
251 episodes

Plane Tales Capt Nick
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- Aviation
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4.9 • 108 Ratings
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Captain Nick Anderson, aka The Old Pilot, takes us on an aviation audio journey each week on the Airline Pilot Guy Aviation Podcast
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Flying the Red Flag, Part III
This is the final part of the Red Flag tales which carries on directly from Part II where we heard some exploits from participants of Exercise Red Flag. If you haven't listened to the previous taleson this subject, it would be worth going back them. My thanks to Jaguar Pilot Nij, Tornado pilot Gasher, Tomcat RIO Scott and RAAF F111 Nav Abs.
The E-3 Sentry AWACS.
Break Right Chuck, there's one in your 6 o'clock!
A Smokey SAM.
Live weapons being dropped during Red Flag.
A Tornado drops flares.
An RAAF F111 puts its wings back and goes!
The Jaguar pilot's favourite dance.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the USAF, Photo-Concepte.de, the RAF, the USN, -
Flying the Red Flag, Part II
In the first part of the Red Flag tales we talked about the reasons for the formation of the USAF Fighter Weapons School and the subsequent creation of Exercise Red Flag. Now we get a chance to hear from some of the participants. Firstly there is Nij who took time off from his Nuclear QRA duties to fly his RAF Jaguar in Flag exercises. Then we have a Tornado GR1 pilot, Gasher, who also participated on behalf of the RAF. Jack was an F15 pilot who took part as a wingman, formation leader and also as a Fighter Weapons School graduate. Scott was a Tomcat RIO who was part of Red Air during Flag exercises and Abs, a navigator from the Royal Australian Air Force flew with the F111 force and was even a Blue Force Commander during the exercise.
An RAF Jaguar
An RAF Tornado at Nellis
The mighty F15 Eagle
The USN F14 Tomcat
The RAAF F111
The Nellis ranges with Area 51 marked in red
The Nellis Air Force Base
A Red Flag briefing
The symbol of Exercise Red Flag
The EF-111A Raven
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Steve Lynes, Finlay McWalter, the USAF, USN, Ken Lund, the National Museum of the Air Force and the MOD. -
Flying the Red Flag
The Korean War had been a successful period for the US Air Force but a decade later in the Vietnam war their success rate had gone from 10:1 down to 1:1. Something had to be be done. This is the story of the creation of the USAF Fighter Weapons School and Exercise Red Flag!
The F86 in Korea
The F4 Phantom II
Wreckage of a B52 in Hanoi
The Weapons School graduate patch and an example of dissimilar combat between an F16 and Mig21
A Soviet Surface to Air missile system
A captured Soviet Mig in USAF markings
The F5 Aggressors
Richard Suter
The Nellis Ranges
A 'Smokey SAM'
IAF F15s, one of the many nations that are invited to take part in Ex Red Flag
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the USAF, Mark Limb, US DOD, US Gov, US Defence Imagery, USMC, Finlay McWalter, National Museum of the Air Force and Srđan Popović. -
RAF Form 414, Vol. 9
It is the beginning of 1981 but for me it was the conclusion of my first front line tour of duty. When my posting came I was devastated. I had been sent to instruct at No 4 Flying Training School, RAF Valley on the island of Anglesey in North Wales. A remote corner in the middle of nowhere doing a job I didn’t want.
An F4 Phantom FG1 of No43(F) Sqn.
The Hawker Harrier GR1.
Survival Scramble.
The A10 Warthog.
The BLC Malfunction emergency checklist.
Greek Gunboats!
My posting to become a QFI loomed!
My much loved Yamaha along with our poo coloured Rover!
Climbing Mt Snowdon.
Dave would perish during Exercise Red Flag when he crashed his RAF Jaguar avoiding a simulated SAM engagement.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Mike Freer, Senior Airman Matthew Bruch, CC BY-SA 3.0, the USAF, the RAF and myself! -
The Deutschendorfs
The Sound Barrier was first broken in 1947... by 1949 Convair had submitted its initial bid for the USAF's first supersonic bomber. So much had to be learned in that time… the aerodynamics of supersonic flight, the construction materials that would be required and the engines that could power it were only part of the technological challenges that would be faced. It was truly a remarkable effort. The pilots that were chosen to fly this tricky Mach 2, 70,000 ft capable aircraft that could climb at over 45,000ft a minute, were highly skilled and Lt Col Henry, John Deutschendorf was one of them.
The opposing sides of the Cold War
The first generation of US and Soviet ICBM nuclear missiles
The B-58 Hustler
The Hustler's escape pod
The three B-58 cockpit hatches
John Denver
The Long EZ
Ghostbusters II
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Kingkingphoto, the USAF, NOAA and Impawards. -
Whether the Weather
Whether the weather be cold,
Or whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather,
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not!
Nowadays, however, we are blessed with more ways to get the weather than one can shake proverbial sticks at and, certainly in the world of aviation, it's all remarkably accurate even if it’s presented in a rather archaic code. Of course even that is pretty advanced when compared with the early days!
Hippocrates
Galileo's thermometer
Early weather forecasting equipment!
The wrecking of the Royal Charter on the Island of Anglesey
Robert Firzroy, the father of met forecasting.
Gp Capt Stagg who forecasted the weather for Operation Chastise
The US Bureau of Metrology
An early radiosonde met balloon
A decode aid for aviation forecasts
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, NOAA, Fenners and the RAF.
Customer Reviews
5 star
Great stories! Thank you
The “Paul Harvey” or Mike Rowe” of Aviation!
Captain Nick is a wonderful storyteller providing some interesting facts from some of the more obscure aviation history. It really harkens back to Paul Harvey’s, “The Rest of the Story, or the updated similar version of Mike Rowe’s, That’s the Way I Heard it,” only Capt. Nick’s stories are aviation related. Keep up the good work Captain!!
One of the best podcasts
I love Captain Nick and I love this podcast. Captain Nick has a real talent for telling stories. Nick is an incredibly experienced airman and listening to him tell these stories, most of which I’ve never heard, is not just educational but so well executed. I always look forward to the next story.
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