I have to get the hell out of here for a while and do something more relaxing like start my F18E Super Hornet using external Power unit and FPU unit sitting on the deck of the Nimitz some 90 miles NW of Key West. Once I have all systems checked out and fully operational. Taxi to catapult number one (the one closest to the starboard bow. Get permission to do a cat launch and then do some flying, perhaps air refueling. Then eventually fly the official NATOPS landing flying pattern around the carrier, drop the hook, full flaps, maintain permitted altitude and speed, and land the beast, aiming for a wire trip on the first wire.
Yeah know. Something a lot less stressing then keeping up on the FR boards on this current failed illegal weapon transfer operation. :)
I'm still alive. Caught the first wire. Not bad for a night carrier landing. Call the ball. Little fast, slight less then recommended angle of attack during the last half mile glide path. But made it in once more. Correction required:
NATOPSNAVTOPS.
This is the beast I fly often doing carrier ops within Microsoft Flight Simulator, in case anyone may wonder what I am raving about.
VRS Superbug for FSX.
And soon to be purchasable
VRS TACPACK.
The most detailed and accurate F18 Hornet available for any flight simulator on the world's market. One must fly this one carefully or crash. Cockpit controls are 98% functionally accurate as in real aircraft. Special built in flight dynamics and weapon system and radar etc., make it like flying the real thing.
Carrier OPS are a real rush for me most of the time. One little mistake and one had better bolter or crash on the deck or into the sea. And with any cross winds and air disturbances, air refueling taint no easy task.
I realize I digress from the issue being discussed, but I can take off from say the NATO US Airbase located at Sigonella, Sicily, loaded with appropriate JDAM,Sidewinder, and AIM-120 air to air missiles, and once at choosen altitude and autopilot set for flight to say Benghazi, turn on the flight computer display in one of the main left or right Display units and monitor how long I can fly with given fuel supply, at given speeds and altitude with given weather conditions, barometric readings, temperatures, etc..
One thing I did not mention in my original comments as to the flight time from that base for instance is that I would have been flying on fumes for the return trip, IF there where no air refueling tanker in the south central MED to re fuel at. And for the most part the same scenario would hold true for F16's that are stationed at that base.
We had no carrier in the Med at the time. So obviously using F16 are a mute point.
C-130U gun ships that could have been flown in with a much longer flight range of course but would have taken approx. 1.5 hours or more to target would have been fully within our military's immediate able aircraft to had made a huge change, based on the long time frame of the over all attack we now understand to be most accurate.
I'll leave it go at that. Just wanted to jot down a few notes as to air assets that could have been made available from the north. Not even going into the air assets that might have been flown in much quicker from some African bases.
I don't mean to sub track from our united cries that so much more could have been done to preserve the lives of those that went under that day in September in Benghazi.