post subject: Who needs ACM?? |   |  
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				| When you have Red Thunder???
 Guys, this past weekend was the most fun I've ever had in an airplane,
 by far, and we never exceeded 3 G's!
 
 Friday was Tactical Formation that culminated in Fluid Four and Wall
 4-ship formations that were well executed.
 
 Saturday we ran our Air War Sim scenario with 4 strike elements for our
 "gorilla" package...ABCCC running real time ("Curly flight is IP
 inbound") and simulated comms  ("Eagle One Two is hit!  I'm loosing oil
 pressure!")....and a high speed and difficult to see Red Air asset
 testing each elements lookout doctrine ("Jackal One Two is dead!" as we
 maneuvered into the flights deep six undetected and remained there long
 enough to get a good tone
  ). 
 Then came Sunday.  After a serendipitous event where Mo, an active duty
 F/A-18 pilot out of Miramar stood up during the Saturday debrief and
 said, "I'm a qualified ground Forward Air Controller...if you guys want
 to run a Close Air Support mission, I'm game.  Whaddaya need?"  Are you
 kidding me???  2 hours later we were in our beautiful hotel meeting
 room with Mo giving a real CAS brief, complete with satellite photo
 recon, for an 0900 launch Sunday Morning...
 
 The ordinance of choice was the Mk 4.4 FBU (Flour Bomb Unit - corn
 flour is preferable) "Bread Maker".  The combination of pure ballistics
 
  -, and devastating but easily directed frag pattern make it perfect for "troops in contact".....or was it that Food 4 Less was running a
 $.98/bag special?  Either way, the results were spectacular!
 
 Below is the debrief from Mo...this guy flies Hornets for a living
 (again...after a ground tour as a FAC...gotta love the Marines!)...if
 this doesn't reflect the "good to go" attitude, nothing does.
 
 Here's the debrief, I'll put the photos up on photo share:
 
 Desert Thunder III will be this November, if you have any interest in
 the tactical environment, you need to be there....all the fun of ACM
 (probably much more for most folks), without the G's.
 
 Oh, I do have one objection to the below....sim ordinance my arse!
 (the baker stole our bombs, we were 20 mike-mike only)  I clearly saw
 secondaries on both the truck and the water tower....not to mention
 their were new flowers already sprouting up around the tower during our
 photo passes....
   Barry
 
 Barry Hancock
 Western Regional Coordinator
 RedStar Pilots Association
 (949) 300-5510
 www.flyredstar.org
 "Communism - Lousy Politics, Great Airplanes"
 Desert Thunder II - Close Air Support results:
 
 
 Overall, everyone did an awesome job.  Great fun, even on the ground
 side!  Nice job by all players listening up, not comm-jamming each
 other when it was busy, and being where the FAC asked you to be when he
 asked you to be there.  I'll look to provide more details on CAS and on
 your specific flight if you ask me to.
 
 But, on to the highlights -
 
 Road Recce - Dago Flight did a super job of finding the two items we
 were looking for - cars parked along the road and dark spots, round in
 shape and half the road or wider.  These things could signal danger,
 and Dago flight found the set of cars parked on the north side of the
 road, east end of the lake, and accurately described them.  Also, there
 was a dark oil spot that covered the south lane, ride at the middle of
 the lake.  Dago's comm was awesome and he made it very apparent that he
 had seen exactly what we were looking for, giving good reference points
 when relaying the information to the FAC.  Nice work!  See attached pic
 for where I remember the two items to be - we were in a hurry and I did
 not get GPS coords as we drove past, so feel free to correct my
 placement of the icons, but your description jived with what I saw as I
 drove past...
 
 Close Air Support - Everyone wins in regards to the learning curve for
 CAS - all players did a nice job of adhering to final attack headings
 and responding to FAC's calls.  On check-in, everyone found the FAC
 quickly and got eyes into the target area quickly.  Curly flight worked
 very efficiently, getting through the most number of targets in a very
 brief amount of time.  Unfortunately, Curly was sim ordnance only, so
 no effects on target could be determined.
 
 Best Bombs - Condor flight wins both the best bomb award, with a hit at
 25 meters, and best CEP with an average at about 33 meters.  Great
 shootin'!  See attached photo for plots of hits.  Buzzard was right in
 there, with the first bomb falling short - the second was a nice
 correction, but still a bit short of the target at 35 meters, but
 Buzzard had the azimuth nailed - both looked to be right at the
 target.  Great work, really, considering nobody had any idea how those
 things would fall!  Condor got a great bracket in, again, see attached
 photo.
 
 Hope you guys had fun, we surely did and looking forward to doing it
 again sometime soon!
 
 
 Fly safe, Mo
 
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 _________________
 Barry Hancock
 Worldwide Warbirds, Inc.
 www.worldwidewarbirds.com
 www.cj6.com
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		| ByronMFox(at)aol.com Guest
 
 
 
 
 
 
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				|  Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 2:04 am    Post subject: Who needs ACM?? |   |  
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				| In a message dated 3/24/2006 8:59:25 PM Pacific Standard Time, barry(at)flyredstar.org writes:
  	  | Quote: |  	  | Desert Thunder III will be this November, if you have any interest in the tactical environment, you need to be there...all the fun of ACM
 (probably much more for most folks), without the G's.
 | 
 Barry, have you set the November date as yet? I want to reserve that November weekend as soon as possible so there's no chance of anybody in my household interfering with it.
 
 I missed Sunday's Close Air Support mission finale because I thought I'd better head home sooner than later. DUMB IDEA! I missed the icing on the weekend's already superb cake. I'll not make that mistake again.  Thanks again for a great job. ...Blitz (Rhino 12 and proud lead of Saturday's high scoring a strike element thanks to my wizzo Dago and hawk-eyed wingman.)
 
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		| Barry Hancock 
 
 
 Joined: 22 Feb 2006
 Posts: 53
 Location: Chino, CA
 
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				|  Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 10:09 pm    Post subject: Re: Who needs ACM?? |   |  
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				| Blitz,
 I hesitate to agree that your idea was dumb to leave early, but yes, you missed a whale of a great time and a very cool exercise.  We will have more "troops in contact/calls for fire" in the fall event....very reminiscent of current day operations v. Al Queda in Afghansitan.  You willl be shot at (signal mirrors simulating AAA, model rockets simulating should fired SAM's, etc.), harrassed (those pesky fanatics have found a few civil air assets and armed them with rear quarter missles!), and motivated to execute properly (all "dead" aircraft are required to fly a straight in approach on recovery....very humiliating!
  ). 
 November date has not been set, but we're working on it!
 
 Cheers,
 
 Barry
 
 Desert Thunder III Staff Coordinator
 
 
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 _________________
 Barry Hancock
 Worldwide Warbirds, Inc.
 www.worldwidewarbirds.com
 www.cj6.com
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		| viperdoc(at)mindspring.co Guest
 
 
 
 
 
 
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				|  Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 7:44 am    Post subject: Who needs ACM?? |   |  
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				| Barry,
Figured you could get away with Roman candles for Triple A and Morters (
 the colorfull airburst types) for higher levels. Got to be careful with
 that pesky FAA ruling now a federal law about firing things at civilian
 aircraft flying overhead. Lasers are a definate no no. High beam
 flashlights will get you 5 to 10. Just ask this bozo that lived off the end
 of 10 at MGM. Seems he did not like our Vipers turning base to final over
 his delapedated tin barn and farmhouse. So he would repeatedly shine a high
 beam search light up at us when were night flying. Along with making
 multiple complaints about out jet noise! The final straw came when he
 combined a laser (the type you can get in a hardware store) with Roman
 candles one night! That got him a visit from the FBI and a court date. He
 is now in the federal pin entertaining Bubba!
 Just be careful with shining or shooting things at civilian aircraft and
 yes we are civilian aircraft. Even if we are all consenting adults in these
 exercises. The rule applies for both military and civilian aircraft in
 peacetime. The punishment may not neccessarily fit the crime in this case
 but the law is on the books and they will apply it with impunity if caught.
 I know you still have wide open spaces out there. We are not so lucky down
 here in LA. There are questioning eyeballs everwhere. Some of these Red
 necks still are trying to figure out why there is a Red Star painted on
 some of these aircraft!
 Doc
 Doc
 
  	  | Quote: |  	  | [Original Message] From: barry <barry(at)flyredstar.org>
 To: <yak-list(at)matronics.com>
 Date: 3/26/2006 12:18:12 AM
 Subject: Re: Who needs ACM??
 
 
 
 Blitz,
 
 I hesitate to agree that your idea was dumb to leave early, but yes, you
 missed a whale of a great time and a very cool exercise.  We will have more
 | 
 "troops in contact/calls for fire" in the fall event....very reminiscent of
 current day operations v. Al Queda in Afghansitan.  You willl be shot at
 (signal mirrors simulating AAA, model rockets simulating should fired
 SAM's, etc.), harrassed (those pesky fanatics have found a few civil air
 assets and armed them with rear quarter missles!), and motivated to execute
 properly (all "dead" aircraft are required to fly a straight in approach on
 recovery....very humiliating!
  ). 
 
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