24 March, 2024 - Nellis Training Detachment, Week 9

[Rhino]

VFA-41 Black Aces continued their Inter Deployment Training Cycle detachment at Nellis AFB, Nevada this week with an additional training flight for Within Visual Range air to air combat. Four aircraft sortied for this evolution, divided into two flights of two. All aircraft took off from Nellis via the DREAM 6 Departure procedure, rendezvousing over Mormon Peak before being directed to their individual assigned ranges. Upon reaching their ranges, SHOWTIME range control vectored the flights onto incoming bandit aircraft. Fight was on after the merge and Dealer 1 aircraft successfully downed two bandit F-1 Mirage fighters with relative ease. After resetting at the hold point, Dealer 1 was then given vectors for a pair of inbound MiG-29 fighters. At the merge, fight was on and each member of Dealer 1 splashed a respective bandit, thought Dealer 1-2 had an accidental hard deck violation after downing his MiG. After resetting for the third wave, Dealer 1 was vectored to two F-15 Eagles. The Eagles proved to be a much more capable threat and after several turns, both Dealer 1-1 and 1-2 were hit, thought Dealer 1-2 managed to score a kill on one F-15 before being hit himself. After that, knock it off was called and Dealer 1 proceeded to exit the range area via point Elgin and the Mormon Mesa arrival procedure.

Dealer 2 was properly vectored to the first set of threat aircraft, duly downing both fighters with ease, but a range error prevented them from any hit confirmations and subsequent follow on waves of bandits to engage. After some troubleshooting without success, Dealer 2 completed an air to air refueling evolution to keep that critical skill sharp before returning to Nellis via the Mormon Mesa Arrival.

DEALER 1:
1-1 Rhino, x2 Mirage F1, x1 MiG-29, "shot down" by F-15, recovered Nellis AFB
1-2 Razor, x1 MiG-29, x1 F-15, "shot down" by F-15, recovered Nellis AFB

DEALER 2:
2-1 Hedgehog, x1 Mirage F1, tanked, recovered Nellis AFB
2-2 Chaos, x1 Mirage F1, tanked, recovered Nellis AFB

[Hedgehog]

Pilot records updated.