Above: The
F-5s on the
ight line. Sun
shelters give the
PAE maintainers
welcome respite
from the searing
summer heat.
Below: The F-5
pilots regularly
work the lower-
altitude blocks
during training.I’d say that there’s no
other unit that does as
much BFM [basic fi ghter
maneuvers] as we do on a
regular basis
LT MATT ‘ABE’ GOTTSCHALK
they are simple, built well and with no
complex systems. Then you’re done.
Ready to taxi.’
‘The air conditioning is great once we
have power on the jet, so we taxi with
canopy open. On the runway we hike
the nose up. There’s a little switch that
gives us an extra 6 to 7 degrees and that
di erence is signi cant. The extra
angle-of-attack means our take-o roll is
dramatically reduced. It’s still a
signi cant take-o roll, and at 4,000ft
above sea level on a hot day at Fallon,
we always use afterburner.’
The aircraft are perfect for their
mission at Fallon, but Gottschalk says:
‘There are situations I wouldn’t want to
be in with the F-5, such as ying in
congested airspace and really bad
weather. Plus with limited systems
redundancy our emergency procedures
training is really important. Overall, the
jets are low cost, we have great
maintenance and we’re really familiar
with the airspace and the procedures.’
The Navy just received approval to
upgrade the F-5s with new Martin-Baker
US16T ejection seats. ‘If you asked all the
guys in the ready room what they’d like
you’d struggle to get two to answer the
same way. Some want a HUD, some an
autopilot. However, a new seat was top
of everyone’s list,’ says Gottschalk.Fighting ‘Saints’
So what does an F-5 bring to a modern
air combat training scenario? There are
very few threat nations that will climb
to 30,000ft, and then go toe-to-toe with
a Navy Super Hornet. They know they
will lose. Most nations will attempt to
use their home- eld advantage to
sneak up on an unsuspecting F/A-18.
That’s exactly what the ‘Saints’ do.
‘Fallon is great for terrain, we use our
local knowledge and use the terrain to
our advantage — we y a lot of low
level. We don’t y with night visionUS NAVY & MARINE CORPS AIR POWER YEARBOOK 2018
VFC-13 ‘FIGHTING SAINTS’^6358-65 VFC-13 C.indd 63 01/06/2018 11:49