Firing the A-10s gun for the first time

[MIKE JG]

Here's something I ran across today on another aviation forum and thought I would post up here as it is a good read:

I wrote this immediately after debriefing from the sortie so I could share it with others in the future - whether it was my grandkids ("Back in my day, we rode into combat IN our aluminum steeds, unlike you whipper snappers flying your UCAVs from a computer screen") or friends. Well, I consider the folks on here to be friends, and when I mentioned that I found this the other day to someone in the 'Bored Room', they suggested I post it.

Unfortunately, I didn't write the date at the top of it, but it was sometime in October of 2002 when I was at Barksdale AFB in Shreveport, LA, going through the A-10 school house. I apologize in advance, this is no way as eloquent as Albie's post about his fini flight, but maybe someone will enjoy it.

Well, yesterday was the first day I had stuff falling off the Warthog and got to shoot the gun.

After an extensive brief, we 'got dressed' and went out the jets. The A-10 is a large airplane, much larger than most people expect from seeing them on TV. Maybe I’m partial to the airplane, but in all its ugliness, there is an underlying beauty based on its ability to do the Close Air Support (CAS) role so well. What else needs to be said about an airplane built around a cannon and the concept that it needs to be able to take punishment and get the pilot back to friendly territory?

Each Hog had 4 TERs (triple ejector racks) with a total of 12 BDU-33 ‘Blue Death’ (training and inert ordnance is painted blue or has a blue stripe on it) 25-pound practice bombs loaded on them. I did my normal aircraft preflight, and then did another separate preflight of the weapons. Everything looked good, and with a quick glance back at the underside of the jet, I climbed up the integral boarding ladder. With the help of my crew chief, I start up and check the flight controls. I run the before taxi checks, get the NAV system up, and check in with my flight lead on the radio exactly at the predetermined time.

I taxied out as number two...my lead is a Desert Storm vet, and one of the more highly respected IPs here. He is known as a 'hammer', or tough instructor, but I am eager to fly with him because I know I'll learn a lot. We get to the arming area, and the normal EOR crew goes over the airplane to make sure it's good to go. The weapons guys hook into the intercom while they are doing their thing. I tell them I am hands clear, with switches safe/normal/off pulling, and the lead guy signals to his crew that they are clear to remove safety pins on the bombs and make the gun hot. The guys pulling a myriad of flags from the airplane and stuff them into the cover for the refueling panel, which is located on the front of the port side main gear pod. With that, they are all done, and the arming chief wishes me a good ride. Lead gives me the visual signal for a frequency change to tower, then the signal to lower canopies...he checks me in on tower, and we have to wait for a few B-52s to touch and go before we can take the runway.

That's the perfect opportunity to get out my grease pencil and start writing on the canopy. We are going to be working Claiborne range, near the old England AFB. The range uses a left hand conventional pattern, so I write my info on the left side of the canopy but out of the way of my visual scan...that way, I can simply shift my vision from the canopy to the target without having to look across from the right side of the canopy to the target. I draw a 'bomb ladder', which shows me the base altitude and airspeed, track altitude as I'm coming down the chute, release altitude, abort altitude, and a few other parameters for the types of bombing patterns we'll be doing today. All this stuff is already written down on a card, and most guys wind up memorizing these numbers. In combat, you wouldn't do this, because you're going to be writing other more important information like a nine line from a ground FAC, and you most likely won't be able to pre-plan release altitudes since you may not know the target elevation in advance. However, since I'm new, it's a huge help to have this information readily available – and it’s good practice to make sure I don’t obscure my view when it comes time to write nine-lines in the future.
Finally the last BUFF is out of our way, and we're cleared onto the runway. Lead puts his main tire as close to the threshold as I've ever seen anyone go, and makes a relatively tight turn to line up on his half of the runway. He rolls forward a little bit, and this doesn't give me much room to get into position on my side of the runway. I follow his lead and hug the edge of the runway, then wait to the last minute before using full nosewheel deflection to make the turn into my half of the runway. The old aviation saying that you can’t use runway that’s behind you is very true, especially if I’m ever flying a combat-loaded Hog. Sure enough, I barely get the nosewheel straightened out and I'm in position on him. We get takeoff clearance, and he gives me the runup signal and switches us to departure frequency. We check in on departure, and he releases the brakes and launches down the runway. I note the seconds on my clock, wait until 10 seconds elapses, and then release my brakes. Airborne, I get the gear and the flaps up, and notice lead make a huge honking left turn at the departure end of the runway. This is a good thing, since if gives me lots of angle on him to allow me to get back into route formation quicker. I delay my turn to get 'on the line' to make my rejoin, then roll up into 90 degrees of bank, yank on the stick, roll out, and find myself relatively close to the rejoin line about 1500 to 2000 feet out. I quickly close the distance and join up on lead, check over his airplane to make sure no bombs have fallen off his bird during the takeoff. Right now, I'm about two ship widths (roughly 110-120 feet) from him...I line up his wingtip on the star & bar on the side of the fuselage, look for a 'V' shape between the two vertical stabilizers, fly co-altitude and find myself in a decent position, always making very small corrections to stay where lead briefed me to be. After I take a good look at his jet, I move it out to 500 feet, so I can concentrate on clearing for traffic, systems checks, etc., without worrying about running into lead. That would upset him a little bit, and I would probably hook (bust/fail) the ride.

Enroute to the range, we stay around 3500 feet and he kicks me out to a line abreast formation. This is flying 6000 to 9000 feet across from one another, sometimes with an altitude stack (difference in altitude between aircraft). The trick comes when it's time to turn the jets...in closer formation, lead can turn and I can stay with him no problem. However, if he commands a 90-degree left turn, and I'm on the left, if I make the turn the same time he does I wind up a mile out in front of him! Instead, he turns into me, and I delay my turn...just keep driving straight, until he disappears behind my tail...THEN I make the turn, using a max power (in the underpowered Hog, the throttles are usually parked pretty close to max), 4G pull...if I play the roll out correctly, I will wind up line abreast from him on the opposite side from where I started. It's pretty cool once you get the hang of it, and can get a little tricky for 45 degree turns, or turns that aren't exactly 45, 90, or 180 degrees. It's my job as wingman to always be in position, so even if lead does something wrong (though one of the cardinal rules is lead is NEVER WRONG), I have to immediately correct to get back in position.

Soon enough we enter the range complex, and lead switches the 'navigational lead' over to me. I'm still two, but he's flying chase off me and talking me around the range. We go over at 2500 feet, and he points out the different targets we'll be dropping on. After the first time around, we arm up the bombs and set up for a dry practice run, 10 degrees of dive, simulating a high drag MK82 AIR delivery. First pass goes okay, so now the master arm goes hot and it's time to put the 'thing' on the 'thing' and push the pickle button.

I roll in, check my parameters...and when the pipper's death dot (the thing) gets onto the target (the other thing) I push the pickle button. Compared to the AT-38, this is cake...all this green stuff in my HUD makes it a lot easier to make a decent pass. I also don't feel the bomb come off the jet, unlike the AT-38, but as soon as I pickle I start pulling for my safe escape maneuver. I get the nose 30 degrees above the horizon, then roll to crosswind...and as I do so I glance over and see the white marking charge from my BDU-33 just a tad short of the target. DARN IT! The range controller comes over and calls my score...11 at 5. From the run-in heading, my bomb hit 11 meters at the 5 o'clock position. Yes, any bomb that lands within 23 meters on this event is a qualifier, but I'm still upset that with all this gee-whiz HUD stuff I didn't get a direct hit.

Okay, time to review in my mind what I did...was the pipper really on the target? Did I pickle too soon? Did I pump the stick at the last second, or as the bomb was coming off the jet? I think that I anticipated the delivery and pickled early, and try to remind myself to be patient and wait until the thing really is on the thing before pushing the button next time.

Next pass...okay, looking good down the chute, parameters are coming along nicely, bomb fall line is going right through the target, wait for it...ground is getting bigger...WAIT FOR IT...GROUND IS GETTING EVEN BIGGER...just before planned release altitude, thing is on the thing...PICKLE...pull back coming off target, safe escape...whew! Only now do I realize my breathing has really quickened, and that I'm almost soaked even with the air-conditioning cranking. As I turn crosswind, I look to see where the smoke is...WOW! Looks REALLY close to the center of the target! The ranger comes over the radio with, "SHAAAAAAAAAACK, TWO!" ALL RIGHT! Now THAT'S what I'm talking about! A direct hit, and on my second pass. Well, it can only go downhill from here, but it still feels good.
We switch targets, from the conventional bomb circle to a tactical target. My job is now to bomb an old M113 APC, the middle vehicle in a 'convoy' of three. My first pass is atrocious, and I come off dry without releasing the bomb because I failed to adjust my base position for the new target. Better to come off without releasing than to hurl ‘blue death’ around out of parameters. Second time around, I score a 4 at 7. We switch to the 30-degree dive bomb, and all my bombs qualify. On the second tactical target we worked, I get another shack. Man, is this a blast! It’s hard to believe I’m actually doing something that I’ve always wanted to do since I was five years old.

We go Winchester (empty) with the bombs, and it feels like we've been at the range FOREVER...in the AT-38, you only had half the bombs and very little gas, so things went quickly. NOW, its' time for some REAL fun...

We set up for a practice 30-degree high angle strafe shot. The first pass on every event is dry, so we go through the motions and I make a "BRRRRRRZT" noise to simulate shooting the gun. We do the safe escape, come back around, but this time I have a the MASTER ARM to ARM, GUN RATE to HIGH, and a GUN READY light illuminated in the cockpit. I roll in, check the parameters, and come off dry because we're too steep. My base was too close, and I make a mental note to move it out next time around. I'd much rather come off dry, than to break training rules and compromise our safety just to be able to pull the trigger.

Next time around, we roll in, and it looks sweet...the range is clicking down, and I squeeze the trigger to the first detent, then around 6000 feet slant range I pull it all the way back....
WHOA! What WAS that, an elephant farting? As soon as the trigger comes all the way back, the entire airplane shakes and vibrates like a massaging mattress gone haywire. Smoke envelopes the entire front of the airplane, and time as we know it seems to slow down. It almost seems like I can distinguish between every bullet that is being fired from the gun, even though that is quite impossible. I let off the trigger after what seems to be forever, and execute my safe escape maneuver. I look at the rounds counter, and realize that I only shot about 40 rounds, which is a little less than a second. Needless to say, I was definitely experiencing an adrenaline high. The faint odor of cordite and other burnt gun gases enters the cockpit, and then goes away as fast as it came. Now this is what I've been waiting my whole life for, and it was everything I had hoped it would be, and more! The range control officer calls over the radio and says it was a shack, which is the icing on the cake. First time employing the massive GAU-8 30 millimeter cannon, and I score a direct hit.

My IP comes over the inter-flight radio while I am turning crosswind and asks how it felt. Without thinking, I blurt out, "F---ING AWESOME!" Whoops! That's a breach of flight discipline, which I later get downgraded for on my grade sheet. Well, if I only say it once in my career that was the time to do it. There simply isn’t any way to describe how awesome it feels to invoke that much power at your fingertips.

We switch to do some low angle strafe passes, starting around 2000 feet above the ground and using 8 to 10 degrees of dive. I am shooting at 'the rag', which is a 20-foot by 20-foot banner strung up between two telephone polls. I roll in; put the pipper on the HUD on the rag, and open fire at about 5000 feet slant range. For a low angle strafe, that's a long way. Again, the awesome sensation that is a 30-millimeter cannon firing underneath you happens, and I am in awe its sheer destructive power. My IP encourages me to let the range close more next time around, so I make a mental note to drive closer. The ranger calls and says I had 18 hits. I shot about 30 rounds.

Next pass, I see the rag getting bigger, and bigger, ground getting closer, and closer...there's 3000 feet on the slant range, SHOOT! BRRRRRRRRRRZT! Another 30 rounds into the rag, I get 15 hits. There are acoustic sensors (read that as microphones) behind a dirt berm in front of the rag that measure the sonic boom of the bullets as they whiz overhead...of course, even if only half my bullets hit the target, in combat, it may only take 15 rounds to put a tank out of commission. We go around for one more pass; I get 16 hits, and then we safe up our switches and head off the range. We perform a battle damage check to make sure there are no problems with the jets, and give each other thumbs up to indicate we're good to go.

On the way home, we drop by the old England AFB so I can become oriented with it as an emergency divert field. Lead rocks me into close fingertip formation, and we come up initial together. He pitches out, 5 seconds later I do the same to follow him, and we execute low approaches to runway 14. A Delta Connection regional jet is sitting just short of the runway, waiting to takeoff, and I wonder what they're thinking as these two ugly Hogs come past. As we come over the threshold, close the boards (speedbrakes) while pushing the power up on the go, gear and flaps retracted, and I decide to accelerate down the runway...towards the end, I do a rapid pull-up to about 45-dgrees nose high. Once I see 400 feet I pitch out aggressively to the right to rejoin on lead. A few seconds later, tower clears Delta Connection for takeoff, and the pilot says, "Clear for takeoff, thanks for the show!" I think back to when I was sitting right seat in the Dash 8 for Allegheny Airlines, watching the Bradley Connecticut A-10s do their thing. Talk about motivation!

We RTB (Return To Base), and practice some more tactical maneuvering on the way. We come up initial again, pitch out, land, and go to dearming. The dearm crews pin all of lead's bombs, since he was busy chasing me and holding my hand around the pattern, he didn't get to drop. There's always next time.
We taxi in, shutdown, and head to debrief. The only comment he gave me about my improper radio call was "Don't say F--- over the radio again!" I told him I wouldn't and he reflected that in my grade sheet. Other than that, I qualified in tactical formation, low angle high drag, and dive bomb. Not bad for my first trip to the range, but there's a lot of work ahead. I'm eagerly looking forward to it, and can't wait to start working in low altitude tactical maneuvering and tactical weapons delivery. First, I have to get the picture in my head for the different deliveries, fix minor parameter problems, and a bunch of other things lead debriefed me on.

I can't believe they pay me to do this!

[Victory103]

Great find MIKE JG, gives me some "numbers" and formation sight picture to use while flying the Aerosoft Hawg around with the MAIW Davis-Monthan AFB A-10's.

[subs]

Just curious, why can't they say F:censored: over the radio? I can't imagine fighter pilots being..."well mannered" with their language?

Movie fighter pilots swear all the time ;o)

Subs

[MIKE JG]

For the same reason you don't say F:censored: over the radio in the civilian world. It's sorta considered taboo, that whole "professionalism" thingy.

[Victory103]

Well it was on the inter-plane freq, so unless someone was listening in on the UHF. It's just bad practice too, regardless of which radio you are on. Story did mention the IP being known as "tough".

[BadPvtDan]

I was on a LRS training mission when I heard that damn gun fire for the first time. It about made me jump out of my hole. We were on the side of a mountain dug in when we saw the A-10 come out of the valley dropping tracers. It was a very cool but surreal sight.

[CelticWarrior]

Just curious, why can't they say F:censored: over the radio? I can't imagine fighter pilots being..."well mannered" with their language?

Movie fighter pilots swear all the time ;o)

Subs

In the service I'm in it would result in an interview (without coffee, wearing your hat, standing up) with the head shed.