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junk2drive -> RE: Planes (1/18/2011 2:38:14 AM)
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They left yesterday afternoon. Local paper today
quote:
BULLHEAD CITY — Area residents were treated to the spectacle of Canadian Air Force jet fighter pilots training in the skies over Bullhead City from Wednesday through Saturday. Three BAE Hawk aircraft were used in the exercise.
Based at Landmark Aviation at Laughlin/Bullhead International Airport, the pilots were scheduled to return to Canada early Sunday morning, depending on weather conditions back home.
They came to Bullhead City for its generally clear flying weather. “We’re combatting a whole bunch of clouds, snow, ice — you name it — up in Canada right now,” said Maj. Scott MacDonald, who was overseeing the operation.
The Canadian Air Force looked for a location where they could train during the winter. “About a year ago, we dispatched a couple of small teams to three spots,” MacDonald said. “We picked smaller airfields that aren’t used very much that have nice weather, (and a) dry, arid climate.” They looked at Bullhead City, as well as locations in New Mexico and Texas. The others were considered too remote. “This one has a little more to offer,” MacDonald said.
The seven pilots, from the 15 Wing Moosejaw Air Force base in the province of Saskatchewan, were in various phases of their training, including one who was on his first mission. Others are near the end of their training and were learning how to fly in formation, “and that’s why you see two airplanes close together,” MacDonald said.
Basic maneuvers included how to react if the plane stalls. “So what we do is we slow the aircraft down, very close to a stall. We’re just simulating that so he knows how to recover if he ever got himself into that kind of trouble.” MacDonald emphasized the stalling maneuver is performed at an altitude 10,000 to 15,000 feet over open desert and not anywhere near a population center.
“We’re just trying to give them the basic handling of the airplane by doing slow flying and stalling the aircraft,” he said. They also practice loops, cloverleafs, and barrel rolls.
“It’s really working out well for us,” MacDonald said. “Unrestricted flying is exactly what we wanted and that’s what we’re getting. There’s no weather issues.” MacDonald hopes to return to Bullhead City later this winter for another week of training.
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