Can I Get a Top Off? | TheaterFire

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koinai3301@reddit

Whats the flow rate? How long does it take to refuel a F-35 vs F-22 or F/A18?

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SailAwayToTheMoon@reddit

My friend cites these video as an excuse to leave his car running while he pumps petrol.

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horny_on_main2@reddit

You think cops are people to take as role models?

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horny_on_main2@reddit

Alright, good enthusiasm, but dehumanization of a disliked group is how cops and generally racist people tend to operate, so I personally refuse to have any thoughts like that at any point.

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horny_on_main2@reddit

Fair enough, my bad. I shouldn't have interpreted it that way to begin with given the average reddit user, honestly

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SantaClause_@reddit

Winter it gets to be -40 here, tons of people aren’t shutting their cars off in winter when filling up. Is this something people worry about?

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SimilarTranslator264@reddit

This is Reddit dude, people worry about everything. Especially shit that doesn’t affect them in anyway.

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gromm93@reddit

Yeah, I'm sure they put signs up to tell you to turn off all sources of ignition at the pump, because they like spending money on useless signs.

Speaking of which, you can also totally ignore the no smoking sign at the fuel box. Because fuck the man.

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SimilarTranslator264@reddit

So your pumping gas with your ignition off in the car drives up to the pump next to yours with their running are you going to explode?

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Terminal_Phase@reddit

I haven’t shut my car off while filling up in probably 10 years

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gromm93@reddit

Me neither. In fact, what I usually do is turn on the car after I start the fuelling process.

I mean, it's because I drive an electric and haven't filled one up with gas in over 10 years, but that's the same thing, right?

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Terminal_Phase@reddit

Why does you buddy need an excuse to do that?

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Accomplished-One7476@reddit

has he ever heard of gravity. shit falls from the sky when they are turned off

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misha_jinx@reddit

Are all versions of F-35 refueling like that?

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

No, the Navy and Marine versions use drogue refueling, not boom.

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HogmanDaIntrudr@reddit

What happens if you drop your phone onto an F35 at 300 mph?

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MrB10b@reddit

Have you heard of a thing called a window?

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Used to be Some Air Force aircraft used them too. During the Vietnam war I was a Nav on the EB-66 (Navy version A3-D) and we refueled with a probe and basket (as we called the drogue) One night in weather we were plugged in and I noticed a large thunderstorm a few miles ahead and called the tanker and asked if they wanted to turn to avoid it. Whoever replied said, "no sweat, we got it". Oky dokey. When we went thru the strom the wind screen looked like they Atlantic Ocean was pouring over it and we couldn't see the tanker. The boom began screaming over the radio "breakaway, breakaway, breakaway" as they are want to do in those situations. When the ocean cleared we were 2000 feet below the tanker but we still had the basket --still hanging on the probe. Needless to say we all RTB'd and we took a giant amount of shit when we landed.

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Professional_Act_820@reddit

If you look at the nose of an A10 and all the dents...how do they not mess up the skin of the F35 during this delecate intercourse?

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J_Bear@reddit

Lots of foreplay

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

The A-10 nose looks like that because the pilots chase the boom trying to make a contact. The receptacle on other fighters is aft of the cockpit so pilots have to rely on the Pilot Director Lights (PDI’s) on the belly of the tanker to get in the right position.

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horse_you_rode_in_on@reddit

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J_Bear@reddit

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Illustrious-Run3591@reddit

Gross

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TheVulgarApe@reddit

Damn lol

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Brennan_Schwartz@reddit

The side eye made me giggle.

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esdaniel@reddit

Ayooooooo wtf Lmao

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altec777777@reddit

love it

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fordmanpat@reddit

Is there any kind of computer assistance for lining up with the fuel line? Or is it just purely pilot skill getting that thing connected?

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

There are forward/aft and up/down pilot director lights on the belly of the tanker that help get the receiver in the correct position. They are almost impossible to see in some lighting situations and the boom operator frequently gets requests to turn up the lights. The boom operator will also tell the receiver where they need to move to get “in the envelope”.

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William_Shaftner@reddit

No Chick-fil-A discussions while refueling?? 0/10

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

Coolest rejoin I ever saw was by an A-10 over Afghanistan - they started nose to nose a thousand feet below us and before we were even abeam rolled into about 90, rolled out in pre contact. #2 tried to follow but wound up a mile in trail.

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

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William_Shaftner@reddit

Is this your footage??

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

Yes

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immunotransplant@reddit

F-35 looks ugly from every other angle

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bendsley@reddit

Never get tired of seeing videos like this. Utterly incredible the way they perform this balancing act.

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DiscoDiscoB00mB00m@reddit

Are the slats and flaps deployed because the airspeed is so low?

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-BigDeckEnergy-@reddit

When you open the AR door, the F-35's CLAW goes into AR mode which increases drag and lowers gain on flight controls to give you more precise control. It is, however, a VERY restrictive envelope so you only want to activate it when in position to AR

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Own-Excitement-3621@reddit

They deploy to give extra drag, this makes speed control easier. Happens automatically when opening the refueling-hatch.

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DiscoDiscoB00mB00m@reddit

I was watching an interesting doc on the f16 last night it talked about how it had a flight controller that was a first from the f4 and how the controller would deploy these in low speed maneuvers.

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Own-Excitement-3621@reddit

That's fly-by-wire for you. It optimizes control surface deflecrion to give the pilot what is requested, within the safe envelope. For refueling, it is specifically to ease fore/aft control, since the F-35 is slippary/low drag. Extra drag means things happen more slowly and are more easily controlled with throttle inputs.

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

That’s a question for an F-35 pilot. I can’t imagine 315 not being fast enough.

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beckstarlow@reddit

And here I am worrying about pulling up to the pump crooked.

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Old-Library5546@reddit

Both pilots must have nerves of steel

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That_Light5297@reddit

On a clear and a million day like that it’s really a non-event. We fly close formations all the time. You just take it slow and rejoin to the correct position, keep all the references of the parts of the big aircraft in front of you in the right place and just be smooth in the controls. It’s exciting the first couple of times. After a while it’s no more exciting than passing a car in the highway.

Add in other factors like bad weather, night time, turbulence it all compounds to get more exciting.

Getting gas during an ocean crossing while the whole formation is in the weather and having to get from the left wing observation position down to the boom while in a cloud was probably the most difficult thing I did tanking wise. If I lost sight of the tanker in the cloud I’d have had to divert and it was a long way from the nearest base

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Mannhume@reddit

I have no association with aviation at all, but I join this sub just to read things like this out of fascination.

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whiskeytown79@reddit

Doesn't the aircraft noticeably gain weight during the refueling? Do you need to do anything special to keep it in one place while it's getting heavier from the incoming fuel?

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TheMeltingPointOfWax@reddit

Refueling the herc got problematic when we were filling max bags and it was warm. You know, like the middle east sometimes gets.

I'm focused on not hitting the tanker, but the flight engineer is staring at the engine stacks and getting ready to pull the throttles when I get close to red line. Eventually we'd have to toboggan - basically do a slow decent while still receiving.

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That_Light5297@reddit

This depends a lot more on the specific aircraft. But it doesn’t happen all at once. The stick gets a bit heavier so you naturally trim it off. It’s not super noticeable from second to second. You just fly the jet and keep your formation references. Ignore the boom entirely. All I’m thinking while getting gas is “I’m a little forward/aft/down/up/left/right, and I need to gently move my jet in some direction to keep it in the right spot” those will all translate into stick and power changes as necessary but I’m not really thinking about that.

But yes, by the end of it my jet is heavier and I will have had to push the throttles up significantly and my AOA will have changed.

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Accomplished_Range32@reddit

How fast would the planes be flaring during refueling??

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

A-10 fully loaded - about 200 knots and they still ask for a toboggan. F-35 is at 315 knots.

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flychewy@reddit

My PTSD was triggered from this. My first time was in an F-18 on the Gulf of Mexico. First time with a KC-135 was crossing the pond. The weather was less than stellar. In the soup most of the time.

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That_Light5297@reddit

Yeah. First time trying to get to the boom without being able to see more than a tiny peace of the aircraft at a time that I’m probably way to close to while spatially D’d was terrible.

Honestly the worst part was knowing how much shit I would catch from the flight lead if I lost the tanker and we had to divert.

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_meshy@reddit

The best part of not being a real pilot and just trying it out on DCS World is that after I fuck up the refueling, I can shoot the tanker down to relieve stress.

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That_Light5297@reddit

lol. To be fair it’s far more difficult in DCS.

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

That depends on what you’re flying. Try being in a KC-10 and getting gas from a KC-135 at night, not exactly a walk in the park.

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That_Light5297@reddit

Sure but when you deploy and spend hours of your life in the boom getting gas it still becomes routine.

I did mean it more from a fighter perspective, where tanking is generally the easy thing we do that punctuates the more complicated difficult stuff that we are doing before and after. Sure it can be challenging and difficult to learn but after a while it’s just another thing you do in the airplane.

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Lil-LordFuckPants@reddit

Got to watch this from a boom operator pod during a space a flight cross country. It was fucking badass.

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

The tanker pilots don’t see anything that’s going on during refueling, they only know what the boom operator tells them. Getting the gas is a different story!

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CryingOnMyLatinaBed@reddit

This feels sexual

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pootislordftw@reddit

Been two weeks time to repost

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Open_Mortgage_4645@reddit

Mid-air refuels are always so impressive.

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Bulky-Sugar-6166@reddit

Cool. I hope we defund NASA and the CDC for this. Priorities of a retarded 3rd grader👍🏼

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

Because the military shouldn’t be a national priority?

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Bulky-Sugar-6166@reddit

Correct. I know I’m in the minority but I think you’d be pleasantly surprised if we actually gave peace a chance and invested in our people. We cut our military spending in half I bet we’re looking at healthcare, childcare, college education, homelessness, hell we could even make a huge dent in the national debt. We’d be plenty safe, and our standard of living would skyrocket.

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ksr15@reddit

I wouldn't be surprised if this were aircrew posting, given they used KIAS! Thanks for sharing

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

Yes sir!

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mechabeast@reddit

Can craft with external tanks refill those too with this refueling?

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SirLoremIpsum@reddit

Can craft with external tanks refill those too with this refueling?

Certain planes can refuel other planes. But not all.

The F/A-18 E/F can refuel other Planes. But I don't believe the F-35 (any variant) is equipped to be a buddy tanker at this stage

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mechabeast@reddit

No I meant "could the tankers refill the external tanks too".

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

I believe the external tanks can also be refueled but don’t quote me on that

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sushi_cw@reddit

They can!

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Original_Log_6002@reddit

"Feeding time"

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new_x_who_dis@reddit

Daft question, that I probably know the answer to already; do all aircraft run the same fuel, or does the tanker carry different grades/types?

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

The only one that needed different fuel that I’m aware of is the SR-71 otherwise everyone uses the same. They had a specific model of tanker, the KC-135Q that was designed to carry different fuel.

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Ecstatic_Account_744@reddit

Just gimme about 4000 bucks worth. Regular, none of that premium shit.

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rmendex@reddit

How come they don’t need to turn off their engine when pumping?

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Brockelley09@reddit

You don’t have to do it in your car at the gas station. It’s just a safety precaution. Like putting your phone on airplane mode when you fly.

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ApplicationFull3440@reddit

Is the logic of refueling the same as in F1? That the fuel is pumped in pressurized and there is another pipe/channel that is in parallel sucks out air?

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diezel_dave@reddit

There is a vent valve that is opened to vent out the excess pressure as the tanks fill up.

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ApplicationFull3440@reddit

Thanks man!

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metimmee@reddit

On an aircraft I worked on back in the day, fuel was pumped in at max 50psi. I think it was higher for AAR.

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ApplicationFull3440@reddit

Yeah, it looks like the logic is similar to F1

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

Man I’m not sure, I’m just a pilot! I know we use refueling pumps but I don’t know what they have on their end.

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ApplicationFull3440@reddit

Thanks man!

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frozenpissglove@reddit

Very cool to see. This 135 is from the 161st Air Refueling Wing from the base co-located with Sky Harbor International. My dad retired from that unit.

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

No kidding! Small world. I’ve been in the unit for about 16 years, when did he retire?

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frozenpissglove@reddit

Would have been in 2012-2013, if I recall. He was in the fabrication shop.

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

That was the year I left full time out there. What’s the last name?

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frozenpissglove@reddit

PM incoming

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Accomplished-One7476@reddit

is this from the current campaign?

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

No, this is over the Arizona California border near Lake Havasu.

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Accomplished-One7476@reddit

ty

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CannonAFB_unofficial@reddit

Me digging deep in my small brain to remember if 315 is the correct airspeed…

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

That might be the F-16 speed, maybe it’s 325.

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geeseherder0@reddit

So, with a boom, the boom operator moves to the receiving plane to connect, but with a drogue, the receiving plane moves to the drogue to connect, is that correct?

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

That is correct. The book operator does not have control over the drogue so it is 100% up to the receiver to initiate the contact.

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niconpat@reddit

Do the little wings give any control?

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

The wings on the end are used to fly the boom.

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ElFarts@reddit

Air Force takes it. Navy and Marine’s stick it in.

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PhattJeezus@reddit

Takes me back to Top Gun on the NES

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flywithmeify@reddit

Keep flying guys! God keep ea and everyone one of you.

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TestyBoy13@reddit

What is that roundel? Finnish?

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

I believe this one is Norwegian. The F-35 is out of Luke AFB where all the foreign pilots first learn to fly them.

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AlcibiadesTheCat@reddit

I used to work at a factory just next to Luke. I got to see an F-111 doing a pattern once. And we definitely snuck to the roof on the day they did the airshows.

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Cookie_Monstress@reddit

Seems to be Norwegian. Finnish one is just round. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roundel_of_Finland_(Low_Visibility).svg

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HunterTrickster@reddit

Royal Norwegian Air Force training with 56 FW from Luke Air Force Base

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RestaurantFamous2399@reddit

I think Norwegian.

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JamSee27@reddit

Dragonfly mecha-porn

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johnfkngzoidberg@reddit

Jackass put 100LL in it. Where’s the manager?

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Taptrick@reddit

Norwegian F-35.

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DrinkingVomit@reddit

How many gallons / second or pounds / sec can the tanker plane administer?

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Aviator-Intelligence@reddit (OP)

Roughly 6,000 pounds per minute or just under 1,000 gallons via 4 air refueling pumps. But most fighters can’t take on fuel that fast and they limit pump use to 1-2.

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DrinkingVomit@reddit

Right on. Thanks for responding

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matjam@reddit

Do the planes smoke a cigarette when they’re done?

Is this how baby planes are made?

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