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Not a bad way to spend the day.
I’m all set up for the mission. Got my Gatorade cut with water in the bottle with the long straw. The bottle sat really nice right by the mirror. Hanging on the mirror is a missionized checklist that incorporates the steps needed for operating and troubleshooting that particular day’s configuration of sensors in with normal operating items. Being good stewards of the mission equipment was one of the most important roles we fulfilled. Simply power cycling a particular camera might involve a dozen steps that had exact timing for flipping switches and such.
On the other end of whatever data link we were using for the day, was the Mission Operations Controller (MOC). This was an intelligence officer who was our link to all the other, sometimes a hundred or more, people who were performing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance with the various sensors onboard the U-2. For some missions, they’re pretty much the only person you’re going to be talking to for 8-10 hours. Often, they were also literally on the other side of the planet from us. They were a vital part of a smooth and successful mission.
Also in this shot is a rare sighting of the yaw string right by my helmet. This string that ran front to back down the center of the canopy allowed us to trim the autopilot rudder to ensure we were flying straight and not in a slip. Slipping through the air at altitude would cause uneven feeding of the fuel from the wings and lead to large imbalances over the length of a mission. One of the oldest pieces of aviation tech, still in use for a modern mission.
Check out more like this at ExtremeRoss.com
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5 days ago
A little seen side of the U-2 operation. What happens when the 25,000 pound glider returns, lands on its bicycle gear, and comes to a stop. Well it tips over of course.
Luckily the plane is designed for this. There is a titanium alloy plate under each wing tip that prevents the soft aluminum skin from contacting the runway. Normally the large ailerons on each wing gave you control authority to balance the wings until almost a stop. Eventually one side will win out and hit the ground. Now the aircraft is a giant see-saw and a group of maintainers known as the Pogo Crew will come pull the high wing down and install the pogo wheels under each wing.
Fun fact: the U-2 doesn’t have an actual fuel gauge and sensors for the tanks like a normal airplane. Balancing fuel and keeping it balanced is crucial to a good landing and keeping control of the aircraft. At altitude, you trim the autopilot to fly straight with use of a yaw string. This keeps the fuel feeding evenly from each wing. On descent, you stop around 18,000 feet and essentially get the plane right near the stall speed to sense the fuel balance (or imbalance). Much faster than that and aerodynamic forces mask any fuel imbalance. You can move fuel from one wing to another but just have to time it.
Being out of balance can cause a wing to drop suddenly on landing, possibly putting you out of control. And can make it almost impossible to level the plane with the pogo crew. Normally just taking 1 or 2 people, I’ve seen up to 15 people needed to level the wings.
Taken in the Middle East back in 2008. Chase car was a Pontiac GTO.
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1 month ago
Here’s a mystery photo for you internet sleuths. You’re cruising along in a 777 at 35,000 feet over the middle of the Pacific Ocean, far from any land, on a dark moonless night, and fly over this group of lights shining through the clouds.
I mean I’m assuming it’s a group of fishing boats but, damn, this was far away from anything. 600 miles southeast of Adak, Alaska. 900 miles northeast of Midway. And 2000 miles west of Portland. The actual coordinates for those who like particulars are N42 46.3, W171 26.6.
It was striking and I had to grab my camera. Taken with my Sony A7S3 and 24 mm f.14 GM lens.
So what do we all think this is? Squid boats, Lemuria, tuna boats, Atlantis…?
Head over to ExtremeRoss.com for lots of other cool aerial photos and videos
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2 months ago
Sometimes you gotta have a little fun when you have 17,000 pounds of force blasting out the back of your 20,000 pound glider. This is a spiral up departure to about 5,000 feet off of a touch and go.
Many people comment on the lack of space suit whenever I show these training videos. We only wore the space suit (technically Full Pressure Suit) when we’re planning on going above 45,000 feet. All other training flights were considered “Lows” and you just wore your flight suit with a torso harness to connect into the parachute, oxygen cables, and survival seat kit.
Astute observers will note that my masks hose is not connected to my regulator on my right shoulder. My personal preference was to fly with that disconnected on these pattern sorties. The oxygen system combined with this style of helmet provided a constant pressure of pure oxygen to the mask. This wasn’t so bad for just flying around but made it near impossible to instruct as you’re always speaking against the pressure. I practiced plugging the hose back in and could do it in about 2 seconds if I had to but never needed to. Again, my preference. Some did that, others didn’t.
Go to ExtremeRoss.com for more videos like this plus all my photography from above 70,000 feet.
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3 months ago
A sad day is approaching. One day in the not-too-distant future, the last Dragon Lady will make a tail-wheel first landing, taxi in, shut down, and never fly again.
As the plan stands now, the last flight of a U-2 Dragon Lady will be in the year 2026. The last students are already making their way through the training process. Several U-2s have already taken their last flight, as they’re not going to conduct the overhauls needed as they approach a certain number of hours.
Some might applaud this as a sign of progress. Maybe say something like “Well it’s old, and there’s OBVIOUSLY something better waiting, we just don’t know about it”. It’s fine if people want to live in that world but I’m a bit more pessimistic.
Most people don’t know how the Armed Services really work. The individual services, like the Air Force, provide the equipment and people to the combatant commanders, like CENTCOM, who use those assets to carry out whatever objectives need to be completed. The Air Force doesn’t fight wars, the combatant commanders do. For years, the Air Force has been trying to kill the U-2 in favor of newer, shinier toys. Each time, the 4-star combatant commanders have gone to Congress and said, “You can’t take my U-2. It’s too valuable. Not until you have something that can replace it.”
This has been codified as policy but now the Air Force has successfully lobbied to have a waiver signed and the divestment of the U-2 is underway. There have been some signs that some member of Congress aren’t totally onboard with this and things could change. Get involved with your Congressman and let them know your concerns. I do think it’s a problem if we willing give up capability with no assurance of our ability to provide reliable info to our allies in the future.
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4 months ago
Eclipse Fever Hit the US again. I did not partake in the festivities this round. I’m in 777 training for a month and had a short break so I spent it with the family instead.
Besides, I don’t think I can top checking out a total solar eclipse from the cockpit of a U-2 Dragon Lady. This was August 21st, 2017, somewhere over northern Oregon. Months, and in some cases, years had gone into planning to do that flight.
If you’ve followed me for any length of time, then you’ve probably seen the article I wrote in the Smithsonian Air and Space Magazine shortly after that flight and you’ll know that, despite the planning, things didn’t go quite as planned. I still managed some one-of-a-kind footage and got some pretty neat pictures. You can read that article, plus a little more inside information on my website: ExtremeRoss.com
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6 months ago
❓❓#whereisextreme
Ok, the last few #whereisextreme seemed to stump a lot of people. Here's one I suspect some will know right off the bat. Give location and aircraft (those that have followed this for awhile probably can guess)
Head over to ExtremeRoss.com for more
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8 months ago
Sometimes nature pulls off some interesting sites. Formed from steady directional winds and convective activity, small cumulus clouds form into perfect rows called cloud streets (or horizontal convective rolls for the meteorology nerds) . These went on for hundreds of miles. Just another reminder of what a privilege and joy it was to fly this beast for 14 years.
Find more at ExtremeRoss.com
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9 months ago
🛫 Taking off at 2010's Air Power Day, Osan Air Base, South Korea. This was a high speed climb after accelerating low to the ground. The U-2 gets hard to control the higher the indicated airspeed. This is a pull up at a little over 200 knots. Normal climbout would be between 130 and 160 knots.
There was a speed limitation with the flaps neutral so there was a switch to shift the flaps up into a negative position. Called Gust Up, this aerodynamically reduced the stress on the horizontal stabilizer that normally occurs at higher speeds. I hit this switch shortly after liftoff and then start trimming the nose down. The acceleration is so quick when at full thrust and no climb that the hydraulic trim actuator that moves the horizontal stabilizer can hardly keep up with it. Then the pull up has to be smooth to keep from over G'ing the jet.
At the time, I was the Assistant Director of Operations at the 5th Reconnaissance Squadron. I was also one of the designated demo pilots. Working at the 5th was awesome but also a crap load of work. Proud to have been 5th RS Blackcat.
#IYAABYAS #blackcats #extremerossphotography #thepilotnetwork #aviationphotography #u2dragonlady #usairforce #u2driver @airandspacemuseum #extremeross #lockheed #stratosphere #avgeek #instaviation #aviation_lovers #aviationdaily #u2spyplane @theaviationist #instaaviationphotography #aviationlovers #niceview #niceviews #planespotter @eaa @aviationweek @thepilotnetwork #u2dragonladypilot #pilot #picoftheday #pilotpics #sunsets_captures #eclipses #beautifulworld_pics1 #beautifulworld @full_disc_aviation @combat_learjet @pilotstuff
9 months ago
🔥🔥Two cans are lit and the nozzles open. It's an early morning launch from runway 33 at Beale AFB. The small afterburning flame of the T-38A was normally not visible unless it was in this kind of low light condition. Most of the T-38 pilots at Beale, which included all the active U-2 pilots stationed at Beale, plus the small group of T-38 only instructor pilots, weren't qualified to land at night since it would be an extra currency you'd have to maintain, and the T-38 never really had a mission that required night training.
Interestingly, the afterburner was generally used only for takeoff and some emergency situations like stall recovery. The pilot brings the throttle out of burner shortly after liftoff. The full afterburner uses 4 times the gas as the engine uses in just normal full power (called military, or mil power). Leaving the afterburner going would run the T-38 out of it's JP-8 fuel in about 15 minutes. The afterburner was also not all or none. The throttle has a range from full afterburner back to min burner, then you would bump it back past a small friction stop and into mil power.
Find out about the U-2, T-38, and more at ExtremeRoss.com
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10 months ago
🌍❓#WhereIsExtreme
My last WhereIsExtreme was a little hard and took some hints (it was a T-38 over Lake Chelan, Washington State by the way). I’m hoping this one might be a little easier (at least for some of my more distant followers). Name the location and aircraft (which you already know I’m sure).
Find more at ExtremeRoss.com
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10 months ago
⚡️🌩️ I’ve managed to tick off a number of bucket list aerial photo items through the years. Capturing the Northern Lights, an eclipse, different climates all over the world, etc.
My current “white whale” is to get a good lightning image from the air. As a photographer, it eats at you when you “see” an awesome sight, but can’t ever seem to capture it correctly. Add to that, you see someone else’s really cool lightning photo they got from the air on the internet and you’re like WTF. I’ve seen some phenomenal light shows but either didn’t have the equipment or know-how at the time.
One time before I got into photography, I was in a U-2 orbit in Afghanistan that had me sitting directly over a large line of thunderstorms at night. It was like standing on the world’s biggest disco floor, with flashes going off several times per second all around me. Even though I was a good 25,000 feet over the storm, it was still a little unnerving being there. And I always wished I had been able to capture that somehow.
This shot is getting there but doesn’t quite tick off the bucket list. It’s a storm I passed by in a 737 on a red-eye to Cancun. Usually lightning hunters rely on longer exposures which are not really possible in a moving airplane. And you could never be quick enough to snap the shutter when you see a flash. It’s already over. So you continuously shoot, and shoot, and shoot, and wait. And every time you do that, the lightning dies down, until the second you stop shooting, then it picks back up. The struggle is real. One day, perhaps it will all come together.
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10 months ago