Stories from the Boneyard

Think I saw an F-100 there for a second...
 
Thanks for posting. Amazing stories go with those aircraft.
 
Very cool. On the one hand, it's neat to have all that history preserved in the desert. On the other, it's so sad to think that most of those old war horses will never serve again. Of course they are obsolete in today's world, but it's still sad.
 
I've been here on and off since 1992 and I've never taken that tour. Maybe someday.
 
MassPilot said:
Did you ever break engine limits or anything on those flights, just to see what they could do? ;)
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Nope. Those jets have been abused enough over the years - I wanted them all to go out in style. It was my honor to be the last to fly them, didn't want to have them going out busting any rules.
 
EvilEagle said:
Nope. Those jets have been abused enough over the years - I wanted them all to go out in style. It was my honor to be the last to fly them, didn't want to have them going out busting any rules.
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I was just remembering a story of an SR71 that was flying across the Atlantic on it's way to a museum. They exceeded the limits to set a speed record. Normally that would have caused the need for a bunch of maintenance before the next flight, but there wasn't going to be another flight.
 
When we fly Eagles to the boneyard they always are configured with three external tanks. Each one holds 4000# of fuel (670 gallons or so). They are very draggy so there's no speed records to be set in that configuration. It's also pretty unforgiving when you jack the nose around aggressively with all that stuff hanging.

There aren't any limits on our engines as far as power settings go so you can run them at mil or max on any given sortie for as long as you want (gas on board and supersonic restrictions might preclude some things). I honestly can't think of anything to do in an F15 on a cross country flight that I either haven't done or want to do (other than illlegal stuff that would ruin my future in aviation).

I've had a very blessed career, flying to the boneyard was always more of a reflective time for me. Thinking about how one day we all have our final flight whether we want to or not. I know some of those birds I flew out there weren't done by a long shot but they were retired anyway. Got me hoping that doesn't happen to me but to enjoy what I can until that final flight day comes.
 
I had left my first tour squadron before they started sending jets to the boneyard, but according to some of my bros who did make the flights, they claimed it was straight in's only (vs the overhead) from ATC.......purportedly a measure to prevent guys from recreating the triple nickel on a jet's last flight. Any truth to this?
 
We flew over the boneyard and took a tour a few days later in 2011... We liked it a lot. Sights are sometimes sad though.
 
35 AoA said:
I had left my first tour squadron before they started sending jets to the boneyard, but according to some of my bros who did make the flights, they claimed it was straight in's only (vs the overhead) from ATC.......purportedly a measure to prevent guys from recreating the triple nickel on a jet's last flight. Any truth to this?
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Nope, I always came up initial.
 
EvilEagle said:
Nope. Those jets have been abused enough over the years - I wanted them all to go out in style. It was my honor to be the last to fly them, didn't want to have them going out busting any rules.
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Glad to see the Professional approach to flying here instead of the usual weekend warrior mentality that regulations are more like guidelines. Too bad more don't have this approach to flying.
 
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