The RAF at Red Flag : Air-to-Air

Tony Dixon talks about his experiences of being a nav on the F-4 Phantom and Tornado F3 at exercise Red Flag.

Help keep the channel going:

or donate

*Support the channel*

Click the Amazon link below that applies to you and then bookmark that page. Now each time you make a purchase on Amazon, they’ll throw a small percentage of that our way, as long as you access the site through that bookmarked link.

[andrewfranklin]

Tony Dixon is a classic. Great listening to him. Very easy to follow. Thanks for this.

[Theodoric]

Absolutely loved that anecdote about the Italian Tornado embarrassing the F-15! Great interview

[bobmcgrath]

I spent two months at Red Flag in ‘96. As 2nd line ground crew for the Tornados we didn’t rotate with the squadrons. It was a hard life 😜
I did work fairly hard though and I didn’t gamble once 😊
It’s been great hearing all these old terms and a different perspective from the aircrew.
Love it

[philipbrooks]

During the 1980s I served as a Fighter Control Officer in the RAF. Whilst I never visited Nellis, I did a detachment to Deciomannu in Sardinia with the F4 QWI course in 1985. Bear in mind that this was the era of the ZX Spectrum PC, but the facilities at Deci were awe inspiring. As Tony said each aircraft was fitted with a telemetry pod and the information available to a controller such as myself was beyond belief. Not only did you have a conventional PPI display, like a normal radar display, but you could tilt the display to give a pure vertical display with all points in between. Tony was not just bull**itting when he talked about RAF tactics, the F4 QWIs invited a lot of respect from their 'adversaries', as I recall from a conversation with a US F5 Aggressor pilot.
Although I didn't know Tony personally, we did share a mutual friend and we were both on this friend's Guard of Honour for his wedding. At the stag do the night before, I can't remember if I fell over Tony or him over me, both of us wrecked. Great days.

[colleveloer]

I remember Tony Dixon from my days as the engineering officer on 13 (PR) Sqn at RAF Wyton equipped with the Canberra PR7. Really great times and memories from those days and Tony became a close friend. One anecdote from those times was the occasion after a Friday Sqn Beer Call when I apparently invited Tony and his good lady to Sunday lunch that coming weekend! The only problem was I completely forgot all about it and had an interesting, one-sided conversation with my wife when Tony turned up at our door on the Sunday! It must have been a great Beer Call! 😂

[michaelrunnels]

What Tony didn't mention was the smokey SAMs on the range. I was on a radar site on the range during a Red Flag and the second week they gave us about a hundred styrofoam rockets called Smokey SAMs to shoot at the aircraft flying low level. They were just like giant (2-3 feet long) 4th of July bottle rockets that would leave a huge trail of smoke behind when we shot them up. If they hit an aircraft or got ingested in an engine they weren't suppose to cause any damage. The idea was for the aircrews to see a rocket coming up at them. I imagine the pucker factor was pretty high in the cockpits. The airfield that Tony said the Harriers operated out of at Indian Springs west of Las Vegas (Creech AFB) is now used to launch predator and other drones. You can occasionally see a drone taxi out, take off, or land while driving next to the base on highway 95.

[GJ-qtkk]

It's all good listing specs and numbers but actually being able to hear from the men who fly them is a really unique thing. It's why I love this channel

[mkmdexplorationparanormal]

This interview is very thorough on red flag and it brings more clarity, loved his opinions, my heart was on the Phantom as it was multirole. Fantastic interview, I like Tony as he's down to earth and very informative and he's very engaging.
Well done Mike for the great questions ☺

[nigelluck]

I'm loving these great stories, thank you Aircrew Interviews

[TotallyNotALlama]

Loved the anecdote about the Tornados flying "resolution cell" something I'd never considered possible with radars that modern

[thefrecklepuny]

The tactic of using Tornado F3's to shadow B-1B's to appear as one radar image reminds me of reading about USN F-8 Crusaders doing the very same when escorting USAF RC-135's in Vietnam. The RC-135's would look like big fat slow targets to N. Vietnamese radars. They'd send up a couple of MiG 17's, 19's or 21's which would race back to home as soon as the F-8's peeled away and revealed themselves.

[falken_gt]

Tornado that landed at Tonopah was a 16 Squadron GR1 “FG” in 1990, crew were blind folded and interrogated and released. Their GR1 was confiscated and returned after a full service with a silhouette of a F117 painted on the wing by the Americans.

[markmullins]

That was a really good interview got lots of operational info

[OhItsThat]

Maybe someday they’ll give this guy a whole airplane to fly?

I love fighter pilots. As an American I love and appreciate our real allies. This guy is fantastic at walking the viewers though the information.

[nj]

Amazing to hear him speak of how rigid the US pilots were, when you watch an old aviation war movie it's always the Brits that are so set in stone. And the US pilots are always cowboys... Sounds like during the 80's and 90's it was the other way around ;-)
Excellent video sir, as always :-)

[robertmacfarlane]

We took 6 GR4’s to Nelis several years ago, the aircraft like the warm, dry weather and tend to behave themselves pretty well to be fair.

[haroldellis]

One of the best, from one of the best channels.

I have a friend who got married in Vegas: the jury is still out on that one, but I rather have my doubts.

[bret]

Can find one thing in common among all fighter crews from every they all believe their the best. Flew for about 6000 hours with a mix of guys who flew everything from f-4’s to B-52’s. Most of the guys who flew until retirement had a healthy respect for everyone from every nation represented at Redflag.

[jetset]

I’m loving your stuff and the 10 per cent true channel

[chrishewitt]

Brilliant interview, very informative.