From Up North Live ABC 74, Alpena, MI, Thursday August 5, 2021 -- see: https://tinyurl.com/r88srnwt
USAF Thunder landing zone on Michigan State Route M-32 near Alpena
- Thread starter frnash
- Start date
Video
The attempt to embed the video failed, but you can find the video here: https://youtu.be/RalQMp4c6UI — (read the comments accompanying the video as well.)
The attempt to embed the video failed, but you can find the video here: https://youtu.be/RalQMp4c6UI — (read the comments accompanying the video as well.)
Last edited:
sweeperguy
Active member
Video was cool. Would've been awesome to see in person.
Improvised runway use, they do this kind of training overseas all the time. The purpose is for frontline fighters to be used for emergencies or even field resupply so they do not have to return to a base that may be too far in order to keep the cycle time low. This is more for ground attack aircraft like the A10 and more so helicopters but not so much for the high fliers that have the speed to return.
So you didn't read the text accompanying the first item from Up North Live ABC 7? — No it was NOT done "to make a 'vidieo' [sic] (not even to make a video!) It was a training exercise!
FWIW, the Swedish Air Force has been doing that for some time, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_strip#Sweden — I'm sure you could find a number of Youtoob videos of them in action.
Yes, a joke, of sorts, although you're right, it was a bit of a typo. It should have been "YootToob"; that's just how I usually spell it. I 'spose I should have tagged it as [sic] to indicate that it was deliberately misspelled — (Insert "devilish" emoji here.)
chords
Active member
<img src="<a href=" https:="" forum.johndee.com="" vbulletin="" attachment.php?attachmentid="63273&stc=1""" target="_blank">https://forum.johndee.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=63273&stc=1" attachmentid="63273" alt="" id="vbattach_63273" class="previewthumb">
I have a place on Hubbard Lake about ~20 miles direct South as the F-16 flys from the CRTC formerly the Phelps Collins Field in Alpena, MI. There was a lot of activity in the sky that week. A few hot shots screamed the 7 mi length of the lake at low altitude and pulled up just short of Mt. Maria which rises up abruptly 1,261 ft at the S. End of the lake.
I have a place on Hubbard Lake about ~20 miles direct South as the F-16 flys from the CRTC formerly the Phelps Collins Field in Alpena, MI. There was a lot of activity in the sky that week. A few hot shots screamed the 7 mi length of the lake at low altitude and pulled up just short of Mt. Maria which rises up abruptly 1,261 ft at the S. End of the lake.
Attachments
favoritos
Well-known member
Thanks for posting the video. It is dang cool and highlights some of the difficulty.
I worked with cropdusters (in my younger days), and used roads when needed. I usually started those days by scouting out suitable sections of road ahead of the planes arrival. Powerlines and trees add risk more than you might realize. The interesting thing in the video is the hill. There are no approach lights for elevation and then you add in a hill. The cropduster pilots were on the edge of crazy, but they still used flat terrain when they had a choice. They also had the advantage of much slower approach speeds.
The flying in the video is impressive.
I also love to see the Warthogs. There is something about those things that says all business all day.
I worked with cropdusters (in my younger days), and used roads when needed. I usually started those days by scouting out suitable sections of road ahead of the planes arrival. Powerlines and trees add risk more than you might realize. The interesting thing in the video is the hill. There are no approach lights for elevation and then you add in a hill. The cropduster pilots were on the edge of crazy, but they still used flat terrain when they had a choice. They also had the advantage of much slower approach speeds.
The flying in the video is impressive.
I also love to see the Warthogs. There is something about those things that says all business all day.
Yes, I was quite surprised that they chose a 1-mile section of a road with a hill! They couldn't have found a 1-mile section of flat, level road? Perhaps the hill was part of the challenge of the exercise. — About the "approach lights for elevation", yes, and one more thing: Runway lights — I found that I consistently made better, smoother landings at night with runway lights and fewer visual distractions. As mutually parallel lines in three-dimensional space appear to converge, on close-in final approach, the runway lights also appear to converge, but as you descend closer to the runway, they lose the "vanishing point convergence" and appear in your peripheral vision to be more and more parallel. When they are parallel, you're there — touchdown, as smooth as glass. To some extent you can use the same trick in daylight, although there are more visual distractions then. — Such visual cues would be far more limited on the road used in that exercise. — Warthogs: Agreed, If I could fly any military aircraft, forget "Top Gun", the Warthog would definitely be my choice! The greatest close air support aircraft; you can neither see nor even hear them on a low ground hugging approach until it's game over! And to think the Pentagon wanted to kill it, at least since 2015, when with the USAF's budget, the service considered retiring the A-10! Then finally in June 2017, it was announced that the aircraft "...will now be kept in the air force’s inventory indefinitely. Yeay!
That stretch of M-32 was chosen because very few homes if any? — I'll betcha they could have found any number of 1-mile segments of several roads that meet that criteria. Fer sure in the UP, for example along the 20+ miles of boring, hypnotic, sleep inducing straight as an arrow, flat as a pancake Seney Stretch (M-28) between Seney and Shingelton. — Four lanes? All of M-32 consists of rural two-lane highway outside of the city of Gaylord. — For passing? What passing? Passing aircraft? The entire segment was closed traffic!
chords
Active member
Ok let me break it down for ya. I'm guessing they wanted a landing zone close to the base which is just a couple miles away also on M-32.<br>Here in MI we have sections of 2 lane roads that widen out to 4 lanes to allow for passing slower moving <strong>vehicles/cars/trucks</strong> This 1 mile section would provide a much wider surface to land on because it is <strong>4 lanes wide</strong>
snobuilder
Well-known member
I bet the potheads freaked the f*** out!