How high have you been?
Join Date: Feb 2001
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I can't believe I've been bantered into this, but Monkey's got a bite....
F3: 48 000, M1.6 (not much more than 200KIAS)
Nothing remarkable; but I posted this to point out they can go above block 2. Oh, and that was with 8 rockets.
There was another F3 that was going for the big 50 at M2.0, he slightly misjudged the apex, and peaked at FL600+. Then it all went quiet, bu99er.
F3: 48 000, M1.6 (not much more than 200KIAS)
Nothing remarkable; but I posted this to point out they can go above block 2. Oh, and that was with 8 rockets.
There was another F3 that was going for the big 50 at M2.0, he slightly misjudged the apex, and peaked at FL600+. Then it all went quiet, bu99er.
Join Date: Apr 2002
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26,500 without an engine - mountain wave near Sisteron in Les Haut Alps. 2 1/2 times that figure in a PR-9 (plus a little bit). With a pressure jerkin , but still illegal - if I remember correctly the official limitation was the O2 regulator - 55K
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F530 in an F-111. So what? All I was trying to do was go from F400 to F500 at a constant M2.0. B*gger me if the thing didn't climb at 20-25000 ft/min, happily holding Mach 2 (but obviously reducing IAS). The F530 was where we topped out in the resultant inverted pulldown, attempting to stay below F500. No idea what height it would've gone to if we'd kept going!
Join Date: Jun 2002
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80 000, Warp Factor 5:
A colleague of mine immediately after being told by unit Pongo that as he hadn't paid his mess bill on time he may be nominated as Orderley Sgt on Boxing Day. He achieved height/speed minus an airframe and only powered by blind fury.
To all who may be disappearing please do not get into a situation where the talent gained from our "chats" in Cornwall is required.
PS ALL to ensure you are in date CCS - it is SO important!
A colleague of mine immediately after being told by unit Pongo that as he hadn't paid his mess bill on time he may be nominated as Orderley Sgt on Boxing Day. He achieved height/speed minus an airframe and only powered by blind fury.
To all who may be disappearing please do not get into a situation where the talent gained from our "chats" in Cornwall is required.
PS ALL to ensure you are in date CCS - it is SO important!
Join Date: Jun 1999
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73, 000 ft
Honest!
Lightning T5, me frightened teenager with UTP. Off Victor tanker, to sea level. Burners in, accel to almost boom time, whereupon boss says, 'let's go up.'
Speed strip display wound down rapidly from 500kts ish, steadied at 350 kts, then started accelerating again.......going vertically!! Fuel gauges were going the opposite direction at the same rate..
Time frame for next para, about 25 secs..
'45k - that's the LSJ limit....
55k, that's the aeroplane's limit.....
60k..
65..
70.. (thump)
WASSAT?!
Oh, the burner's popping out..(THUMP).. and that's the other. We'd better go down now.' (Understatement of the year!)
Peaked ballistically at 73,000 ft or thereabouts. Completely black (and I mean dark black!) above, and very bright below - the opposite to that which us earthbound mortals see every day walking on the planet.
Saw Norway, Berwick (Edinburgh), Snowdonia (Wales) and the bottom of England......
Had a VERY strange feeling of 'we shouldn't be here. We're going to get into trouble.....we might have an airmiss with a sattelite....MOTHER!' A bit like sitting on top of a pine pole 60ft off the ground and not daring to move in case you fall off. Can't really explain it. Odd feeling of wanting to draw my legs up onto the seat with the rest of me...
Controls were not very useful, but we ballistic-ed over, pointed the nose at Binbrook, idle/fast idle descent at huge rate and did a run and break. Landed (above min fuel!!), opened the canopy and shut down. UTP was out and off for a cup of tea while I sat there in a dazed state. One minute near space, 5 mins later on the deck listening to birds twittering......Ga Ga!!
And it took the other side of the pond quite a few years to build a production fighter that could do that!!
Oh, and we did Mach 1.75 on the airtest before tanking - still got me Ten Ton Tie (1000mph)
After 24 years of flying, it's still the most exhilarating thing I have ever done.
Ahhhh... them were the days.
Honest!
Lightning T5, me frightened teenager with UTP. Off Victor tanker, to sea level. Burners in, accel to almost boom time, whereupon boss says, 'let's go up.'
Speed strip display wound down rapidly from 500kts ish, steadied at 350 kts, then started accelerating again.......going vertically!! Fuel gauges were going the opposite direction at the same rate..
Time frame for next para, about 25 secs..
'45k - that's the LSJ limit....
55k, that's the aeroplane's limit.....
60k..
65..
70.. (thump)
WASSAT?!
Oh, the burner's popping out..(THUMP).. and that's the other. We'd better go down now.' (Understatement of the year!)
Peaked ballistically at 73,000 ft or thereabouts. Completely black (and I mean dark black!) above, and very bright below - the opposite to that which us earthbound mortals see every day walking on the planet.
Saw Norway, Berwick (Edinburgh), Snowdonia (Wales) and the bottom of England......
Had a VERY strange feeling of 'we shouldn't be here. We're going to get into trouble.....we might have an airmiss with a sattelite....MOTHER!' A bit like sitting on top of a pine pole 60ft off the ground and not daring to move in case you fall off. Can't really explain it. Odd feeling of wanting to draw my legs up onto the seat with the rest of me...
Controls were not very useful, but we ballistic-ed over, pointed the nose at Binbrook, idle/fast idle descent at huge rate and did a run and break. Landed (above min fuel!!), opened the canopy and shut down. UTP was out and off for a cup of tea while I sat there in a dazed state. One minute near space, 5 mins later on the deck listening to birds twittering......Ga Ga!!
And it took the other side of the pond quite a few years to build a production fighter that could do that!!
Oh, and we did Mach 1.75 on the airtest before tanking - still got me Ten Ton Tie (1000mph)
After 24 years of flying, it's still the most exhilarating thing I have ever done.
Ahhhh... them were the days.
Join Date: Mar 2002
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Lizzie, good post, you get the prize so far for me!
All you go getters in the fast toys get oxygen and squezzzze suits so spare a thought for the humble helo jock who has to perform in a faded flight suit and flip flops. Before I joined the Mt Kenya altitude club my other seat offered to fly with only one glove so that if I saw his fingers turning blue I could assume hypoxia and recover the situation for tea and medals. It was only climbing through 10k that I figured that if his fingers were blue would I care or would my giggling affect the ROC!!
I really don't know man.
All you go getters in the fast toys get oxygen and squezzzze suits so spare a thought for the humble helo jock who has to perform in a faded flight suit and flip flops. Before I joined the Mt Kenya altitude club my other seat offered to fly with only one glove so that if I saw his fingers turning blue I could assume hypoxia and recover the situation for tea and medals. It was only climbing through 10k that I figured that if his fingers were blue would I care or would my giggling affect the ROC!!
I really don't know man.
Join Date: Aug 2002
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Not me I know and we all know it can do it but I still remember the first time I heard Concorde doing Oceanics on the HF. I was a numbskull 4th dry on a Nimrod MR2 doing radios reporting to Shanwick about every 45mins at m.69 at about FL280. He was reporting every 15mins at FL560!!
The highest I have been in a Nimrod was with the Boscombe guys, FL420. FL410 was the highest on a normal flight.
The highest I have been in a Nimrod was with the Boscombe guys, FL420. FL410 was the highest on a normal flight.
I'm a spotter (and non Brit too) but with a big interest on the Lightning.
Good to see some Lightning jocks around on this thread!!
I've heard some wild Lightning stories from at least two different airframes but don't know how true they are:
94000FT from an F3 (XR749?)
...And over FL870 from both a Lightning F/O pilot from 74Sqn down in Singapore around 1970 and again from XR749 from Mike Hale, 11 Sqn I believe, 1980's...
The other legendary stories concerning the latter pilot/aircraft combo include a stern converion intercept by XR749 on a Concorde at high alt doing M2.2 as well as a U2 intercept by another Lightning at 66000ft!
Good to see some Lightning jocks around on this thread!!
I've heard some wild Lightning stories from at least two different airframes but don't know how true they are:
94000FT from an F3 (XR749?)
...And over FL870 from both a Lightning F/O pilot from 74Sqn down in Singapore around 1970 and again from XR749 from Mike Hale, 11 Sqn I believe, 1980's...
The other legendary stories concerning the latter pilot/aircraft combo include a stern converion intercept by XR749 on a Concorde at high alt doing M2.2 as well as a U2 intercept by another Lightning at 66000ft!
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Heard of a Lightning intercept a U2. U2 didn't see it as he was looking down and the Lightning was above.
Made 550 in a Vulcan on an air test. Still climbing over Glasgow but didn't have the fuel to cotinue.
Made 560, sustained, in an exercise. Very quiet. Could see all the Canberras, Victors, Mk1s etc being picked off by the Lightnings and Sea Vixens but nothing ame our way.
Heard Huggis (44 or 50) made 650 over Darwin. Very dark and again, very quiet watching all the Mirage tooling around 30K below.
Once they changed out O2 regulators they tried to keep us below 50 and ideally below 450. We made 510 out of Nairboi before Mombasa and then flew north at the height 'to avoid CAT' he said.
One crew made Goose Bay to Waddington in just over 3hours. Doppler on the stops at 750 all the was (tail wind) and beat the customs officer from Scampton by 1 1/2 hours.
Made 550 in a Vulcan on an air test. Still climbing over Glasgow but didn't have the fuel to cotinue.
Made 560, sustained, in an exercise. Very quiet. Could see all the Canberras, Victors, Mk1s etc being picked off by the Lightnings and Sea Vixens but nothing ame our way.
Heard Huggis (44 or 50) made 650 over Darwin. Very dark and again, very quiet watching all the Mirage tooling around 30K below.
Once they changed out O2 regulators they tried to keep us below 50 and ideally below 450. We made 510 out of Nairboi before Mombasa and then flew north at the height 'to avoid CAT' he said.
One crew made Goose Bay to Waddington in just over 3hours. Doppler on the stops at 750 all the was (tail wind) and beat the customs officer from Scampton by 1 1/2 hours.
Hughes 500D....ferry flight from Deadhorse, Alaska to Lafayette, Louisana.....150 feet AGL to 6000 feet AGL in less than one second....without trading off airspeed! Still get shaky knees when I think of it!
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Join Date: Oct 2000
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Oh my god what have i started!!, Talk about boy racers. But i love it. Keep em coming boys. My eyes are turning green. If i remember! didn`t the brilliant Roland B. leave a lightning standing in the TSR with only one burner alight? or is that just a pigment of my imagination.
Join Date: Jan 2003
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490 in a V, and chuffin cold at 150 in a Wessex.
An Av Med Doc once commented that the amount of O2 in the V force rear crew parachute pack wasn't enough to ward off hypoxia, to which my Staneval nav immediately replied "if I've just jumped out at FL490 I want to be hypoxic!"
An Av Med Doc once commented that the amount of O2 in the V force rear crew parachute pack wasn't enough to ward off hypoxia, to which my Staneval nav immediately replied "if I've just jumped out at FL490 I want to be hypoxic!"
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Not the highest, I'm sure, but memorable for me.
57,000 in Hunter F2 over Martlesham Heath. Knife edge stuff with no noticeable damping.
37,000 in Meteor 7 between Teheran and Sharjah (unpessurised) but force of circumstances... Landed with 40/40 in a sandstorm Oddly don't remember any bends but did experience them some years later at lower altitudes when older and heavier.
22,000 in Olympia glider in CuB on oxygen over Lincolnshire. Effing cold and full of ice that stayed for the 20 mins it took to get back to ground level.
Onlly 14,000 in Huey over the Rockies but the lack of damping and narrowing flight envelope made the whole experience very eerie and concentrated the mind.
My max in a Chippie was only 14,000 but 18,000 was on the cards. It was the Service Ceiling, I recall.
Lovely memories from a log book with so many entries just saying the same old things.
57,000 in Hunter F2 over Martlesham Heath. Knife edge stuff with no noticeable damping.
37,000 in Meteor 7 between Teheran and Sharjah (unpessurised) but force of circumstances... Landed with 40/40 in a sandstorm Oddly don't remember any bends but did experience them some years later at lower altitudes when older and heavier.
22,000 in Olympia glider in CuB on oxygen over Lincolnshire. Effing cold and full of ice that stayed for the 20 mins it took to get back to ground level.
Onlly 14,000 in Huey over the Rockies but the lack of damping and narrowing flight envelope made the whole experience very eerie and concentrated the mind.
My max in a Chippie was only 14,000 but 18,000 was on the cards. It was the Service Ceiling, I recall.
Lovely memories from a log book with so many entries just saying the same old things.
Last edited by fobotcso; 11th Feb 2003 at 09:45.
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Max B - Surprises a lot of folk doesn't it that those heights were possible in an F-4.
Got a K to 710. Makes we wince now but I was a first tourist. Were your donks still going at 670?
Your 600 F3 mate wasn't the now Mr S was it?
Got a K to 710. Makes we wince now but I was a first tourist. Were your donks still going at 670?
Your 600 F3 mate wasn't the now Mr S was it?
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Ok - it's only FL430 and M0.925 - but that was hand flying a VC10 in shirt sleeves and able to drink my cup of tea at the same time (plus the option to walk back to the bog or galley).
Take note FJ jocks - you don't need all those straps and rudder gear to get it right up there!
Take note FJ jocks - you don't need all those straps and rudder gear to get it right up there!