Rolled into Hollo Pointe with @Wes for some F-14 practice, mostly in getting some gas, so I took a few shots.
This little… Guy stole my spot! I was going to play around with getting gas from the boom when the tanker tells me chicks in tow. I’m wondering if Wes might’ve still been on his frequency so I ask him to cancel but he wasn’t in the queue. Turns out these F-16s were! I look behind me to see my butt full of Falcon face so quickly swerve away to the left to clear out, just in time for this guy to get his gas. USAF and their vanity! He gets done and I thought I could move in; nope! His wingman comes in. I’m down to 8800lbs by this point so opt to just join with Wes rather than cross the streams.
… Life wasn’t being kind to Wes. A constant fight of “return pre-contact” and “ready pre-contact” assumed as he had difficulty linking up. I hopped to the starboard side and got about 13,000lbs in one go. Seems like it might be easier to get gas from the starboard on the 135.
Connected! Before he shortly lost it again.
Miss! Too high!
Got it!
And success! It’s fair to note just before this I connected again for an additional 1,000lbs but took a couple tries as well to top off.
Other highlights, to which I didn’t get screenshots:
- First runway landing! Smooth for me, went very well. Wes damaged a wheel but didn’t notice til he took off again.
- First ground attack! I had floating Mk84s on the centerline since apparently picking AIM-7Ms for the centerline causes a glitch where the pallets won’t come back. Gave up trying to fix that and just went forth with my floating bomb racks. Very accurate CCIP!
- I lost connection several times and wasn’t willing to go through the INS again, so hopped into a MiG-29C for some dissimilar training. Wes had a hard time picking me up unless I was flying toward him, not sure if the small size of the Fulcrum was behind that. We tested with the 4xAIM-54 loadout to see how well it did in BFM and… Let’s just say if you intend to dogfight, leave the Phoenixes at home – or use them prior! The Fulcrum’s HMD meant that I had several simulated kills against him past the merge and I had no problems keeping up with him in maneuvering or acceleration. I think it would have been slightly different if he had been lighter, but at the end of the day the Turkey has to remember that the Fulcrum has everything but speed and endurance over it.
- Remember our USAF Falcon friends from earlier? Total Blue Falcons. They apparently decided to come after me after we were trying an acceleration test and I broke off and put out chaff upon missile warning. How does this make them Blue Falcons? They shot down Wes! Unbelievable. Seems their AIM-120s lost me when I hit their notch and acquired Wes’s big, honking huge Turkey instead. Boom! I shot both their Blue Falcon butts down with Adders for that – after dodging their AMRAAMs.
All in all, a good learning session for the Turkey. Also, my RIO is now named Chester and Wes’ RIO is named Buster. They’re related to Jester, in an inbred cousin sort of way.
Also, the official bird of our Blue Falcons:
