Base Visit #09a - Tiger Meet of the Americas

	Saturdays LFE mass briefing takes place at the Cougars HQ. With around thirty fighters mixing it over the UTTR it was a detailed briefing that covered every eventuality. Safety being of upmost importance. © Kevin Jackson EOS-1N 28-105mm K64 Flash		916th ARW KC-135Rs 59-1469 and 62-3542 await their crews at the start of another day at the TMOTA. Both tankers have the hose and drogue equipment fitted in this view. © Kevin Jackson EOS-1N 28-105mm K64 250/F8
	77th ARS Boom Operator (Boomer) Amn. Tara Hopewell sets up the hose and drogue for the approaching receivers. Although less work than 'flying' the boom she still has to monitor systems and be prepared to help out in case a CF-18 should twist the hose. Without a doubt Boomers must have the best office window in the World! © Kevin Jackson EOS-1N 28-105mm K64 Flash		Maj. Jeff Fisher and Maj. Mike Morningstar at the controls of 'Backy 78'. At this point in time they were flying a race track pattern whilst the TMOTA fighters were battling over the nearby UTTR. This lasted for about 30 minutes before the fighters were told to 'Knock it off' and return to base. © Kevin Jackson EOS-1N 28-105mm K64 Flash
	Cugar 51 flight flies off the wing of the 77th ARS KC-135R whilst the first CF-18B refuels. Shot from the emergency exit door aft of the right wing. This is an excellent vantage point for shooting fighters if the glass is clean and not too scratched. © Kevin Jackson EOS-1N 35-350mm K64 250/F8		391st FS 'Bold Tigers' F-15E pilot 'Slokes' and WSO 'Gunner' keep formation on the wing-tip of Backy 77 en-route to the fight. © Kevin Jackson EOS-1N 35-350mm K64 250/F8
	Specially painted "Cougars" CF-18B 188904. Neither of the pilots on board this jet today are Canadian! Flying is RAF exchange pilot Flt Lt Stuart Reed and in the back waving his tiger scarf is die hard Tiger Maj. Dirk 'Ecki' Eckhardt. A german intructor currently assigned to the Euro-Nato Training Wing at Sheppard AFB, Texas. © Kevin Jackson EOS-1N 35-350mm K25 250/F8		'Bold Tiger' flag-ship 88-1707 skims the cloud tops over the Rockies as it heads West towards Utah. Leading the flight of two F-15Es as 'Simba 41' with 'Cholo' driving and 'Blowfish' riding shotgun! © Kevin Jackson EOS-1N 35-350mm K64 250/F8
	410 TFS CF-18Bs of Cuger 51 flight keep perfect formation as the Blue Force element returns to the Tigers Lair, Buckley AFB. With the refueling boom stowed the uninterupted view is fantastic for photography. © Kevin Jackson EOS-1N 28-105mm K64 250/F8		Since taking part in the TMOTA, the 391st FS, part of the 'on-call 911' 366th Wing, have made the news for their missions as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Dropping GBU-28 'Bunker Busting' bombs over Afganistan. © Kevin Jackson EOS-1N 28-105mm K64 250/F8
	Cugar 51-54 fly over the Western Colorado terrain after the final Large Force Employment (LFE) mission of the TMOTA. That evening a secret ballot among all the participants voted the Canadian team overall TMOTA winners. Hopefully these scenes will be repeated near Cold Lake in 2003. © Kevin Jackson EOS-1N 28-105mm K64 250/F8		The 'Catamounts' team from the Vermont ANG fly over the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Normally known as the Green Mountain Boys they adopted the Catamount - an Eastern Mountain Lion and State mascot of Vermont. © Kevin Jackson EOS-1N 35-350mm K64 250/F8
	Photography through thick double glased glass is never going to be easy. with the panes of glass about one inch apart any scratches on the outer surface will interfere with the focusing. Add to this the wide-angle lens needed and the aperture of f-8 and you have a problem. Best results were achieved by putting the lense flat on the glass and removing any lens hood. © Kevin Jackson EOS-1N 28-105mm K64 250/F8		'Cat 52' banks over Salt Lake City. With 'Wilycat' at the controls it is loaded for its 'Red-Air' mission with AIM-120s on the wing-tips and inert AIM-9Ps under the wings. © Kevin Jackson EOS-1N 28-105mm K64 250/F8
	188934 in the standard low-viz CAF scheme flies trail behind the 'Totin Tigers' KC-135R, callsign 'Backy 78'. 410 TFS is the Canadian Air Force CF-18 Operational Conversion Unit (OCU). Responsible for training all new CAF pilots in the weapons systems and tactics of the CF-18, they operate a large proportion of the two seat CF-18B variant. © Kevin Jackson EOS-1N 28-105mm K64 250/F8		'Boneman' waves his green foam claw at the camera as he returns from Saturday mission. Although the smallest TMOTA team with two F-16Cs the 134th FS 'Catamounts' contributed plenty of Tiger Spirit to the event. © Peter Greengrass EOS-1N 70-200mm K64 200/F8

Firstly, this account of my flights in a KC-135R is only meant to be a re-cap of my personal experience at the Tiger Meet Of The Americas (TMOTA). It is not a lesson in how to shoot air-to-air images but I hope it informs and entertains.

After going through the request phase over the summer months August finally arrived and having started our US journey in Iowa, Pete, Tim and myself loaded our gear onto a domestic flight from Des Moines to Denver with three solid days of access for photography at Buckley AFB to look forward to. I had the extra bonus of up to three tanker flights set up through the 916 ARW, the 'Totin Tigers' who were arriving the same day from their home base at Seymour Johnson NC.

After a nights rest at our hotel where we met up with our friend and fellow shooter Doug Slowiak, we finally arrived at Buckley's main gate bright and early on Thursday morning. Unfortunately for the shooters and the flyers the weather was terrible, low cloud and light rain. The forecaster at the pilots briefing promised that the cloud base would lift by launch time and by recovery the weather would be much better.

Takeoff was uneventful and we established a steady climb through the busy Denver airspace and headed West towards the Rockies. After about twenty minutes we reached our cruising altitude and prepared to join up with the four CF-18s (the Tornado had ground aborted).

There were numerous thunderclouds as we headed towards Utah and the flight was fairly bumpy. Before long the CF-18s were flying off the right wing but we were between cloud layers and it was dull outside. I took position at the door window behind the wing and started shooting though conditions were not great so I held off. Eventually we broke into the clear and I kept swapping between side window and Boom window. Taking some time to appreciate the CF-18 pilots trying to thread their booms into a constantly moving basket. It is an amazing sight watching these jets just a few feet away. Eventually Greg Davis appeared behind the tanker and held up his TMOTA patch in one hand and camera in the other for my camera. As each Hornet finished refueling, they took up position two on each wing and as our tanker flew into the top of a cloud they peeled off and returned when it was clear again. Then they headed down and into their fight and Backy 78 took up a holding pattern before turning back for Buckley with the four CF-18s in tow again. On the way back, after getting more gas, the Boomer asked them on my behalf to fly behind the tanker for some photo ops and two of them kindly obliged.

Final treat was getting to sit in the jump seat for the landing. Watching a professional crew make such an amazing mission look routine was both an honour and a privilege. On the return to Buckley the other tanker, Backy 77, had a lightning strike that damaged the nosecone, which was to put one of the tankers out of action for the remainder of the TMOTA.

I had been lucky enough to get permission to fly on each of the three flying days of the TMOTA. The 77 ARS, the flying unit under the 916th had brought two KC-135Rs along and on day one the intention was to fly both as Backy 77/78. I had seen the proposed mission schedules so to get as many different fighter units from the tanker missions I chose to fly on Backy 78. This was equipped with the hose and drogue system to refuel the 'RED AIR' CF-18Bs from 410 Sqn and the single GAF Tornado from Holloman.

During the morning I had to track down my escort from the 916th, SrA Scott Mathews. Tim, Pete and Doug met up with their photo escort and took a drive out to the ramp in the gloom; it looked like I'd be the only one burning film that day! I'd put my camera gear back in our rental car instead of lugging it around all morning. Tim had the car keys but I knew they would be nearby so never gave it much thought. Whilst waiting around I met up with Greg Davis, the 20FW Photojournalist who was going to be flying in the back of one of the CF-18s and I promised to take some shots of him and he said he would try to shoot me in the boomers window! Now the adrenalin was pumping and I just wanted to meet up with my escort and check that everything was in order, if he said at this stage I could not fly I'd be crushed!

Anyway, Scott turned up at the Cougar HQ building and we introduce ourselves, he is easy going and I start to relax when he tells me the plans for the flight. Time is moving on now so I start to think about getting my cameras from the car but the other lads are nowhere to be seen. I catch a ride out to the flight line but they are not there. Now I'm slightly panicked because my escort is there, the PA lady who will give us a ride out to the tanker is there and I'm starting to sweat thinking I'm going to look really stupid if I cannot get my camera out of the car!

So Maj. Becky Gann, our CO ANG PAO and lift out to the plane gets on the phone and before long locates the others in the lunch hall stuffing their faces! So we leg it over and I almost run into the room and explain the situation breathlessly, making it back to get the cameras and out to the tanker with just a few minutes to spare. With a final 'have a great flight' from Tim and Pete ringing in my ears.

Our ride out to the UTTR west of Salt Lake City was to be in KC-135R 59-1469 with our aircrew comprising of Maj. Jeff Fisher and Maj. Mike Morningstar. The Boomer was TSgt. Rodney Smith and under his instruction was a new Boom Operator, Amn. Tara Hopewell.
Just behind the cargo door was a table with four airline style seats so we quickly had a safety briefing and made ourselves comfortable, grabbing a headset to listen in the intercom.

DAY TWO

The Friday started out bright and sunny which lifted everyone's spirits as we made our way to Buckley again. I spent some time out with Doug, Tim and Pete shooting the ramp. It was a pleasure as we watched Doug work the ramp, getting everything moved or cleaned up and dragging a ladder along for some great shots. As we got down to the 'Bold Tiger' F-15Es I took some shots whilst in the back of my mind thinking, 'in just over two hours I'll be shooting these from the tanker', it was a good feeling!

After meeting up with Scott again we drove out to the remote parking spot where the 77th had taken up residence. As we made to board the pilot motioned from the flight deck for us to stop. The Crew Chief informed us that we were not on the passenger manifest! A sinking feeling arrived, at this late stage I thought that was it and I was trying to think of a way to get back with the others for some runway shots. The crew made some phone calls back to SJ AFB, with no luck. I showed them the paperwork giving me approval but time was running out. They suggested boarding as they had to start engines and if they could not get authorization they'd kick us off before taxi-ing. So I sat down and hoped for the best, I thought 'boy, this is cruel, putting me on board then telling me to get off again' talk about carrot dangling!!!

Anyway, I never heard what happened until we landed but when we started moving I thought they could not get me off now! We took off and joined up with two 'MO' F-15Es (Simba 41/42) and two Vermont Guard Vipers (Cat51/52). They had swapped nose cones and we were on 62-3542 this time. The door window on this '135 was much less scratched than on 469 and I had the two F-15Es off that wing. As the four took on fuel I got some great shots as they broke away but could never get more than two or three good shots as things happened so quickly. At one stage I put the camera down onto the small side window next to the main boomers view. You have to push the camera past a pipe and down to the glass and you cannot get your eye to the viewfinder, so its kind of guesswork as the F-15E turned away. I was lucky and got three great shots as 87-0169 broke and the pilot waved as he turned. The Vermont pilots were cool as well, Maj. Hank Harder had a large foam paw that he waved once he had finished refueling and slipped back from the tanker.

We returned to Buckley and the crew told me they had managed to reach a General at AFRC headquarters who okayed my presence on the flight, so to the crew and the un-named General - thank you!

DAY THREE

With one of the tankers out of action, the planners assigned the remaining one the hose and drogue mission again. So it was with a little disappointment I learnt I would be photographing the Canadian's again, along with hopefully the Tornado. Though I was damn sure I wanted to go up again as no two flights are the same. We took off around 12.30 local and prepared to refuel the Tornado but this time they had air-aborted. So the CF-18s slowly caught the KC-135R up. As this was 542 with the cleaner side window and the weather was great I got some great formation shots. As the special anniversary painted jet grew close the backseater waved his Tiger scarf. This was Maj. Dirk 'Ecki' Eckhardt, a German instructor pilot based at Sheppard and who is a former Tiger with the GAF. On the flight back to Buckley I had the four ship in formation behind the tanker for some great photo opportunities.

So ended my photo sorties for the Tiger Meet Of The Americas. I've learned a few more lessons about tanker photography to take with me the next time I go up. I was extremely lucky to get great aircrew to work with, without their co-operation I'd never have got any good pictures (or even off the ground!) The Tiger Meet missions involved having the receivers flying along with the tanker for much longer than would normally be the case. Having the fighters come back to the tanker for the return to Buckley enabled me to ask for some formation work or just simply fly behind the tanker with the boom stowed. Having a good side window to shoot off the wing is really a matter of luck, sometimes the door is removed before the flight and you can ask to clean it on the outside. Of course the direction of flight will dictate which side you shoot out of with the sun angle. The big Boomers window is usually clean but it is advisable if you have enough time before flying to ask the Crew Chief to clean that (or better still, offer to clean it yourself) this shows you are thinking and its too late if you are at 25000 feet! A good, experienced Boomer is a great help when putting requests for photography through to the receivers, you may get offered a spare headset and get to talk directly to the fighters (I didn't) Lastly, repay your hosts by sending them some prints, they don't need to help you!


Article and Photos by:
	Kevin Jackson

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