The Ride

Every great now and then, a crew chief would get offered an "incentive ride" in an F-111. Federhart called me into his office one morning and asked me if I'd like to take one. He told me when the next one would be available, but my airplane would be in the Phase Docks that week. "Well, you still get a ride in whichever aircraft they put in that slot."

"No thanks, I'll just wait until my OWN airplane is available."

Less than a month later, OPS was going to provide another pilot and slot time for somebody in Blue Section. Federhart called me in again and offered a ride, but once again, the ride was to be in another tail number, and I told him I'd love to go, but not unless I could fly in my own airplane.

"Sgt Bradbury" he said......."They don't just GIVE away rides everyday. There's a hundred guys on this flightline who will never get this same opportunity, and you've turned it down TWICE now for the same reason! Why does it have to be YOUR airplane? Why is that so vital?"

I leaned a bit forward and replied......"Because THAT way, I'll know who the last guy was who WORKED on it!"

He was taken back a little by my comment, and asked, "Don't you trust your brother crew chiefs out here?"

"Sure I do.........but if I'M gonna ride through the mountain passes at high speed, I'd rather trust ME!" Captain Parker was sitting at his desk next to Federhart's, and he looked up from what he was doing and said........"Makes sense to ME!" I'll get it set up for ya Brad'"

"Thank you, sir!"

Now in truth, I DIDN'T exactly trust my "brother crew chiefs." They were all hard workers, and did their jobs well (Blue was outflying everyone else on virtually a monthly basis), but many of them allowed themselves to be intimidated by Production Supers out there when they were trying to squeeze out a few extra sorties. A small crack in a wing slat might be "looked at again after flight"........after that "one more sortie" got posted on the stats board, and the Pro-Super would look good at the next morning's "stand-up meeting."

"Touch-up paint" to cover something that really should be fixed before it taxies out..........wiping down hydraulic leaks that are oozing BEYOND limitations. I never played that game.......here, Lakenheath or anywhere else. Two lives were at stake everytime you strapped them in.

As there is a difference between a "Chief" and an "E-9"-----------there is also a difference between a CREW CHIEF, and a "431" with his name stencilled on the side of the airplane.

My unwillingness to comprimise, caused a certain degree of heartburn with the "glamour boys" in the "Tiger-2" trucks over the years, but I couldn't have cared less. I'd been on the Aardvark long enough to know what discrepancies you could safely fly with, and what you COULDN'T/(or shouldn't). And if you let yourself get pressured/intimidated by some Pro-Super with all those stripes on his arms........turn the other cheek and PENCIL-WHIP something...........and something happens to that airplane...............guess who they've got in front of the court-martial board?--------------the CREW CHIEF----the very guy who signed his name to the PREFLIGHT.

Oh yeah, I'd been "round 'n' round" with a couple of them out there, but "074" had also received six "EXCELLENT" evals in a row, by the nit-pickers of Q.A........Captain Parker knew THAT too, and backed me to the hilt. He said he would make SURE that MY ride would be in MY aircraft. And he did.

Lt. Col. Phis Barrios was a fighter pilot's FIGHTER PILOT. He had nearly 2700 hours in the F-4 Phantom (including a MIG-21 kill over Vietnam). He had nearly 3,000 hours in the F-111. When he was a Captain, I had personally strapped him into my "F" model at Lakenheath many, many times. When HE saw the "incentive ride" note, he called Parker and told him that HE would be the pilot "when Bradbury goes up."

On the 28th of June, 1985, we did the "walk-around" together. I'd already pre-flighted it 6 hours earlier, and as we came up to the left nosegear door, he pointed to my name on the door, laughed and said "HEY--you think we ought to TRUST this guy??"

"Oh, I think we'll probably make it back, sir!" We both had a good chuckle and strapped in. One of my partners, Dan Lowry (Crew Chief of tail # 108) would launch us out, go to lunch, then recover us when we got back, and he'd be through for the day. After Debrief, and getting out of my flightsuit, I would go back out there and do the Post-flight inspection).

I also took my 35mm camera with me on this trip. As we taxied out and headed for the west end of the runway, I felt really good about this flight. I knew the "Crew Chief" pretty well! I knew every INCH of "074" and its maintenance record, and I knew that NOTHING on THIS plane had been comprimised or "pencil-whipped."

And the PILOT.............man, if I could have picked him myself..........THIS is the guy it would have been! It was a clear summer morning, our route would take us nearly all the way to the Oregon coast, then down into Utah, and finally across Saylor Creek range. 2 hours and 18 minutes from takeoff to touch-down.

We took the runway, "ran 'em up" a couple of times, and "Col. "B" says "READY?"

"Yes Sir!".

He brought the throttles up to "MIL", released the brakes, lit the afterburners, and we were gone! Climbing out, it felt like there was an ape sitting on your chest under the acceleration. Nice smooth bank and we were headed across Ada County and into eastern Oregon. The Colonel & I got to talking about old times at Lakenheath and some of the people we both knew. We were cruising along at around 650 airspeed and just having a nice comfortable ride.

The F-111, and most people know, had a terrain following radar capability, whereas you could set it for the desired altitude, take your hands off the stick and it would "fly itself" over and down through the mountains, maintaining that same altitude automatically. It didn't always work, and the radar in MY airplane wasn't working "as advertised" that morning.

I was relieved at first, because I really wasn't all that anxious to go "TFR" anyway. But Barrios didn't care, we dropped down into the valleys anyway and he just HAND-STICKED it "up & over" the canyons as we went along! We'd be 200-300 feet off the deck haulin'-butt across the prarie......mountains coming up in front of us.............he'd be "B.S.-ing" with me about some of the "idiots" he'd had to work for over the yeras...TAC policies, etc...........OCCASIONALLY looking out front to see what was coming up, and then flying us OVER it!

THIS of course, was "second nature" to HIM, but I was getting just a wee-bit nervous, so I got my camera out and figured I'd better take a few pictures........that way, when they sifted through the wreckage later, maybe somebody can figure out what happened!

But REALLY, I was flying with the best there was.......and I knew that. We "buzzed" a cattle truck going down a long dirt road, flew over some canyons, then we pulled up to some serious altitude and he said "we'll sweep the wings back and do a couple of rolls." Aerodynamics are really something. When he pulled the wingsweep handle back, and the wings swept back halfway into the upper fuselage, you could feel the airplane accellerate without the throttles ever being touched. We did a couple of barrel rolls. That was fun. Then we headed for Utah, where we flew over some more mountains and canyons.

Back up HERE and a couple of passes over Saylor Creek Range, which was a pretty interesting sight from the air. Finally back to MHAFB, a high-speed fly-by, a long go-around, and then we touched down and taxied-in,

It was a good ride, in a good plane, with a great pilot.

After Debrief, I poked my head into the Blue Section OIC office to let 'em know I was back. Federhart says......"Good flight?"

"YEP!"

"Any problems?"

"Of course not!" I replied........

Federhart just grinned and said "Of COURSE not!"

I glanced over at Captain Parker and said "Thanks again sir, for settin' this up in my airplane."

He says, "HEY......with everything you guys out here do for US.....WE can do a little something for YOU guys once in awhile!"

Captain Parker was "real people"..........as I mentioned earlier, he was prior-enlisted, and although he was about to make Major----------he never forgot where he came from.

Anyway, a great ride had come to an end, and it would be back to the grind.......and another deer season was approaching.....