On Sat, 24 Jan 2004 19:46:30 GMT, "Dudley Henriques"
wrote regarding the T-38:

Yup! The standard rule if I remember right was 300 kts and stay the hell
away from icing conditions!!! God, that airplane hated ice!!!!! :-))
Dudley

Things have undoubtedly changed since my last military flight, but the
applicable section of AFR 60-16 which was the governing regulation on
flight operations was that the max airspeed below 10,000 feet MSL was
250 KIAS unless the aircraft operating manual required higher. "We
don' need no steenkin' waivers."

Certainly, compliance with FARs to the maximum extent practicable was
also mandated. But in tactical aircraft, a lot of time was spent
rooting around at speeds higher than 250.

The training command T-38s really wouldn't have a lot of difficulty
with the 300 kts, but the TAC AT-38s regularly did a lot of
low-altitude tactical stuff at higher speed.

As for ice...ABSOLUTELY. I never saw an airplane that was more
sensitive to ice. The slightest bit of rime would threaten to trash
the engines. The tiny J-85 with it's very small compressor blades
wouldn't tolerate much of anything. The F-5 used a different version
of the J-85 with a gap between the front frame and first stage, plus a
heated front frame. Still didn't make it an ice gobbler, but helped a
little bit.

For that matter, you didn't even want the T-38s parked outside in a
heavy rain or hail storm. The honeycomb wing structure would dimple in
a heartbeat. Surprising that the fleet lasted as long as it did
considering the weather in West and South Texas.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8