 Both airframes safe on ground after ENS. Halfacup's extreme weather quals.
 ENS. Halfacup moving in closely to Lt. Irie during his extreme weather quals.
 In this picture ENS. Halfacup is displaying the T-45's training weapons.
 F/A-18C Hornet and T-45 Goshawk shut down after a training session within the squad.
 Winder Boys lined up on a small runway in the T-45 Goshawk, the Navy's lead jet trainer.
 Two VFS-86 Sidewinder A/C's flying close formation near MCAS Beaufort - 01 August 2010
 July 29th, 2010 The squadron was performing carrier traps on CVN-68 until late in the night. Seen here is Lt. 'Bender' with one of his early approaches - 3 Wire.
 Cockpit view of a F/A-18C coming from the hangar deck Lt. 'Bender' is trapping - 2 Wire.
 This picture shows LCDR. 'Redeye' pushing his Hornet over the ship. A rare occasion to see the CO 'going around'.
 Cockpit view of Lt. Irie, this time 'in the groove' flying one of his later approaches. You can see his speed is sligtly high, but altitude is nailed at 600ft.
 LCDR. Redeye and ENS. Halfacup parked at KNLC. LT. Al "Otto" Rosenberg is seen taxing with his superbug.
 LCDR. Redeye and ENS. Halfacup performing a low-level flyby at KNLC
 Former CO of VFA86 lands with his formation consisting of LCDR. 'Redeye', LTJG. 'Bender' and ENS. Alex 'Spartan' at VAGO after a challenging high-speed, low-level flyby at VAGO on 04 June 2010
 LCDR. 'Redeye' ,LT. Dennis 'Irie' Mischke and LTJG. 'Bender' Lined up for the GO!
 LCDR. 'Redeye' ,LT. Dennis 'Irie' Mischke and LTJG. 'Bender' holding short for line-up at VAGO for the carrier trap session on the beautiful dawn of 03 June 2010
 Seen here are LCDR. 'Redeye' ,LT. Dennis 'Irie' Mischke and LTJG. 'Bender' back-tracking to the active at VAGO for a carrier trap session on the beautiful dawn of 03 June 2010
 This is another view of 'Cross Wind Landing' training session. Seen here is LT Dennis "Irie" Mischke with his approach. The mission objective of the day was to practice holding the 'Crab' attitude during the final descent on to the runway, while still maintaining runway centreline.
 May 06th, 2010 This is not a Hornet flying across a runway. This is squad pilots (Mickey, RedEye and Dennis) training 'Cross Wind' landings in extreme cross winds (90 degree cross winds of 25 knots gusting 40 knots). Some amazing training value was derived out of todays session, and a good SOP was established. Seen here is RedEye making an approach. Notice the distinct 'Crab' short of touch down.
 VFA 86 standing by on ground, and Dave and Bender landing their 'Vipers' in formation
 Mickey & RedEye landing in formation after a strike mission
 Three aircraft strike with two F16's led by Dave as attackers. Fun Missions
 Mickey & Dave formation flying after the mission is over (04 May 2010)
 Parked on Ramp after a hard day's training in formation flight - Irie, Bender and Mickey
 Bender & Mickey in close formation flying
 Right Echelon Formation Flying (Part of 2 FTS Training). Seen here are Mickey (Lead), Irie and Bender
 Target attack picture of Winder - 1. Speed, height and heading are as planned. The attack went good and was good training for the squad.
 "Winders" training for a 'Planned Attack' mission. Winder - 1 (Mickey), 2 (Bender) & 3 (Irie), going through their pre-takeoff checks and mission brief on r/w 25 at ETNN
 VFA - 86 aircraft returning back to shore after training on CVN-68, somewhere off the cost of canada
 The Sqn at an undisclosed location in the Himalayan Mountains, on an unprepared mountain airfield, after returning from a practice 'four aircraft strike'. Shown in the picture are:- (From bottom to top) LTJG. Mike 'Bow" - In aggressor F-16 (Most trigger happy pilot of VFA-41) LCDR. Mickey in Airframe # 163400 LTJG. Redeye in Airframe # 163401 ENS. Unix in unspecified Airframe ENS. Basher in Airframe # 163405  Sqn prepares for formation take off to practice low level "formation valley flying" in high Himalayan mountains. One aircraft was lost during this training, due to bad weather.
 06 Feb 2010: Sqn prepares to take off for a long range maritime navigation training sortie. Brig Gen Gulp showed up for the training exercise too. He is seen flying past the formation in his F/A-18D
 06 Feb 2010: The new 'Side Winder' textures released today. Each airframe has the name of pilot printed on it now.
 09 Feb 2010 "Winder Boys" returning back from practicing carrier patterns. Formation flying during return leg wasn't planned, but was rigged up as an 'impromptu' lesson. One call from Winder Lead and both the lads quickly tucked in close formation. Shown in this picture are - Winder boss in the lead. Redeye is holding starboard and Irie is maintaining port. Winder boss is very pleased, looking at the way 'lads' are pushing through the training. Good fighter pilots all of them.
 Winder Boss Control Room Intel Core i7-920, 6 GB DDR3, 1TB, 850W Cooler Master, Saitek X52Pro, Track IR5, 24 inches of View
 Area Map always next to 'Throttle & Stick' (Never Fly without em there)
 Jeppesen Maps, Terminal Charts for every airport I need to make an Instrument Approach to.
 Winders preparing for 'Extreme Weather Quals' (It was a two hours IFR navigation sortie in the most extreme weather). The mission was set up as a part of 1 FTS training syllabus for Basher & Dennis. Mickey & Redeye were part of the formation, just to keep an eye. ENS. Waddle joined in as well.
 Squad lined up for Extreme Weather Quals, only this time it is going to be on a Carrier. Seen here is the squad just before line up.
 Complete squad at the end of day's (or was it night) training. Both the pilots have successfully qualified in the extreme weather training (on and off shore landings including navigation). The two pilots are now awaiting their "checkride" which is scheduled in the next week.
 DoLittle Raid Simulation (17-18 Feb 2010) 
 Redeye holding a tight formation with 'flight lead', as the flight descends for dropping weapons. Both his engines continued to give problems through out the mission, but he pressed on neverthless. Redeye is not the Sqn XO for nothing. The man never gives up. 
 Looks like a cute and a tight formation, isn't it..... Don't be fooled by the 'cool' looking picture. It took some 'amazing' flying skills to hold such a tight formation. 
 Target picture of four aircraft attack on airfield. Speed 450 Knots, Height 400 feet, straight run in from the IP. Exit through the valley in the front. Great Mission today  19/20 Feb 2010 Complete electrical failure in the cockpit of 'AWACS' escorting a hornet formation on long range dark night navigation training sortie.
 F/A-18 formation gets the AWACS home to the nearest base. Unfortunately, the runway is dark as well.
 The complete team on ground after a successful landing. Congratulations "Side Winders"
 T-45 Goshawk, the lead-in Jet Trainer of VFA-86 |
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