Awesome day today

[midmoraider]

A buddy of mine won a charity auction last fall to go to Whiteman Air Force base to be a "fighter pilot for a day." He took 7 of us along and we got to go in the A-10 Warthog flight simulator for 1/2 hour each. There were two simulators so we were able to dogfight each other as well as do bombing runs on ground targets. Those simulators are something else, I don't know how those guys and gals do it for real when you add in the gforces on top of the sensory overload. We also got to check out and sit in the real A-10's and hang out with a Lt. Colonel for the day. I'm sure he would have rather been doing something besides babysitting us, but he couldn't have been more gracious. Whiteman is home to all the B2 stealth bombers, and we got to see them open up two hangars and spool up the engines. We could only take pics in certain areas, below are some from the A-10 hangar.

Oh, and to top it off, I rode the Max down, about an hour and a half each way. unk:

 

[ninjaneer]

 

[dmax1]

Can I play too? :eusa_dance:

 

[VMike]

Man that's a day you never forget! Awesome! What a clean hangar too!:eusa_dance: Mike

 

[COP RUNNER]

i AWESOME ! .. MAN THAT PLACE IS SPOTLESS ! . unk:

 

[SpecOps13]

Absolutely Priceless......

 

[Frosty72]

Warthogs' a bad ass plane! Got to see plenty of them in Kuwait.

That is awsome that you got to dogfight in the sim dude! so jealous

 

[maleko89]

That vulcan cannon is badass. The Soviets called that plane the Devils Cross.

 

[midmoraider]

Yeah, they shoot either 30mm explosive rounds for small vehicles and "personnel" as they put it, or depleted uranium rounds for piercing tanks. Saw some videos of our host in action in Afghanistan, shot from the plane's onboard camera. I had seen lots of videos like that, but it was cool to have him there to walk us through exactly what was going on amidst the chaos.

 

[SpecOps13]

A-10's really Rock and Roll.. Only other Jet that comes close to my heart is the AV-8B, Harrier, Jump Jet.. I got to get close and personal with one of them and helped design some of the systems used in it...:biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh:

 

[DakRatFink]

There was an A-10 unit at Barksdale when I was stationed there.
They are pretty badass and still one of my favorite planes of any type.

 

[06VMAXIMUS]

Lucky dog! What a great day that must have been! For sure the chance of a lifetime. I want one of those cannons on the front of my max to get peoples attention when they pull out in front of meunk: