Mark Abramson — Journalist and Writer

DARPA UAV development — http://www.stripes.com/news/for-unmanned-drones-the-sky-is-not-the-limit-1.94254

Complaints about U.S. helicopters — http://www.stripes.com/news/locals-complaints-about-helicopter-flights-spiking-at-ansbach-1.93571

Top gun trains new blood to fight terror F/A-18 flier instructs Navy and Marines

The Daily Review

March 24, 2002

By Mark Abramson

SAN DIEGO — The multimillion-dollar jet thundered down the runway as Navy Lt. Glenn Crabbe eased the throttle forward.

Crabbe pulled back hard on the control stick as the F/A-18 Hornet banked into a nearly vertical climb. He headed the dagger-shaped plane toward the coast of San Diego, buzzing rooftops as a multicolored map of the area continuously adapted on his center display.

The green radar screen to the right of the map flickered, indicating an enemy aircraft. The lieutenant read a pair of numbers that displayed the enemy’s altitude and speed as he headed straight for an aerial brush with the bad guy.

He positioned the Hornet behind his enemy and opened fire with his 20mm gun, keeping the F/A-18’s nose lined up with his opponent as the enemy twisted and turned to evade him.

Had the dogfight been real and not a projection on the F/A-18 simulator at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, the enemy jet would have been destroyed, and its pilot probably would have ejected or died.

The Imax-like simulator nestled in a 40-foot gray bubble was easy for Crabbe, 32, of Crestline, Ohio. The 10-year veteran flew 22 missions enforcing the no-fly zone over Iraq in 1998, and he said the Iraqis fired surface-to-air missiles at him.

“I’m glad they don’t have the capability we have,” Crabbe said.

Crabbe, who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, said he wanted to fly fighter planes after seeing the F-14s in the movie “Top Gun.” He asked to fly F/A-18s, a plane designed for air combat and ground-attack missions, because he said he expects the aging F-14s to be replaced by a more advanced version of the F/A-18 called the Super Hornet.

His job now is to train Marine and Navy Hornet pilots. The students get eight to 10 hours in the simulator and another 75 hours in an F/A-18 under the watchful eye of instructors such as Crabbe.

The Hornet training is preceded by more than 100 hours in a propeller plane and a smaller jet. It takes about three years to train an F/A-18 pilot.

Although the two-seat simulators familiarize students with the F/A-18 controls, nothingcompares to the real thing, Crabbe said.

“Night carrier landings are the hardest,” he said. “At night there’s nothing to see but that little carrier.

Crabbe runs the carrier qualification training at Miramar, a former Navy base and previous home to the Top Gun flight school. He grades students on the 10 daytime landings and six night landings they must complete.

By the time the new pilots are done with training, “I would say they are ready to go defend the country,” Crabbe said.

“If I had been on sea duty on Sept. 11, I would have been the one dropping bombs (in Afghanistan),” he added.

Mark Abramson covers police and public safety. To reach him, call (510) 293-2469, or send e­mail to mabramson@angnewspapers.com.

Burlingame Daily News — October 7, 2007

Fat Albert — the high scare airline
Transport plane is an integral part of Blue Angels

Burlingame Daily News

October 6, 2007
By Mark Abramson
Daily News Staff Writer

Fat Albert Airlines is not exactly like flying the friendly skies for anyone who is faint of heart.

The C-130T Hercules transport plane dubbed “Fat Albert Airlines” is actually part of the Blue Angels air power demonstration at air shows around the country, including this weekend’s Fleet Week in San Francisco.

As part of the shows, pilots Marine Corps Maj. Matt McGath, Maj. Russ Campbell and Maj. Drew Hess perform gut wrenching maneuvers that include taking off at a steep 45 degree angle, which makes passengers and the support crew float in a weightless environment for seconds as the plane is being leveled off.

Other maneuvers throughout the demonstration create a weightless environment as well.

During the show, the plane does tight turns at up to three times the force of gravity, or three Gs, to negative two Gs. And at one point during what McGath called a “dress rehearsal” Friday for the shows today and Sunday, Fat Albert was flying 370 miles per hour about 60 feet above the Bay.

Support crew in the plane’s cargo area took in the Golden Gate, Alcatraz and other Bay Area sights during the flight and snapped pictures of the scenery, when their legs were not flying out from underneath them as they became weightless.

McGath, who is the senior Fat Albert pilot on the team, is in his third year with the Blue Angels, and he said it is unlike any other job he has had during his 13-year military career.

“This has been a great (job), it is the most unique assignment,” McGath, 39, of St. Joseph, Mich., said. “The C-130 is the most versatile aircraft in the military.”

Fat Albert showcases the C-130’s capability before the F/A-18 Hornet fighter pilots perform at packed air shows, he said. The plane became part of the Blue Angels’ shows in the mid-1980s. At some of those shows, pilots demonstrate the aircraft’s eight side-mounted rocket boosters, which allows the plane to take off on shorter runways.

“This is unique to the Blue Angels,” McGath said about a transport being used to perform aerobatic maneuvers.

Fat Albert pilots learn how to push the lumbering transport to its limits or brush up on the skills to do so during two months of training each year from early January to mid-March, before the Blue Angels hit the air-show circuit. And only experienced pilots with 1,250 hours of flight time can qualify to fly Fat Albert for the team, McGath said.

The four-engine propeller driven plane is also used to help haul around the Blue Angels’ team of 110 maintenance personnel and equipment to air shows around the country, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Garrett Kasper, the Blue Angels public affairs officer. The Blue Angels are on the road, away from their home base, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla., for about 300 days a year.

According to the Navy, Fat Albert joined the Blue Angels in 1970 and it flies about 140,000 miles during each air show season, which is from March to early November .

E-mail Mark Abramson at mabramson@dailynewsgroup.com

Link to what it is like to fly in Fat Albert — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLFB7q8tyd8