Fighter Question

[Skyfan]

hey folks,

Recently saw an F-15 at a UK site cleared to 15,000ft from take off. I wondered what the likely purpose would be? Save fuel? Save time? Was a pretty spectacular piece of flying to the non-pilot, wheels up, stick back, gone..

[wiccan]

Which airfield?
Probably cleared up to 15K so that London Mil could talk to him PDQ.
bb

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

<<I wondered what the likely purpose would be? >>

I see nothing unusual with as fighter being cleared to 15000ft... He probably reached that before the end of the runway!

[Skyfan]

Hey wiccan and Heathrow Director,

thanks for the responses. The details are irrelevant as I was just curious. Wasn't actually trying to suggest it was unusual Director, just reasoned that it would have a purpose in going straight up rather than taking the long way round and wasn't sure what that might be.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

<<it would have a purpose in going straight up rather than taking the long way round >>

Maybe we don't know the exact situation. What do you mean by "long way round"?

[sycamore]

The `long way around` could be because of other traffic,inbound ,or to another close airfield,or outbound traffic.

[Springer1]

There was probably no purpose other than it is very exhilarating to do. Especially when fuel for a particular mission was not an issue.

[WindSheer]

Exactly.
Plus, your typical fighter is not your everyday IFR machine.

Get them a nice high clearance so they can get up there out of the way without worrying about busting.
A light 757 cleared to 6000 will get there very quickly, a fighter jet would do it within 20 sec's!!

[Skyfan]

Hey folks,

Thanks for the further responses. Like I said in my initial post it was pretty spectacular stuff, in that you are spot on. The primary reason it stood out was because every other flight for several hours worth of spotting followed a pretty obvious pattern, even to a novice. Some kind of training/practice route I suspect.

This particular flight just lit the blue touch paper and, as you say, was gone in seconds. Just glad I caught him at it tbh :-)

[Load Toad]

Could have been something serious - trying to get away from a nagging spouse or such.

[Bullethead]

Get any good pix Skyfan?

Years ago in my previous job I was sitting in a RAAF B707 at St Louis, Mo waiting my turn and from the McD factory on the far side of the field came an F15 and commenced his takeoff roll on the cross runway and when he got to the intersection rotated to the vertical, went straight up to somewhere in the mid 20s then departed in the direction of the normal traffic flow. Very impressive and me very envious.

Regards,
BH.

[Skyfan]

Hey Bullethead,

Not exactly good lol but then I wasn't expecting him to nose up 90 degrees and it was banged up with no edit. The cloud base left a bit to be desired also.

YouTube - F15 Rapid Ascent.mpg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1X72m_hryw)