Our second mission will have us heading back to the seaside border area for a strike against anti-aircraft units near Riqdur…
Loaded up with rocket pods, Sidewinders, and a few 250 lb. bombs…
Other assets in the area - perhaps the UN?
I also noticed that Hawker Hunters fly for both the Dhimar and Paran sides of the conflict - making positive target ID by finding the red or green star flash on the wings and tail essential…!
On our way to the target area, a flight of Hunters bounce us. I have a couple opportunities for shots, but my early model Sidewinders don’t track well through hard turns and I go 0 for 4…
I finally get close enough for a guns kill on one. My first A2A kill of the campaign!
Enemies in the mix with more lurking to the north of our course…
The second Hunter gets position on me. I’m reluctant to drop my stores because I want to press toward the target area. He fires his gun and when I spot an opportunity to escape during one maneuver I make my way toward the coast…
I’m not ashamed to admit I’m using labels in some instances. Mostly for finding ground targets that otherwise would be very difficult to find. I’m using a modded HUD.ini file that makes the label just a few pixels and is very unobtrusive…
A few puffs of AAA as I roll in…
My pair of bombs sails long. No CCIP in the F-100D - just angles, altitudes, and airspeeds…so misses are frequent…
Coming back around, keeping a nervous eye on the skies for more bandits…
This time a rocket run is more successful…
Finding another primary target, I roll in once again with my single remaining bomb and do manage a hit on this one…
Spending a lot of time in burner trying to keep my sled from hitting the ground…
A few gun runs against other AAA units…
Mission success. I glance at my fuel gauge and I actually misread it. There are two and I saw the one to the right and thought…OK, that tank is nearly empty, but I have that other tank next to it showing lots of fuel. Uh…wrong…they are both reading the SAME amount of fuel - one is FWD tank and the other is TOTAL tanks (for keeping track of external fuel if you have it I guess). As a result of my misreading the gauge in the heat of maneuvering, I don’t realize how much fuel I actually have and I keep plinking away at targets with the gun…
AAA is getting a bit more lively…
Hey…what is that light? Why is my throttle not responding? Oh no…good grief…!
Out of fuel (dumb, dumb, dumb) but with 400 knots of energy I’m pretty close to a friendly airfield on the other side of the border…
I’m down to about 180 knots as I stretch the glide to a modified dogleg to final - and the F-100 isn’t super forgiving at low speeds. I bump in the flaps which lets me make the remaining few hundred meters to the runway. The touchdown is firm…but I’m alive…!
Mission success - with a good profit to boot. In two missions I’ve gone from $10,000 to $32,436. Three A2G kills for me and my buddy from the bayou, Capt. Boudreaux has notched up three as well…!
So far so good - making progress and we haven’t lost a squadron member…
