KURT TEK: THE ROLLING STONES PLAY ABU DHABI!

Mick Jagger (Reuters) of the Rolling Stones perform during a concert in Abu Dhabi, Feb. 21, 2014.

Vintage rockers, the Rolling Stones played their first-ever concert in the Middle East on Friday on Yas Island - a gig to 30,000, mostly Western fans in culturally conservative Abu Dhabi.

Ronnie, Mick and Mick Taylor (Reuters)

Some thoughts on the concert from Kurt Tek 

(Senior F-16 Advisor at Global Aerospace Logistics)

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Mick Jagger (C), Charlie Watts (L) and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones perform during a concert in Abu Dhabi, Feb. 21, 2014. (Reuters)

KURT TEK:

Number 1: They were on time, like they had their watches hacked at the Greenwich Observatory or something.

Number 2: No warm-up band- just the 'Stones! That was a nice surprise...

They opened with Start Me Up, a bit too "common" for my taste, but they hit most of the greats- Midnight Rambler, Brown Sugar, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Satisfaction, Tumblin' Dice, You Can't Always Get What you Want, Gimme Shelter, Honky Tonk Women... Plus two encores, starting with Sympathy for the Devil.

Mick was in great form, very good mood, articulate and knowledgeable about the local area and spoke some Arabic. Moved like a 30-year old, and had great crowd interaction.

Keith played great but made a point of stopping one song, Slippin' Away, and starting over when he wasn't happy with the intro.

Charlie was solid as ever, and Ronnie did well. I never noticed before, but he uses his middle finger a lot when playing lead- unusual (to me, anyway)- normally it's the index and ring finger, and pinky, just the way most blues scales are aligned on the fretboard...

Mick Taylor played on a couple too, most notably Midnight Rambler.

Excellent sound quality, without needing earplugs. Huge monitor screens all over so people everywhere could see. Tremendous show and opportunity overall! K

(They did NOT play (This May Be the) Last Time.)

 Kurt Tek: Stationed in Abu Dhabi the capital and second largest city in the United Arab Emirates. He is a senior F-16E instructor pilot over there. Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan. He plays guitar, is a huge Rolling Stones fan,is one of Deniz Tek's younger brothers, and was able to go see THE STONES play in Abu Dhabi! Kurthas contributed other articles on RK and you can read more here KURT TEK

KURT TEK'S JET PILOT LINGO PART 2

F16 Cockpit, Asian Aerospace 2006

Code 1/2/3- Aircraft maintenance status. Code 1 is nothing wrong with the jet. At least nothing else wrong with it- sometimes maintenance gets deferred for non-safety discrepancies. Code-2: something messed up but not a flight safety (or combat effectiveness) issue- non-critical fault codes on the radar system, etc.. Code-3: needs to be fixed before it flys again. AB blow-out, flight control anomaly, etc..

Crew Chief- Maintenance guy assigned to a particular aircraft. Knows the status of the aircraft like his own car. Does refueling, pre-flight maintenance, tire changes, and other light MX (maintenance), schedules and supervises specialized MX performed on the jet. Pilots like these guys to be very experienced.

Dash-1 or -1: Aircraft flight manual; contains all normal and emergency procedures plus descriptions and schematics of all the basic systems (unclassified) in the jet, such as hydraulics, electrical, fuel, engine, flight controls, etc…

DNIF (pronounced, “d’niff”)- Duties Not Including Flying. Flight Surgeon assigned status when you’re too sick to fly. Usually stuff like sinus infection, earache, anything where ascending and descending in a partially pressurized cockpit could cause physiological problems. Obviously broken bones, surgery, and serious stuff will get you on DNIF as well. Then the Flight doc has to return you to flight status, and that’s where the trouble between docs and pilots starts. I’m bad, but I haven’t been officially DNIF in nearly twenty years. Just take care of stuff privately and avoid the ass-pain.

Doofer Book- Squadron unofficial history book and record of all flying incidents or other significant happenings in the squadron. Usually involving pilot errors, and always humorous. Due to their inherent lack of political correctness and foul language, they’ve been largely OFFICIALLY outlawed, if you can believe that! Entries must be validated to at least 10% truth.

Exposure Suit (or Poopy suit) - Rubber “dry” suit you wear when operating over extremely cold waters to enhance survival chances after an ejection. The “poopy suit” name comes from the fact that once its on, its not coming off til you land, and normally they’re used on trans-oceanic flights. I once flew an F-16 from Bodo Norway to Shaw AFB SC in the wintertime and it took 10.5 hours. That’s about 12.5 total in the suit. 5 air refuelings. There is a zipper so you can manage to pee in a bag full of absorbant stuff that looks like Jello powder, but that’s about it. The pee bag is called a “piddle pack”.

FEB- Flying Evaluation Board. For when you really f-up, can’t successfully complete an upgrade, or any serious flying safety incident caused by your error. Often ends up with a pilot losing his wings.
Fence-in/out- On a combat sortie just before you cross into bad guy territory (the “fence”) you do some final cockpit switch changes and checks to ensure you’re ready to defend yourself- arm chaff and flares, ensure air to air missiles are ready for launch, gunsight wingspan setting is correct for who what you expect to encounter, etc.. Call would be, “Cobra flight, Fence-in”; Fence-out is the opposite- disarming weapons, etc., when you’re back over friendly territory.

Flares- IR decoy device deployed to decoy or pre-empt the launch of an IR weapon against you. The bright things coming out of fighters when CNN shows fighter combat action on TV.
FNG- F__ing New Guy. Generic nickname you get in a newly assigned unit before you get your callsign.

Fox-1/2/3- Call made to announce the launch of a semi-active radar missile (F-1), an IR missile (F-2), or an active radar missile (F-3)
Frat- Killing a friendly. (Short for fratricide). Usually because of sloppy ID procedures or non-compliance with ROE.

G- Force of gravity. Sitting still you are 1G. When you turn an aircraft, the force of turning is decribed in G’s. F-16’s can pull 9G’s plus or minus a little. I’ve seen 10.2 in an early model F-16. Brought it home right after due to the over-G occurrence. Flight controls were out of rig.

Gonk- Any foreign currency when you’re deployed. They all use Gonk.

Go pills- Amphetamines used (legally) by pilots in combat flying long or unusual hours or both. In Iraq I flew typically from midnight til dawn. Took them every night- great things! Like throwing on a light switch in your brain… wish I could get some more.

They will also give you downers (“No-go” pills) if you need them to sleep. I never did because I was afraid of over-sleeping and being late for a flight brief. I’d take a Go-pill at about 2:30-3:00am and be jazzed for the rest of the sortie, get back, have a coffee and work off the rest of the effect in the gym, do laundry, read the paper, skype with my wife and kids, crash for about 4-5 hours, and start over. Our base got mortared every morning and night, so I also didn’t want to be too out of it at any time.

Gouge- Inside info on an exam, or other needed info. Cheating scandals have reduced the application of this to formal testing, but pilots know what they really need to be good at and what’s just administrivia not worth studying for. May be used completely innocently, as in, “Hey, you got the gouge on getting reservations at the Hale Koa?” (Military resort on Waikiki)

Ground Pounder- Derogatory term used to refer to all USAF non-pilot personnel. Sometimes shortened to just “Pounder”.

Heavy (or “Target”)- Non-fighter aircraft

HARM- High Speed Anti Radiation Missile. Used against SAMs (Surface to Air Missiles), homes on SAM radar emissions. The call denoting the launch of a HARM is “Magnum”, as in, “Cobra 01, Magnum, 6, bullseye 270/15”, which translated, means, Cobra 1 just fired a HARM at an SA-6 SAM located 15 miles west of a common navigation reference point, generically known as “bullseye”.

Hook- Tailhook on a fighter. Yes, USAF fighters have hooks too, for landing emergencies, brake failures, high speed aborted takeoffs, etc. All fighter base runways have at least one cable strung across both ends of the runway for this. Also a term given to failing an upgrade sortie (“He hooked the ride”), because the final grade is a U for Unsatisfactory. U’s are kinda shaped like hooks. Also “taco” is used for this, as a hard-shell taco viewed from the end has a U shape.

IP- Instructor pilot

Jeremiah Weed- Or just ‘Weed. Traditional toasting liquor at fighter pilot parties.READ THAT STORY HERE

KIO- Knock It Off. Radio Call in training scenarios directing all participating aircraft to cease all tactical maneuvering because a crash or severe emergency has occurred or a dangerous situation is developing. Everyone acknowledges the call in sequence by their callsign.

Landing Fee- Usually when a squadron deploys, each pilot chips in a certain amount to cover beer for the squadron fridge, parties, gift to the host unit, etc… Usually the youngest Lt in the unit is in charge of this.

LGB- Laser Guided Bomb. Several variants; it free-falls/glides to the target with guidance to a coded laser “spot” held on the target by the pilot in the dropping aircraft via an IR or TV sensor. Again, like when you see cockpit video of something getting bombed on CNN, it’s generally an LGB.

Mach- Unit of speed where Mach 1 = the speed of sound. The Viper can do Mach 2.05 (at high altitude); most fighters are Mach 2 class aircraft. Based on the variables of pressure altitude and temperature, Mach is more commonly used at high altitude (above 30,000’), whereas indicated airspeed in “knots” (1 kt = 1.1 mph) is used at lower altitudes. The Viper’s limit at low altitude is 800 KIAS.

Mort- Getting killed. A pilot who gets killed in a dogfight, hits the ground, or is shot down by ground fire and killed is a “mort”. Typical bottom line objective in a flight briefing is “No morts”

Mutual Support- visual and non-visual- Checking each other’s six o’clock position to avoid unseen attacks, (not common in the modern age of BVR weapons and sensitive self-protection devices on fighters), sharing radar search responsibilities, etc… Teamwork in a flight of fighters.

NVG’s- Night Vision Goggles. Provides a 40 degree field of view of enhanced vision at night provided there are some sources of light to amplify- starlight, moonlight, diffuse city lights, etc. When its pitch-black, they don’t really offer any advantage. They attach to a bracket mounted on the pilot’s helmet.

PCS- Permanent Change of Station. Getting reassigned from one base to another for more than six months.

Pickle- To release ordnance. “hit the pickle button” = fire something off the jet

Punch out- to eject out of a fighter. Used as slang even when just leaving the squadron, as in, “See ya guys, I’m punchin’ out for the day- my wife’s about to pickle.” Guy whose wife is about to deliver.

Push- Starting a tactical route to a target to have bombs on target at a specific time. Also used as slang when guys are TDY (Temporary Duty,) like on a training deployment to Miramar MCAS. San Diego, Honolulu, Las Vegas, etc…, are all desirable training locations. “Push from the hotel to the Hard Rock is 1900”

Push it up- Go faster, accelerate. Push the throttle forward. Slang for a night of partying and heavy drinking.

RCH- Red c**t hair. Reference to an infinitesimal unit of measure. To be within an RCH is to be extremely close.

Remote tour- Assignment to a place like Korea, usually for a relatively short period of time like six months to a year. Normally unaccompanied due to the nature of the assignment or theatre of op’s.

RTB- Return to base. Heading for “home-plate”, or the base you took off from.

READ PART 1

STAY TUNED FOR PART 3

KURT TEK'S JET PILOT LINGO PART 1

We have been having a blast learning about flying air force jets! Don't tell my Army friends! I love this stuff and I know a lot of my readers are into jet technology too...Our pal Kurt Tek sent in this installment of Jet Pilot Lingo.. We need to understand what the pilots and crew are saying right?

CHECK SIX: Off the nose of the jet is 12, directly left is 9, right is 3, behind is 6; and all the other "clock" positions in between. Example: "Cobra 1's engaged bogey, right 2, 5 miles." Or, "Cobra 2 break right! Bogey your 6, 2 miles, 10 degrees high"

Gang, this video is fantastic...really good video of the F16 in action.....Loved it

Fighter Pilot Lingo – Official and non-Official

AAA- Triple A, anti-aircraft artillery. Explosive rounds fired from a ground site at aircraft; either radar-aimed or visually. Different calibers have different ranges and rates of fire. Mainly avoided by staying out of range or moving the airplane around and limiting exposure time. Once a round’s out of the barrel it’s ballistic- not hard to “Jink” away from. Jinking is the maneuvering performed to defeat ballistic ordnance, either from a AAA site or another fighter.

AMRAAM- Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missile. Active radar guided air to air weapon. Should be supported with guidance be the parent aircraft to a certain point, then it can be “cut loose” and complete the intercept on its own. Host aircraft radar support is not an absolute requirement, but the longer you can help it, the higher the chance of success.

AWACS- Airborne Warning and Control System. Big 360-degree rotating radar on a 707. Assists fighters locating enemy aircraft, among many other things it does. Like a “5th” wingman, in that the assistance and long-range eyes of the radar can be invaluable in the outcome of a BVR (Beyond Visual Range) engagement.

Afterburner- Or AB, Burner, Blower… Section of the engine exhaust just prior to the variable area nozzle where fuel is burned adding 50-70% more thrust. Fuel consumption and IR (Infrared) signature goes way up. Usually only used in short bursts. When you can see flame out of the exhaust of a fighter he’s in burner. Full power short of afterburner (nozzle closed) is called “MIL power” (for Military power)

Bandit- Aircraft identified as enemy IAW theatre ROE (Rules of Engagement). It doesn’t mean you can shoot it. Has to meet “Hostile” criteria, which typically is based on him committing a “hostile act”, such as penetrating a no-fly zone, shooting at us, or crossing a political border. Again, depends on the specific ROE (can be complicated and frustrating)

Bogey- Unknown aircraft (unidentified). May require intercept and visual ID (VID). If he’s aware of your presence and a threat, this is a difficult situation, as he’s likely not bound by the same constraints. May have to fight your way in for the VID. Again, depends on the ROE. Most ROE allows for self-defense which would make it moot, except for having to get shot at first. An aircraft that meets all ID and ROE criteria to be shot is called “Hostile”. No one ever uses that word unless absolutely sure, and IAW ROE procedure.

BFM- Basic Fighter Maneuvers. 1 v 1 dogfighting, with the end objective of achieving a gun kill. All fighters have guns. The F-16 has the M-61A which is a 6-barrel Gatling gun that fires 20mm HEI (High Explosive-Incendiary) rounds at 6000/minute (100 rounds per second, or ~16 rounds per barrel per second). Also slang, as in, “I had to BFM that mother f___ing truck to make the exit off the freeway…” and many other creative applications.

Bingo- Fuel state which requires immediate RTB (Return To Base) in order to land at a preplanned fuel state. Again, used in other applications as slang, like in, “Hey, the Men’s shitter is BINGO TP!!” or, almost out of toilet paper. Frequently applied to low liquor levels, as well.

Bitchin Betty- The automated female voice that provides spoken cautions and warnings in the cockpit for various sub-system failures, or impending danger (“Altitude, altitude”, or “Pull-up, pull-up”), or an advisory to turn on a self-protection system (“Jammer, jammer”)

Callsign- Identification of a fighter and wingmen. Like “Cobra 21”; wingies would be “Cobra 22”, 23, 24… Also, a given permanent nickname of a fighter pilot, usually assigned early in his career and related to something funny or stupid that he did, or maybe an unusual physical feature, etc. It seems cruel, but fighter pilots will defend one another in the air or in a bar to the death. Lots of “Lurch”s, “Ugly”, “Dog”, “Slap”, “Gomer”, “Sly”, “Meat”, “Chunks”, etc..

CAS- Close Air Support. Attacking ground targets in close proximity to friendly ground forces, often during a firefight.

Chaff- Bundle of hair-like metal fragments of various lengths to produce false radar returns and or cause radar break-locks in enemy aircraft. When you dispense it under G-loads (turning) it quickly “blossoms” in the wake vortex and produces a radar return typically larger than the fighter. The FAA hates it because it stays airborne a long time and drifts out of the military training airspace sometimes. Some places don’t allow its use because of this.

Checkride- An evaluation sortie. You have to do an Instrument-Qualification and Mission Qualification checkride every 18 months. Everyone hates them because the guy checking you typically is a command/staff guy who flys at a much lower rate, and may not be as qualified as you are. (Irritating) And everyone hates evaluations anyway. They are preceded by written testing and an Emergency Procedures Simulator profile.

Check Six-Visual observation of the rear quadrant, from which most air-to-air attacks can be expected. Refers to the clock system of scanning the envelope around the aircraft; 12 o’clock is straight ahead, 6 o’clock is directly astern. Also a common salutation and greeting among tactical pilots. ...

AF FIGHTER PILOT RITUAL: SHOTS OF JEREMIAH WEED 100 PROOF

Ever heard about the fighter pilot ritual of bringing out "the Weed"? Me neither! But it involves filling a shot glass for each person present and then proposing a toast. At the conclusion of the toast, all down their Weed in a single gulp. It is nasty stuff..100 proof and tastes like rocket fuel... Now we find out the true story behind the AF pilots' reverence for this low-grade booze...

My friend and AF F16 fighter pilot/instructor, Kurt Tek sent me this story on the history behind Air Force fighter pilots' love affair with 100 proof Jeremiah Weed whiskey...

I love history, don't you? LOL
 

Kurt is a good friend of the legendary Joe Bob Phillips...

Every USAF fighter squadron has a lounge where the pilots sometimes gather for a cold beer after the flying day is over. Every refrigerator in each of those lounges contains a chilled bottle of a 100-proof product called Jeremiah Weed. For special occasions, and sometimes for no reason at all, someone will bring out the Weed, fill a shot glass for each person present, and propose a toast.

At the conclusion of the toast, all down their Weed in a single gulp. It is not tasty. To many, it seems like drinking kerosene, and it leaves a very strong aftertaste. Be that as it may, few refuse because the downing of a Weed is a ritual deeply imbedded in the fighter pilot culture.

READ THE WHOLE STORY

THANKS KURT!!

LT COL KURT TEK: F16 MISSION TO TURKEY

 

 Lt. Colonel Kurt Tek 

My readers and fly boys will be thrilled to see who is guest posting with Retrokimmer today... Kurt Tek, younger brother of my good friend Deniz Tek...

Kurt is stationed in Abu Dhabi the capital and second largest city in the United Arab Emirates. He is an F-16E instructor pilot over there. I asked him to guest write for us and he graciously responded...this is his first submission with more to come...OUTSTANDING!

KURT TEK: Mission: delivering two F-16A’s from the boneyard at Davis Monthan AFB AZ to Turkey for refurbishment, then eventual transfer to the Jordanian AF. These jets were ROUGH- 4G limit on the airframe and 400 knot speed limit because they were so badly cracked internally

 

 Refueling

Notice how the tail ID’s have been spray painted over, gang-style! Anyway, we stop in the Azores at Lajes AB and have to wait two weeks to get an engine anomaly fixed on my jet.

Doesn’t happen, and Christmas is upon us, so they send us back to the States and say be back about 10 January and we should have it fixed by then. They had to defuel the jets for the long parking wait so they wouldn’t split on the ramp! Not much confidence…

Finally we get back and press on to Turkey. I get a VFR (good weather) forecast for Ankara, which is important, as fuel planning is impacted by whether or not you have to carry reserves for diverts. We take our last gas off the tanker and are on our own.

 
Weather still looks good, but lots of snow on the ground in Turkey. As we approach Ankara (~130 miles south) I can see a wall of cloud that appears to be just beyond our destination. As we get closer, it becomes obvious the AB we’re going to is in the shit. I radio for an observation and its 200’ ceiling and less than a mile vis.

 
We aren’t legal to even do the instrument approach, if we had a current one with us, which we don’t because all they could provide us was a ten year out of date one. Better than nothing- at least the mountains don’t move. We are at the point where we need to start our descent and we’re above the cloud cover which is about 10,000’ but with mountain peaks sticking up through the clouds all over, so we have to be damn sure of our position.

I tell my wingman that I’ll go in first, and he can get a separate clearance. He then confesses that his instrument approach copies are in MY jet! WTF!!

Okay, get 2 miles behind me and get a radar lock, and you’ll be following me down. So we get vectors from a Turkish controller through the mountains, and I’m cross-checking the approach I have, and it seems to be correct relative to the controller’s instructions. Thankfully, my wingy’s jet maintains it’s radar lock on me so he’s safe.

 
I break out of the wx (weather) and land on a blowing snow covered runway with no gas left to go anywhere else, shut down, get out and damn near kiss the ground. Smoked and drank heavily that night! KT