Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Fighter Jet Pilots - Favorite plane?

Well, I can tell you that every fighter pilot I ever knew, their favorite was the hottest one (so far). I had the great good fortune to know an original Lockheed test pilot, of course HIS favorite was the Starfighter. Same deal for a crony of my step-dad who got as far as 104s in the Arizona ANG. My other step-dadster (the gun nut) loved the F-86, then the F-102, then the F-106. He said the Super Sabre (TAC air, to check off the Vietnam fruit salad) was quite a comedown, kind of a dangerous groundhog but better than an 0-1, which he ended up flying in the Delta.
One of the younger guys in his 106 squadron came around on another tour a couple of ranks higher in the F-15s, mo bettah. Dad was done flying by then, just green with envy, but the scoop was that flying time was getting rarer and rarer.
Later on, I learned that a customer of mine at the ski shop that I would take a run with here and there was none other than Robin Olds. I didn't figure it out until he came in one day for his "usual" and we were both wearing Air Force squadron hats. Hey, nice hat!
We did talk doctrine after that, he definitely fit the hottest was bestest mold. Not real flattering of the F-101's dutch roll and pitchup, loved the Phantom but said energy and fuel management was a constant factor at all times.
Finally, there was one of Dad's ADC commanders, who had flown Lightnings in the Pacific (minor ace) and ended up flying 106s his last flight assignment before command. The Lightning was always his sweetheart.

I was a "heavy" guy so my vote also goes to the T-38. One never forgets their first burner takeoff....

I never forget just how fortunate we were to fly jets. I did a rough calculation a while back and was astounded to learn that at any one time, the cadre of military jet jockeys comprises about 1% of 1% of the population. That's a damn tiny number.

I'll throw in my fave of all time..big,powerful not many much faster today..

Buenos dias, Rustpickers (Guess the movie). I wasn't going to post because according to Big Stick, the plane I flew (SIC the Short Bus) constituted "Thirty years of nothingness" so you can appreciate my total depression, and these threads leave me down in the dumps too, because it miss it so, but since some of you are curious:

While I never operationally flew anything with an "F" or "A" in the designation, I did qualify in some fighters and attack (light) aircraft. For example, in the Training Command I flew T-2C Buckeyes and like Pugs and others, the TA-4J, and a short stint in the F-4 before a few of us were drafted (kicking and screaming, but it was a blessing in disguise as I really enjoyed the S-3) into the S-3 Viking Community, where I spent my operational life to include 9 deployments (two combat), about 4800 total hours and almost 600 arrested landings (most of them at night). Back then during the good old days of the Cold War (before Gorbachev ruined everything), We spent many a long hours at 400'...at night (maneuvering over Russian subs) and of course there was El Dorado Canyon, where we had LOTS of fun with our A-6 Intruder and EA-6 Prowler buddies, smoking some Libyan PTGs.

I also was fortunate to have gone through the Defensive Combat Maneuvering (DCM) syllabus at Top Gun in 1987 and that is where I flew in what was the most impressive aircraft ever, the F-16N (for Navy two seat version). The performance was simply "eye watering", and back then, nothing came close to that airplane's ACM's virtues (The Tomcat A was around then and with the lousy "Jimmy Carter motors" it was at a disadvantage). But if I had to pick ONE jet, I'd go with the "Mig Master", the F-8 Crusader.

But back to my reality, while most folks think the S-3 was a slow pig,(it was, at 450kts) it was extremely maneuverable, so much so that only a Harrier (at the time) could turn inside it (in the horizontal plane). In 1987, we sent a cadre of S-3s to Top Gun in Miramar to learn DCM tactics (as I wrote above) in order to at least survive when and if we got "bounced" by MiGs.

It was always fun to show up at a DCM brief with the Fighter Pukes, go out to the Warning Area, merge and promptly get on just about any fighter's "Six" after the first pass. Of course the S-3's a total pig in the vertical, but down low, where there is no "bottom" we could at least survive.
The Viking was a fun plane to fly, and like Rocky mentioned, we too got to drop ordnance, and some even bombed and took out AAA sights, sank a couple of PTGs (with MK20 Rockeye) and even one Maverick Shot (AGM-45?) during the Gulf War and during the second Iraq war as well as Afghnistan, S-3s, in addition to the tanking mission, also did some Lazer work with the Air Wing. All in all, not bad for a "Short Bus" and all in all, not bad for what Big Stick has decreed as my "thirty years of nothingness"

Glad you mentioned the F-8, Jorge. What an astounding airplane. "The Last of the Gunfighters" Air-to-Air wasn't my cup of JP-4 but I always have to give a nod to those F-8 jocks - the very last generation of single-seat, single-engine gunfighters born over the Somme. An occupation now as extinct as my own version of forward air control.

The Great Santini

I did get two flights in an F/A-18. One was an EF-18B with VAQ-34 out of Miramar with an AST-6 Pod running an Exocet profile on a FFG and the second was an F/A-18D out of China Lake.

While the maneuverability was impressive compared to my normal EA-6B, what was truly amazing was the visibility. It felt like I was sitting on top of the airplane with 360 degree's around me. Did get the supersonic check, barely! On the China Lake hop.

Well I knew it was something like that...Hey what do you want, I'm old and I don't even remember what I had for lunch yesterday. Thanks for finding the article sir.

My best friend in life other than my wife:

Untitled by Rick Mulhern, on Flickr

Wes Taylor, Rayville, La. always told me "The F-86 Super Sabre is a fighter pilot's dream!" He had hundreds of hours flying them! His best prop bird was the P-51 he flew during WWII!

I buried him six weeks ago. He made 92!

Very cool, sir. F-86, what a jet!

Cool thread and thanks for sharing some stories guys!

The Ground Attack School I went through ALMOST used F-86s, so I came THAT close to flying them. But they decided that it would be quicker and easier to teach us with two-seaters. So they de-mothballed a couple dozen AT-33s that had been used in Korea to cross-train former prop pilots who had been involuntarily recalled to active duty for that "police action" north of the Yaloo.

Interestingly, no two of those AT-33s were alike. Every cockpit had a slightly different layout, and some had different fuel management systems. Preflights had to be longer so we could sit in there and just figure out where everything was. And we had to keep our wits about us in the air to avoid closing the wrong fuel valves or feeding fuel from tanks in the wrong order.

Only the us government would design the same aircraft with different cockpit layouts. Seems counterintuitive and dangerous

The Wing Commander kept one of those AT-33s at the SAC base I was at. Guess he used it to get in his flying hours.

When I was in high school ROTC we got to take a ride in a KC-135 and refueled AT-33's in flight. I always thought they were really neat little aircraft, and they did look the business when wearing their fangs.

Used to have a gazillion T-33's overhead in Sacramento. Mather AFB was navigation training for NATO back in the '80's before they shut it down, so there was rarely a time there wasn't a "Tweet" in the air overhead. And yeah, they're pretty loud for such a small jet.

Wow, Rocky, your comment about so few struck a nerve. Grew up in neighborhoods where orange jumpsuits were just everybody's business suit...and all your gang had those embroidered dragon patch jackets.
Ah, the things we take for granted.

During the mid seventies a lot of SAC bases had tweets assigned to the base. BUFF crews used them for pilot pro training to save on fuel. Majority of wing commanders that I knew flew either a buff or a tanker to stay current. WCs had to fly aircraft that were permanently assigned to the base, that ment at Mildenhall they flew our EC-135's. I still remember one who didn't know the meaning of "finesse".