Charlie Wolf wrote:
On 1 Feb 2005 05:45:27 -0800, wrote:

This was a pretty typical SIOP mission:
http://skyraider.org/skyassn/warstor/reid.htm

I'll bet some folks would like to see this kind of endurance on today's
flight deck...

Well - an S-3 has pretty good legs...

With 2 drops they can fly about 7.5 on max conserve. That might be to
low fuel warning lights though....

BTW, That's without re-fueling. The S-3 that brought the terrorist
back form the east Med in the 80's flew over 11.0, I think.

I've got one hop over 10 hours in the H-60. That includes three or
four hot fuel stops (which is far more than necessary- between 3 and
3.5 hour flight is normal, I even got a 4.3 out of one tank in that
particular aircraft a week prior to the long flight- but it's better
to have too much than too little fuel) and admittedly one getting out
for a pitstop (no relief tubes in the model I flew). Actual strapped
in the seat time was over 12 hours, luckily no dry suit. Having a
flight crew for conversation helps make the time go by too.

Why such a long flight? My ship was on a hot range most of the
day... nothing special, no war or anything like that going on. Oh,
and to be clear, it was an experience I never care to repeat