BUFF formation takeoff

Mrtibs

Mrtibs

Filing Flight Plan
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Tibs
3-ship BUFF formation takeoff.
I know it's not the Thunderbirds...it's better!:)

"Keep sending them up!"
 
It is interesting how the 3-ship seems to be the standard BUFF formation. Not a 2 ship or 4 ship......there must be a reason
 
35 AoA said:
It is interesting how the 3-ship seems to be the standard BUFF formation. Not a 2 ship or 4 ship......there must be a reason
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Heritage. It’s the Combat Box from WWII. Good enough for B-17s….

Ron Wanttaja
 
Mrtibs said:
3-ship BUFF formation takeoff.
I know it's not the Thunderbirds...it's better!:)

"Keep sending them up!"
Click to expand...

That was a “cell” formation takeoff, usually one minute interval spacing.

We didn’t always fly 3 ship; I’ve flown 2 ship and 4 ship (more rare).
Station-keeping accomplished using the lead aircraft FCS and following aircraft BNS/Radar.

A “formation takeoff” in the B-52 was actually a called a MITO, or minimum interval takeoff. Spacing for similar aircraft B-52G/B52-G was 12 seconds, as I recall. 30 second spacing for dissimilar aircraft (B-52/KC-135)

It was far more exciting when a Base launched the Fleet, and the fleet were all A model tankers and D/G model bombers. Water injection made for incredible amounts of black exhaust. So you got stop-to-stop yoke inputs in the low visibility mode on takeoff.
 
SAC. Strategic thermonuclear warfare toe-to-toe with the Russkies.


When men were men.


And sheep were nervous.
 
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My neighbor was on the B-52 design team at Boeing back in the '50s. I'd have never known it if his wife didn't tell me. But once you got him to talking it was evident how proud he was of that plane and his team.

One day I went over to his house on his 86th birthday. He was on his second story roof with a leaf blower cleaning his gutters. Sadly, he took his own life about 3 years later when his bone cancer became too much for him to bear.
 
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35 AoA said:
It is interesting how the 3-ship seems to be the standard BUFF formation. Not a 2 ship or 4 ship......there must be a reason
Click to expand...
I'd say, unlike the tactical guys (you all), the planes in a heavy formation had more to do with the mission vs. anything else. I can't speak for the bomber guys (@hindsight2020 ?) but in tankers it was more about "how much gas do we need to offload and how many tankers is that going to take?" I've been in anywhere from 2- to 6-ships all based on mission requirements.

And as I'm sure you're aware, we always planned the route to hit the maximum amount of clouds during AR as we could.
 
Sluggo63 said:
And as I'm sure you're aware, we always planned the route to hit the maximum amount of clouds during AR as we could.
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and CAT, don’t forget the CAT. who knew that tankers could detect CAT?
 
Bob Noel said:
and CAT, don’t forget the CAT. who knew that tankers could detect CAT?
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We can't. That's just what we told the receivers. This was actually more like it:

20938.jpg
 
Love the BUFF. If I remember correctly the 52 used spoilers instead of ailerons. Noticed that wings level takeoffs were not the norm in the video. I am assuming there was nothing to control roll till there was lift to kill with the spoilers. Educate me!!!

I used to fly from Eielson every April on the 135, into Grissom, which was a couple hours from home.
 
tmyers said:
Love the BUFF. If I remember correctly the 52 used spoilers instead of ailerons. Noticed that wings level takeoffs were not the norm in the video. I am assuming there was nothing to control roll till there was lift to kill with the spoilers. Educate me!!!

I used to fly from Eielson every April on the 135, into Grissom, which was a couple hours from home.
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D models had ailerons. G & H models had flight spoilers, no ailerons. Initially, in a turn, there was a slight nose up moment as a result.
 
orca64 said:
D models had ailerons. G & H models had flight spoilers, no ailerons. Initially, in a turn, there was a slight nose up moment as a result.
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That's really interesting. I'd always considered the possibility of roll reversal with small spoiler deflections but never thought of nose-up. Makes sense with such a long swept wing.

Nauga,
and a little Cm/delta S
 
orca64 said:
A “formation takeoff” in the B-52 was actually a called a MITO, or minimum interval takeoff. Spacing for similar aircraft B-52G/B52-G was 12 seconds, as I recall.
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Always like the way this was depicted in "A Gathering of Eagles."

Skip to about 1:20 in this clip.
Love the way the B-52s emerge from the smoke left by the previous one...

Ron Wanttaja
 
Sluggo63 said:
I can't speak for the bomber guys (@hindsight2020 ?)
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...neither can I, my preferred pronouns these days are he/him/tactrainer-guy. In the words of Vince Boudreau: If a man builds a thousand bridges....[redacted NSFW] :eek:

fwiw, Tumon Bay is the closest any buff crew will ever get to a MEZ these days. As such, you could do that mission set with a 757 in business interior config and SELCAL, two Growler pods, get rid of Larry, Curly and Moe, and you'd be ahead.

Now get off my lawn, I got loops to music I gotta get to this afternoon. Some of us gotta "work" for a livin' ;)

SereneDaringHogget-max-1mb.gif
 
"Hey guys, we need to blow off the runway so they can touch up the paint strips. Any volunteers?"
 
hindsight2020 said:
...neither can I, my preferred pronouns these days are he/him/tactrainer-guy. In the words of Vince Boudreau: If a man builds a thousand bridges....[redacted NSFW] :eek:

fwiw, Tumon Bay is the closest any buff crew will ever get to a MEZ these days. As such, you could do that mission set with a 757 in business interior config and SELCAL, two Growler pods, get rid of Larry, Curly and Moe, and you'd be ahead.

Now get off my lawn, I got loops to music I gotta get to this afternoon. Some of us gotta "work" for a livin' ;)

SereneDaringHogget-max-1mb.gif
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I’ve snorkeled in Tumon bay. And Tamuning bay. And Talofofo falls.

What the hell is a MEZ?
 
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Sluggo63 said:
The kinetic guys can talk better about it, but I believe a F(ighter)EZ-MEZ and a threat ring are different things.
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Threat ring is a colloquial term to describe a single S/A site, or more specifically the radius around the site that corresponds to f-pole range....similar to what we would now call a "WEZ" or weapon engagement zone (though semantically, that would refer to a max engagement range, rather than f-pole). MEZ is generally an area of multiple sites, much like a FEZ is a geographic area where multiple fighters are working in concert for air defense. If that makes any sense. Threat ring still is used though, but we just have a lot of newer fancy acronyms to throw around now :) That's about the best unclass description I can think of
 
Sluggo63 said:
Lol.

Just wait until you hear about our "always turning directly at the sun" trick.
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One time as a fairly junior guy, after a particularly frustrating few attempts at plugging the -135 basket, I asked the boom to "just hold it steady".....it seemed as if we were getting in a PIO with him trying to help me out, etc. I quickly learned that when they aren't trying to help, it is a whole hell of a lot worse. Never asked that again :)
 
Another formation takeoff plus formation up initial! The BUFF always has the smoke on but enjoy it while you can new engines are on the way!


"Keep sending them up!"
 
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