Motivational Poster Thread (warning content)

cubeville, a horrible place to go and die...

 

another horrible drive-by, shot with a Colt....

 

Well....stopped by one anyhow...

 

First A-10 with sharks teeth was tail number 9223... Pilot was Col. Jimmy V. Adams ... in order to get their teeth they had to have 20 consecutive flights with no maintenance down time... I was a Maintenance officer with the 23rd TFW when we converted from A-7's to A-10A's... first place in the 7th Air force, First place in TAC, and took second place in the Air Force Dadellian Award competition the first year we had them... highest operational ratings in the Air force... Regardless of aircraft type...

 

I was working Range 63, Nellis AFB, when they did the big dog and pony show for the A-7 drivers.

We had several Soviet tanks set up on the lake bed, with bleachers (yes!) for the A-7 drivers so they could see what a fearsome TANK killer the A-10 would be.

The A-10 cleared in hot (loaded with DU ammo, not quite legal at the time) and the pilot let loose with the mighty 30mm Gatling gun. Exactly 3 rounds came out before the damn thing jammed. All 3 rounds went wide, BTW. The wingman, another A-10 declared an IFE and they both hauled ass back to Calif. I heard the A-7 guys refer to the A-10 a "another POS, like the M-16..." as they walked away.

Amazing what a few hundred million more $ will do to make a system workable. I have other fun OT%E stories, but witht he system due to be retired, it is meaningless. FWIW, a buddies kid is working on these today. Makes me feel old as they first flew in May, 1972. 43 years old and built with 1960s technology....

First used in combat in 1991, we lost 6 in combat, 4 pilots survived.

Fun A/C and I hate to say it, better than a SPAD.

 

[QUOTE="Fun A/C and I hate to say it, better than a SPAD.[/QUOTE]



My Father flew the A1E... Hell of a plane...

 

The A10 initially had issues with the gun due to residue it left when it was fires... unlike Vulcans we had to do a gun wash after we fired it x amount of rounds... if you didn't it could Jam... a better exhaust system, proper maintenance, and better ammo fixed the issues... kinda like the M-16...

 

And the Air Force thinks they can replace the A-10 with the F-35, yea right!

 

Lucky for the driver that it's a left hand drive...otherwise even airbags probably wouldn't have saved him/her

 

I R gon to skool and gots me de gree