Page 34 - Renorming of Airpower: The F-35 Enters the Combat Fleet

The Renorming of Airpower: The F-35 Arrives into the Combat Force

For the first day, we went from Cameri to Lajes AFB in the Azores via Palma de Mallorca.

This was the first time the F-35 had landed in Portugal.

We had to wait out the weather for a day and then flew the 2000 plus miles past St Johns to Halifax to the
Boston area and then we arrived in Maryland.

For safety and security reasons, we had four air refueling during this second leg, and given how bad the
weather was the fourth refueling was done close to Pax River again for safety and security reasons.

The flight lasted 7 hours.

We had to go through a Cold Front and heavy headwinds (120 knots).”

Question: You flew in formation and through heavy clouds, we understand?

Answer: We had four aircraft total; and kept tight formation; and refueled in the clouds as well.

We had two C-130s just in the case; the tanker, a Typhoon headed to Red Flag and the F-35.

Question: So you were in a new aircraft, single engine, flying in the middle of winter across the North
Atlantic in heavy headwinds?

Answer: That characterizes it.

Question: Did you hand fly the plane to stay in formation?

Answer: The plane is very reliable, and I hand flew some times, but auto pilot handled a great deal of the
flight.

Question: What about the air refueling events?

Answer: We had 100% success even in the clouds; the big thing here is that the plane is very stable and
reliable with no problems.

We had no disconnections; the F-35 is a very stable airplane.

Second Line of Defense

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