E-8 AWACS Air Refueling gone wrong

It must have been one of the most frightening view in the career of the KC-135′s flying boom operator.

A NATO E-3 Sentry almost hit the tail of the tanker and its flying boom during air-to-air refueling operations. Not only the close proximity of the two large planes was dangerous, but also the evasive maneuver the pilot performs to avoid collision: the AWACS (airborne early warning and control plane) pulls several negative G-forces to gain quick separation from the refueler.

Do you know why the tanker nosed down? Because of the aerodynamic forces that occur between both aircraft in close proximity. You have what is called a bow wave from the receiver so just after disconnect the AWACs got low and too far forward so when it made a slight nose up correction is caused the pitch in the tanker to nose down cause the near miss. A breakaway should have been called by the boomer.

[angmhalp]

That alarm means "pants are full"

[dano]

I remember my first air refueling. The boom operators really dislike when you move to far inside and up. The distance on the boom is normally 12 foot extension, and 6 foot is way inside. Usually, the will punch you off, if you are inside of 9 feet with closure or upward movement. I would suspect that the Co-pilot was flying, and the Pilot not flying (an Instructor pilot) was following on the controls. Transitioning the controls between two pilots usually results in over corrections.

[cheapskateaquatics]

Dad flew on the KC-10 as a mechanic in the 90's and experienced this quite a few times. When it happens, you do an emergency break away: they go down, you go up. One time when they had to do an emergency break away, someone had a case of soda on board that ended up going everywhere.

[lozinja]

Scary stuff.

This happened to me once when I was trying to dock my own 'fueling boom' with a girl, and at the last minute she also went 'ROOP! ROOP! ROOP! ROOP!' and flew the fuck out of there.

[M-xD]

572 dislikes? wtf is wrong with people. this is a death a life situation! did they expect a air crash or something? 

[MacClay]

They should have a guy drop out the back dragging a hose with him, land on the plane in need of fuel, stick it in the fueller hole, and give a thumbs up to the pump guy when it's ready to go. When it's all done, he can tug on it twice and it will reel him back in.

This worked on Disney's Talespin, so of course it will work in real life.

[pyro]

The KC-135's autopilot disconnected. The E-3, being the big 707-type airframe that it is, displaces a sizeable amount of air. When he's flying in close formation with a tanker, that air pushes up on the tail of the tanker. The autopilot corrects for that, but if he gets close enough the amount of pitch the plane needs to stay level exceeds the authority of the autopilot and it disconnects.

So technically, yes the E-3 caused it, but the KC-135 pilot could have been more prepared for it.

[carlsaberhagen]

The boom comes back down like, "hey, where'd ya go?"

[davidgore]

I understand. I was a Tinker AFB AWACS pilot from 1999 until 2003. My most challenging mission in my nearly 30-yr career was when I was a brand new AC and nearly couldn't take the gas on a combat sortie over Afghanistan. It was night, we were in the WX with a lot of turbulence and the tanker showed up without an autopilot. I prayed to God after 30 minutes of trying to connect and us going past "bingo" fuel. He answered within a couple of minutes and we hit the southern edge of that low pressure system and the air instantly went smooth and then the tanker got their autopilot to work all within 5 minutes. I immediately hooked up southbound on the "driveway" in Pakistan and once I had taken half the off-load we turned back Northbound back toward Afghanistan again to finish the mission. Praise the Lord!!

[Mplsuptown]

I had so many air refuelings while flying on AWACs and they were rarely a piece of cake.

[matchesburn]

0:28
[pucker factor approaches infinity]

[CasseyMayhle]

" oh man he almost broke the pi- HOOOLY SHIT"

[swmprt]

Does no one else notice the fact that this video is titled wrong? E-8 is a JSTARS... The AWACS is an E-3

[lucaas]

Great catch, scary one! Would you be okay with me featuring this in my series Weekly Dose of Aviation? Of course you will be credited both in the video and in the description. Thanks!

[TheBanjoFlyBoy]

Folks that's an E-3 scaring the crap out of that boom operator!

[PrestigeClips]

And that children is how babies are made.

[ziggystardust]

That probably represents the most negative G's a 707-based aircraft ever pulled . . .

[simpsonfan]

"And that's when I shat bricks..."

[asimo]

That'd be so hard to do in mid-air. Flying at the same speed and everything. Insane

[Cgsailor]

There is a reason the USN and the USAF do it differently. The USAF system was designed with refueling larger aircraft like your B-52 strategic bombers in mind. Not smaller fighters. The Boom system has a much higher fuel transfer rate than the hose and basket system.