RAF Mildenhall (Air Fete 86/87)

[WARPEE]

This is unrelated to an Air Fete, but let me take you on an actual "ground emergency", involving a KC-135 "Stratotanker" with a hot number 3 engine...We are responding and I'm the "on-scene-commander"...Ive scribbled some notes on the windscreen with my grease pencil...Apparently the wind is "calm"...Lets hope I am!

[miked62]

Nice shots, WARPEE...I wish I could've appreciated some of the classic British jets more back then...I love the Hunter now, but didn't get a photo of it in '86 or '87.   It's nice to see your perspective of an emergency.  You might recall  when a RC-135 ran off the runway at Mildy in early 1987, during the evening (RCR was erroneous and the pilot didn't slow down in time)...I was on that flight.  I flew on the RC-135V/W models and I have read most of "By Any Means Necessary".  A better book related to the type of missions I flew is "The Price of Vigilance" by Larry Tart.

[WARPEE]

Mike, I remember that overrun incident...The A/C was hopping mad...It wasnt the first in-flight-emergency I ever covered with your aircraft type...Nature of the beast with that bird, I guess...

I thought a lot of those old 60s models aircraft were ugly...Now that everything is gray/gray/GRAY, I love going back and looking at those birds...That colorful F-4C Phantom came from the MI ANG...Rumor has it she broke her wing spar at an estimated 10 Gs! She became a battle damage repair bird...I guess the pilot/WSO took a hop back to the states...Now even the guard has got gray/gray/gray birds now...Hey! were you around when we gave Khaddaffi his black eye (4-86)? I wish I had taken pictures of the mass launch of tankers...Bad form to block a taxiway with a 35MM camera in your hand! Now I wish I had pictures of that fine piece of history!

By the way...Go into youtube and google "Vintage Pair Crash"...Someone put up the ITN news report of the aircrash that happened in 1986...Amazing whats on the internet...Got any more Air Fete pics?

[miked62]

I do remember the Libyan strike...particularly the mass of KC-10's that gathered the weekend before, hearing the F-111's flying over my flat the night before (on their way southwest) and seeing one flying over Mildenhall on final to Lakenheath the morning after, empty bomb racks.   I also remember the Vintage Pair crash (I recall at the time thinking it was some type of parachute demonstration, only to realize what had happened), and I just recently saw the video on YouTube.  I do have some more Air Fete piccies...nothing too dramatic (unless I can find that missing set)...I'll post some next week.

[WARPEE]

That would be cool...Even if I just see them...Cant tell if anyone else is interested in this thread, but us...I guess it means more if you worked there...

Did they ever put an RC-135 on static display? I cant understand why I didnt take a good photo of that bird, given I already knew it's mission...I guess I wasnt interested, after taking several pics of the SR-71 and TR-1/U-2R...I even got pics of those RC-12s they used in West Germany...I sometimes wonder if Sculthorphe has a B-45 gate guard laying around...That must have been BALLSY, just flying deep into Russia, with a hundred MiGs chasing your ass!

[mhoupt]

That would be cool...Even if I just see them...Cant tell if anyone else is interested in this thread, but us...I guess it means more if you worked there...

I am constantly watching this thread. I call it the "old home thread"

Mark Houpt
Mildenhall 83-86

[WARPEE]

Well, this is a lousy picture...Consider it taken by a rank amateur, with only 2 hours of sleep, with a fixed lens 35MM, and just had the crap scared outta me (as thousands of others at Air Fete), when the SR-71 had an "assymetrical unstart" flying over the crowd...Hence the fuzzy outline...

[Gary West]

Beautiful RAF "Dominie" VIP transport jet
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l529/D6360/AIR%20FETE%20AIRCRAFT/TOMMILPHOTO003.jpg

Beautiful yes but not a VIP a/c (that was the HS125 version) - the Dominie was (until withdrawn from service only 2 weks ago) a Navigation trainer.  Great pics 

[WARPEE]

Thanks Gary, I was told that an Air Marshal(?) flew here in that...Trainer, huh? Still a pretty little bird, to me...Reminds me of that movie with Leslie Anne Down, where they fly to Netherlands to steal some diamonds...

[miked62]

Warpee...at least while I was at Mildenhall, the RC's were always kept off the airshow tarmac.  Nowadays, I can walk all around and touch one at the Offutt AFB Air Show every year (I'm in Omaha).  Your SR photo during it's infamous afterburner misfire is nice...I have a similar one, in that set of missing photos (still burns me up...I'll find 'em someday!).

[miked62]

Here are the last bit of usable photos from Air Fete '86...I apologize for the poor SR-71 photo - it had some smudge on it that won't come off.

[WARPEE]

How about a "Myriad of Mirages" from Air Fete 1987? Mirage 2000 and trainer, next to a couple of Tornado F3s (?)...That might be Taxiway 5 on the south side, near the "Bravo ramp"..."2 LO" was a performer, so was parked in a secure containment area...

[WARPEE]

A couple of our guys were calling the Tornados "half scale F-111s", which a couple of RAF crewmen took offense to...I tried to mollify the situation with a couple of Miller Lights...At least nobody got in a fight!...Heres a Tornado GR-1A parked on Taxiway 3, from XV Air Force (AKA "RAF Germany")...