Eglin Drone operations

The day to day ops. at the Main base at Eglin were pretty routine. Which ever D model was scheduled for a certain day would have flights scheduled for 0900 and 1300 hours on that day. A Drone with a pilot and a DT-33 would be scheduled the same flight times. Sometimes the D models would be scheduled at different times when a Drone was not scheduled. These flights were mostly to keep some pilots current on flight time and to stay current on night flights and weather penetration status. Sometimes the D models would give Air Force ROTC Cadets a ride in the back seat. I think Col. Dildine liked giving them those rides cause he always made sure the cadets had a barf bag with them and it was always used. The Cadets were pretty used up after flying with him. Col. Dildine always had a little grin on his face when i would help him unstrap and climb out the cockpit. I thought that was awesome! About once or twice a year 57-1323 would be scheduled for an over night cross country flight, which was always Nellis AFB which is near Las Vegas. We had a special belly tank we would mount that had compartments to store there luggage and golf clubs. Col. Dildine and Col. Fields would fly out together on a Friday afternoon and come back on Sunday afternoon. Since i was the Crew Chief and lived in the barracks i would go in on Sunday to greet them on there arrival and take care of the aircraft. Col. Dildine and Col. Fields would always bring me a "Special" gift when they came back, (two cases of Coors beer) that were ice cold from being in that belly tank. Once a year General Alton Slay who i think was deputy commander of AFSC ,Air Force Systems Command, would come down and fly front seat in 57-1323 to stay current in a F-104. General Slay was a great man and treated this little E-4 Buck Sargent good. I could tell he was a real fighter jock.

The unmanned Drone flights were flown out of Field 3. For a Drone to be ready for a unmanned flight it had to have two or three "Pre Nullo Flights" before it was declared ready. A Pre Nullo Flight was when a pilot was in the Drone but was controlled by a DT-33 the whole flight. If everything checked out after those flights she was ready. The day the mission was scheduled the D models, Drone and DT-33s were preflighted and ready to go. The Drone was towed to end of runway. A D model and a DT-33 would take off and circle the field. The Drone would be started with a pilot in cockpit, pilot would do his normal checks and climb out the cockpit, close canopy and signal for an armament person to install destruct package. The panel truck with two pilots on top would have control of the Drone for initial roll out and launch. The D model and the DT-33 would come in low and fast. The DT-33 would take control of Drone at this point with the D model flying chase. It was an awesome sight to see. We would all go back to the ramp and wait to see if the Drone was coming back or if it was a kill shot or had an issue and had to be destroyed. When the Drone came back there were two pilots on the panel truck to control it when landing. The DT-33 and D model would bring it in on final and then the pilots on truck would take over. Drone would touch down roll a little till nose wheel touched and the chute would deploy. As ground speed slowed you could see the nose dip a little bit as the brakes were being applied. After full stop with engine still running, armament would remove destruct package and a pilot would get in cockpit to taxi drone to the ramp. Once on the ramp the normal after flight checks were done. The D model and DT-33 were parked also and after flight checks were done too. The Drones had cameras in the nose cone and tip tank. Cameras were removed by photo people and taken back to their shop.