Traron Squadron

Gas didn't go (at least yet, for some of us) as high as it could have. But, I got this email from Marty Case, long time TRARON member and old Thud pilot. There are some lessons in there for all formation work.

We were headed for Myrtle Beach for our squadron's F-104 deployment to Spain.

I was in close formation on Mel Corley's wing, when a T-bird slashed the cockpit off his F-104 ' Zipper. ' I don't know how the chunks of Mel's Zipper's pieces missed me. But they did.

After the fire ball and explosion, I looked back over my shoulder. Mel's cockpit was missing and I thought : " MEL IS A GONER ! ! "

In my mind's eye, I can still see Mel's flaming aircraft . . with no cockpit on it !

We were a flight of four Zippers, with Mel as lead and I was his wingman. Weather had messed us up with the tanker so we had diverted to Tinker AFB to refuel. We were to be in Myrtle Beach before dark. But by this time, Myrtle was high overcast with good ' vis.'

Just before we took the runway, a Lockheed T-33 trainer with a student under the hood was shooting a practice GCA missed instrument approach just as we took the runway.

Lockheed F-104 Starfighter After take-off, we were making a left turnout. I was on Mel's right wing and I was beginning a crossover. Just six or seven seconds behind us, on take- off, our second element was sliding inside our climbing turn . . to join up with us.

I was in fairly close on Mel, staying out of the way of the joining element, when in my peripheral' side ' vision I picked up a Lockheed T-33. Very near !

And closing fast !

I recall seeing the front seater looking at Mel. And his student's face was no longer hidden behind the instrument hood.

I T-H-R-E-W my ' stick ' into my cockpit's North West C-O-R-N-E-R !

I experienced a tremendous wave of explosion. I completed the roll, looked back and saw Mel's ' Zipper. ' It was completely engulfed in flames. And there wasn't any cockpit on it.

I heard our Element Lead call his wingman : " BREAK RIGHT TO AVOID THE DEBRIS "

And his wingman said : " BREAKING RIGHT ! "

I looked for chutes . . but sighted only one. Then, I began an orbit of the area to see if I could spot any other survivors. I saw nothing more. So after burning down fuel I recovered there at Tinker.

It was my perception that the T-33 was trying to buzz us, but the instructor onboard had terribly misjudged our F-104s' rapid acceleration after take-off.

I vividly recall the front seater looking at Mel. The instructor survived, but his student's chute did not fully deploy . . hit the ground hard and didn't make it.

I will never forget the sight of Mel's fireball - nor the ' look ' on both TBird pilots' eyes just before impact.

Our F-104's were equipped with downward ejection. It turned out that Mel got flash burns on his face. But he was O.K . . . What a miracle !

Here's Mel Corley's description of his : " FIre Ball Number TWO ! "

We were supposed to refuel over Texas that morning, and then non-stop to Myrtle Beach. The weather in the air-refueling area had been too bad, so we stood by on the ground.

About 1300 we were instructed to launch and refuel at Tinker. So we landed there, refueled and taxied out to the end of the runway. Tower said there was an aircraft on a GCA missed approach making a low approach, but cleared us on.

I told the Tower : " Negative, we will continue holding for the aircraft on final."

The T-Bird made low approach. And I saw an instrument hood covering a student in the rear cockpit. And his IP instructor was really staring at us as he ' gave our flight of ( 4 ) four F-104's the once over.' We took off.

Our element was joining up with us when Dave moved over to my left wing - then broke left. Then there was a BIG bang ! And I had no control of the aircraft and the cockpit instantly filled with smoke.

As I was slammed hard to my cockpit's left side, I reached down between my legs and pulled hard on the ejection seat ring trigger.

Down I went . . ' felt like pulling the head off a chicken.'

But everything worked like it was supposed too. But the moment my chute deployed . . the T-33's engine separated from the TBird and went solo. The fiery engine actually grazed me on its way by . . burning my face and scorching my flying suit.

As I was hanging up there in the chute, I looked around to see a B-45 bomber heading straight into me.

Its pilots saw my chute and max turned it to miss it [ and me.] Then some of my Zippers flew by. Their heads were moving around as I waved, giving them a thumbs up, but at that moment they were both searching the other way.

There wasn't anything directly below me, but oak trees. Just before I hit the trees, I crossed my ankles to keep from being castrated, and threw my arms up over my face.

Recovering from being stunned, I looked up to see I was hanging up in a tree by my chute. I thought to myself, " I've got to get down out of this tree." I looked down in relief . . when I saw that my feet were a few inches above the ground.

I was still smoking at that time. I quick released my harness and eased to ground. Lighting one cigarette with the other, I had two quick cigs. Then, I felt something warm in my left glove. It was full of blood, leaking from a slash in my left elbow.

I pulled the chute down, rolled it up and headed for a nearby farm house. I had not walked more than a 100 yards, when a farmer and his boy ran to meet me. I told them I needed to use a phone to call the airbase ASAP.

We walked another short distance when a staff car pulls up. It was Tinker's Base Commander. Although I assured him I was OK, he was really shook up. And as we were driving to the base, he proceeded to drive into the ditch.

Now . . I needed ANOTHER cigarette.

I asked him to slow down, letting him know that I didn't want to be killed in his staff car.

The T-Bird instructor pilot was stationed at Vance. His Cadet student did not have his D-ring fastened to his chute. So using his D-ring manually, he had been too low to open his chute on time.

The T-Bird pilot had seen us on the end of the runway waiting for take-off, and he wanted to ' shine his apple ' by making a pass on the Zippers. So he got the T-Bird going full speed on the deck, then he pulled back around to make a pass on us after we took off.

When I was at 3,500 feet, the TBird pilot had lost sight of me and my wingman. Misidentifying # 3 and # 4 . . as us . . the TBird instructor was making some sort of mock gunnery pass when he slammed into my airplane.

The accident board gave the T-bird pilot 90% pilot error. And I got 10% for not writing up a weak radio receiver.

As two matters of interest, the civilians at Tinker had just gotten off work and many of them were looking up while walking to their cars . . allowing the court to pick their witnesses from 450 observers. And that evening, the Air Force's General in charge of Flight Safety was guest speaker at an O'Club dine-in. Guess what the topic of his pre-planned topic of his message was ?

You're right ! MID-AIR COLLISIONS !

The Zipper is still one of the greatest aircraft ever built and it remains as my favorite.

Source : Written and oral interviews with Mel Corley and Dave Perry, 7/19/05

Ed : At high speed, aircraft engineers originally feared an upward seat ejection might not clear the F-104's high-reaching tail feathers and opted for a downward-firing ejection seat.

As the ejecting pilot pulled up on his ejection ring, it triggered the following sequence : (1) depressurized cockpit (2) jerked the pilot's control stick out of his way (3) tightened his shoulder harness (4) jerked his feet back and clamped them into his ejection seat (5) then a sheet metal escape cover popped loose from the aircraft's belly (6) the ejection seat fired down (7) a mechanical cutting-device severed the cables locking the pilot's boots in the ejection seat (8) his shoulder harness and seat belt released and (9) his parachute deployed automatically.

To eject safely at low altitude, the pilot would often roll his aircraft upside down . . then eject in the direction of the ' blue side.'

Along with twenty others, legendary Test Pilot Iven Kincheloe, lost their lives using this original escape system.

What's this got to do with gas prices? Practice. Experience. Experience; that knowledge of when to do what would have. Mainly the knowledge that I've impressed myself enough and I don't have to pull a gunnery pass on a bunch of guys I don't know and haven't briefed with. Experience comes with practice.

I would urge to you continue practicing, however I understand the economics of twenty-seven gallons per hour. In that light, please understand your limitations and do not fly yourself into a corner you can't handle. Even the teams (T'Birds and Angels) start slow and wide until they get proficient.

I have had no news to add to the last couple of iterations. Morris Ray and Mike Ginter are working on the TRARON Training Manual now required by FAST Protocols (V.20) and we are trying to coordinate with NATA so all T-6s fly pretty much the same.

It’s still the T-34 Manual and the Darton Tapes.

We still need stuff for the website.

The table for the O’Club should be there for us to sit our drinks on.

AGAIN, WE NEED MORE CLINICS! All it takes is a 4-ship!

Don't forget the NATA Clinic in DBQ, lots of our guys will be there.

TRARON will help with any local clinic you guys want to hold, we will get you instructors/check pilots. All it takes is a 4-ship and an airport willing to work with you. Ideally, you should plan on a ground school Friday evening and as much flying as you can get in on Saturday and Sunday.

Anybody interested in more should contact me at skippert6@comcast.net and please put "FAST" in the subject line before I spam you out. Some folks are having a problem with comcast, as an alternative, try skippert6@yahoo.com

PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE