Relay-Version: B 2.11 6/12/87; site scorn Path: uunet!snorkelwacker!usc!trwind!venice!sleepy!cliburn From: cliburn@sleepy.bmd.trw.com Newsgroups: rec.aviation Subject: A fine day on the range Message-ID: <547.2673d4cb@sleepy.bmd.trw.com> Date: Mon, 11 Jun 90 17:28:43 PDT Lines: 81 Only the end of this post has much of anything to do with aviation, but what the heck - it's interesting reading. Thursday, June 7, the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) hosted their annual public open house. UTTR is located in the desert just west of the Great Salt Lake (it's called Hill Air Force Base Range on my AAA road map). The day's activities included a demonstration of explosive devices by the USAF's 2701st Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Squadron, a static test firing of a Minuteman ICBM stage 1 motor, a landing of a US Army AH-64 helicopter (allowing close inspection), and finally, a trip out to "Eagle Range" to observe bomb drops and strafing runs by USAF aircraft. The EOD demo began by detonation of about 30 feet of det cord some 50 feet from the observers. Very loud, very powerful, very impressive. The stuff burns at 21,000 linear feet/sec according to our EOD narrator, and 30 feet of it burned mighty quickly. They also used C4 explosives to obliterate a dummy (no, not one from the crowd :-)). The most striking application of C4 was in the destruction of an old USAF "6-pack" - a six passenger pickup truck. Only two pounds of the explosive sent the hood hurtling about 100 feet into the air, wrecked the cab, and sent fenders and debris sailing over a wide area. We were about 1/2 mile from the explosion and it was interesting to note just how powerful a seemingly small amount of explosives could actually be. The final EOD event was the detonation of 27,000 (yes, thousand) pounds of high explosives. Now THIS was impressive. We counted 22 seconds between flash and arrival of sound, and watched in awe as the shock wave traveled across the desert floor. It made quite a nice mushroom cloud as well. I don't know about these EOD guys though, they all looked like they were just having a grand ol' time cooking off all this ordnance :-). I hope I don't ever tick one off! The Minuteman missile stage 1 burn was actually the reason I went to the open house, since I am an engineer who works regularly with ICBM systems. It was a static test fire of 64 seconds duration. The Air Force routinely tests its missile motors to ensure that they still work after some twenty-odd years of service. This one worked well. The exhaust plume brightness was much more intense than I had expected it would be - on the order of a welding arc. We were about 1 mile from the motor. The Apache helicopter arrival was fairly uneventful, except for one item. We noticed a cylindrical object made up of yellow tinted mirrored tiles located just aft of the main rotor shaft, mounted on the fuselage. The axis of the center of the cylinder was parallel to the main rotor shaft. We asked the pilot what it was and he replied that it was an "infrared jammer". Does anyone know anything about this device and how it works? The final event of the day was a trip to the bombing/strafing practice area, known as Eagle Range. The first exhibit was some low, fast passes by three F-4s (RF-4s judging from nose configuration). These guys didn't drop or shoot - they just made a lot of noise (which is fine, too). Next was a low altitude bombing run by a B-52. We were about 3/4 of a mile from the target and we saw the bomb fall, the drogue chute open, the impact, and ... nothing! They were inert! What a letdown :-(. Oh well. Finally, three F-16s from the 419th TFW (AFRES) roared in and dropped practice bombs on a target about 3/4 miles away (not the same target the B-52 was using). These guys were GOOD! The bombs were obviously not warshots, but they did produce a nice flash and some smoke. Each of the three planes made about 5 or 6 attack runs and nobody missed. After the bombing runs, they came in at low altitude and high speed for what we thought would be a final flyby. Not so! We saw smoke stream off the port side and heard this godawful ripping or "zipper" sound as they fired off bursts from their cannon. The range had erected fabric targets of about 20-30 feet diameter and strung them between telephone poles and the F-16 pilots were demonstrating their strafing prowess by annihilating these large targets. The sound of the cannon was one of those sounds that, once heard, is never forgotten. Each F-16 made 5 strafing passes and the most interesting thing was how CLOSE we were allowed to the approach alley. We were about 100 feet off the approach centerline and the aircraft were no more than 100 feet AGL. It was great! All in all, it was a fine day in the Utah desert Thursday :-) Jay Cliburn cliburn@doc.bmd.trw.com