Saw a marine goshawk today. I Really like them. Any good stories related to this plane?
More like its father than cousin.... maybe? Didn't it precede the G-hawk by 15 years or so... design modified by US for Navy/Marines?
Fly fishing in the San Juan Valley in Colorado on a meadow stream when two T-45s went by at low level. I waved and the rear aircraft rocked his wings at me. Airspeed not too fast, since they were a long ways from anywhere at that point and probably trying not to eat up all their JP8. Pretty noisy at that altitude (~200' AGL), but nothing like an F-111 or F-4. Did not bother the trout.
or an A-6, which I've been under on low level routes through central WA. Anything from the turbojet era is an eardrum buster.
Here is my current project. It's a little bigger Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login They really aren't a big machine. This was my girl parked next to some bigger boys...
SFO pattern low key at MOD Boscombe...bump for the Hawk thread... Image Unavailable, Please Login SFO
My partner on the AvMed Flt and I flew these solo about half the time. We had a sister ship XX327 as well. For a while, while we were flight testing the Anti-G kit amd Helmet-Mounted displays for Typhoon, F-22, and F-35, we were flying both jets twice a day solo for weeks on end running every profile from 9G High Aspect BFM to some really long low-levels into Scotland for SAPs. We couldn't take back seat meat with us on Air-to-Air hops, as they didn't have the 9G kit we had. But for Surface Attack Profiles, we'd let other guys from Fast Jet Test Squadron have a ride, do some pattern work at the end, or fly some legs enroute to the IP. Was a great time to be there...we did dissimilar air-to-air all the time...Alpha Jets, Jags, Harriers, and Tornados were all in our one squadron. We would run up to Warton to hit Typhoons as they hadn't been deployed elswhere when I was at Boscombe.
The only other USAF guy that ever got to fly with me was a USAF TP on the Heavy Aircraft Test Squadron as the HATS guys could get hours in the ETPS hawk when it wasn't grounded. Since I was cleared to instruct from the pit, I'd occasionally go find Geno and put him up front. He loved it as it was a chance to get out of Hercs or Nimrods or whatever big ugly thing they were flying at the time. Being in a RAF test squadron was an interesting evocation of having a broad latitude to adhere to strict protocols.
Boscombe Down has always been a fun place to fly, even back in WW-II where their mission was similar. A lot like Edwards, except with more clouds and rain and no 100 F days. Funny thing is with over 2000 hours of fighter time (F-111, F-4, RF-4, F-15, F-16), I have never flown in a jet trainer. They were still using T-29Cs and Ds when I went through the nav and EWO schools. Those used the same engines my father's P-47s had.
Sorry you missed out. As great as the T-38 Talon is, the BAe Hawk is better. The single engine aspect really makes the Hawk a great discriminator when sorting out the haves and have nots among students. The Talon is great at going straight and fast but it sucks as a fighter lead in trainer. The Hawk does it all very well. You would have loved either, though. They are both more fun per pound than any fighter except the Viper or Rafale, although I suspect the Hornet and Gripen would be good fun as well. Typhoon was more like an Eagle than an F-16.
