[simpits-tech] followup questions...

[Brian Sikkema]

<cptf>	ah, good, thanks. So they fly pretty much the
whole pattern,
         including outbound leg and turns.
<cptf>	err ... probably just the first turn
<cptf>	would be a waste otherwise, as I've read the
leg can be 50 nm long
<cptf>	but how do they find the track when it's not a
prepared
         one where ARIP is a VORTAC?

lol.

Ok, so let's see how well I can explain this....

First, there's a few different main ways to refuel.
The two basic ones I'll talk about are tracks and
anchors.

Take a look at this map:

http://www.canairradio.com/refueltracks.jpg

The long lines are tracks. The boxes are the anchors.

A refueling track basically means the tanker and
receiver meet up at a specific point, and then fly a
predetermined line while they refuel. So we'd meet up
at one end of the track, and refuel all along the way.

In the anchors, we meet up in the anchor, and
basically just fly around in the box while we refuel.

That being said, we turn all the time during
refueling. Even the tracks are not always straight,
we often times have to turn while we're on them. At
Altus for training we'd always fly the track both
down AND back, and the receiver would often be hooked
up when we made the 180. 

And the anchors may LOOK big, but trust me when we're
trucking around for 45 minutes or so in there, not so
much.

And to pick on whoever posted what you wrote above,
let me point out what while 50nm may SEEM long, at AR
altitudes we're often doing over 400kts true airspeed
- meaning we cover that 50nm in less than 8 minutes.

So yeah, let's see how clearly I can put this...

When refueling, even with a receiver in contact
(hooked up), I can fly around almost exactly like I
fly around normally. With heavy receivers we do
generally limit our bank, but if the receiver pilot
is good we can still get it up to 30* of bank. For
fighters 30* is no problem - and that's all the more
we do in normal flight anyway.

Let me know if your friends need any more
clarfication! :) I'm always willing to help (up to
but not including classified, of course! lol). Before
I became a tanker pilot, I will admit I had a LOT of
knowledge gaps myself. People just don't seem to
understand what we do or how we do it. Always happy
to dispel some of that.

Brian