Welcome to the 80th episode… eight zero… of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I am your host Mark Hasara and for over 60 years my passion has been all things aviation.

This is episode two with the Flight Operations Director Jamie McCarthy of Port City Air on what used to be Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In this episode he's going to talk about FBO planning and execution lessons learned when you have everything from big airplanes like a C-5M Galaxy to Executive Jets like Gulfstream G550 needing services at Port City Air. Every once in a while things don't go the way they're planned and Jamie tells a great story about how they obtained a massive C-5 tow bar when a Galaxy had a bleed duct failure and how to handle a fuel truck hitting a G550 winglet.

The Lessons from the Cockpit show is financially supported by Wall Pilot, custom aviation art for the walls of your home, office, or hangar; these are incredibly detailed aircraft profiles printed on vinyl in four, six, and eight foot lengths you can peel off and stick on any flat surface. There are 144 ready to print aircraft profiles on the Wall Pilot homepage. Wall Pilot can also draw your favorite airplane with your name, unit, squadron, and your favorite weapons load. Just go to wallpilot.com and fill out the custom survey for your airplane. We also do unit patches, which we've found out all of our stuff is waterproof!

Jamie speaks about several A-10 Warthog aircraft that come through Port City Air FBO for servicing during Large Force Exercises in Europe. This A-10 Warthog is from the Indiana Air National Guard Black Snakes squadron, the Hawg as it is called is the ground grunts best friend!

While he and I were walking around the airfield several KC-135s were operating from the Pease ramp. This KC-135 is the airplane that had my name on it in the 90s while stationed with the 909th Air Refueling Squadron, Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Japan.

When aircraft are deploying to Europe or the Middle East, chances are good that KC-10 Extenders are dragging them across the pond. This KC-10 is from the 60th Air Mobility Wing based at Travis Air Force Base near San Francisco California.

The F-15 Eagle has always been one of my favorite airplanes! this is an F-15E from The 391st Fighter Squadron "Bold Tigers" based at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. It is carrying a Close Air Support and Battlefield Air Interdiction weapons load of GPS and laser-guided bombs with air-to-air missiles.

Thanks for downloading and listening to this episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show. We are almost at 27,000 downloads now. This and previous episodes of the Lessons from the Cockpit show can now be found on my YouTube channel @MarkHasara. I’m now posting the audio and video on my YouTube channel! I also do some pretty fantastic short videos on aviation and military subjects on my YouTube channel. You can also find all episodes of the lessons from the cockpit show on my website at www.markhasara.com

Next week we’ll hear from the highest scoring MiG Ace of the Vietnam War and talk to him about chasing and shooting down MiGs but also being a Fast Forward Air Controller doing Road Reconnaissance at night along the Ho Chi Minh trail. Thanks for tuning in and we'll talk to you next week on the Lessons from the Cockpit show.

Welcome to the seventy-ninth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! This one was done on location so get ready for some cool background jet noise!

My wife and I recently were guests of Port City Air, a Fixed Base Operations or FBO at my first base of assignment Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Port City Air has an incredible reputation among military fliers! I walked the ramp with Port City Air's Director of Flight Operations Jamie McCarthy while recording our conversation. We had a blast discussing what an FBO does, watching props, jets, and helos coming in and going out... including a scary moment when an engine quit! Jamie explains what it takes to keep military and civilian aviation moving 24/7/365... to include a broken C-5!

This episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show is financially supported by Wall Pilot, custom aviation art for the walls of your home, office, or hanger. Go by www.wallpilot.com and order one or two of the Ready-to-Print four, six, or eight foot long aircraft profiles printed on vinyl you can peel off and stick to any flat surface. Wall Pilot also creates custom aircraft profiles of your favorite aircraft with your name, tail number and weapons load on the aircraft, from WWII P-51 Mustangs to F-35 Lightning IIs and F-22 Raptors.

While Jamie and I walked the ramp a KC-135 was being refueled for another operational mission the next day. This KC-135 was my personal jet while stationed at Kadena Air Base on the island of Okinawa Japan in the 1990s. Twenty one years later I flew home Space Available from England on tail number 8874, which had 26,000 hours on the air frame and over 16,000 landings!

All kinds of fighters fly in and out of Pease International Airport now. This F-15E from the 335th Fighter Squadron was the jet flown by one of my guests during the Battle of Robert's Ridge on 4 March 2002, a low point in Operation Anaconda because of the loss of so many soldiers and a Navy SEAL.

The F-16 is one of the most popular fighter aircraft in the world. This F-16CJ Wild Weasel is assigned to the 35th Fighter Wing and the 14th Fighter Squadron Samuaris out of Misawa Air Base in Japan. The Crew Chief of this jet took a black grease pencil and filled in the corners of the 8s on the tail, the airplane is still called 'BOB' to this day. The Crew Chief said it stood for "Bombs over Baghdad."

Jamie mentioned during the show KC-10s often stop at Pease International while flying missions to and from Europe and the Middle East. This KC-10 is assigned to the 60th Air Mobility Wing at Travis AFB in California. Three KC-10s had left Pease and Port City Air's ramp the day before we arrived.

There is only ONE fighter aircraft in the history of the world that has never been shot down in combat, the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle. This F-15C from Desert Storm was the 33rd Tactical Fighter Wing's flagship and shot down three Iraqi fighter jets during the conflict.

Thanks once again for downloading this and previous episodes of the Lessons from the Cockpit show, which can be found at www.lessonsfromthecockpit.show or on my website at www.markhasara.com. All episodes are now on my Lessons from the Cockpit YouTue channel also.

Next week we will finish our discussion with Jamie McCarthy on Fixed Base Operations and what Port City Air does for customers coming through Pease International Airport.

Welcome to the seventy-sixth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I'm your host Mark Hasara.

My circle of friends has expanded because of my book Tanker Pilot: Lessons from the Cockpit. One of those great friends has vast experience in almost every Boeing airliner... 727, 737, 757, 767, and the Lockheed L-1011 I found out during this show. My good buddy TC Cappelletti is also one of the most knowledgeable military historians I know because he's a voracious reader of history. And most of the books in his library are signed by the folks in those books. TC shares several lessons learned from his beginnings in the C-9 Nightingale to flying 737-800/900s with Alaska Airlines.

This episode of Lessons from the Cockpit is supported by Wall Pilot, custom aviation art for the walls of your home, office, or hanger. These are four, six, and eight foot long graphics printed on vinyl you can peel off and stick to any flat surface. Wall Pilot can draw custom profiles of your favorite aircraft with your name, tail number and weapons load on the aircraft. Go by www.wallpilot.com and chose from 140 Ready-to-Print profiles or fill out the custom sheet for a favorite plane

TC began his flying career in the McDonnell Douglas C-9A Nightingale, designed from the ground up for the aeromedical evacuation mission of the US Air Force. This is a print of the C-9A TC flew while stationed at Scott AFB near Bellevue Illinois.

The KC-10A Extender is the military version of the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30. Sixty KC-10s were built for the Air Force to air refuel and move cargo. The 59 aircraft left in the inventory will soon be retired to the Davis Monthan AFB Boneyard. This KC-10 is assigned to the 60th Air Mobility Wing at Travis AFB, California.

The Boeing KC-135 has been passing gas since the mid-1950s. This KC-135R Model was my personal jet and flew with the 909th Air Refueling Squadron based at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Japan. The 909th ARS heritage goes all the way back to the Vietnam War as the Young Tiger Tanker Task Force, the emblem on the nose of the aircraft.

During our discussion we spoke of John Connors, Navy SEAL killed during the Panama Invasion December 1989. A statue of John is being funded and placed in the park of his Massachusetts home town of Scituate. The website you can donate to is found at https://www.ameasureofaman.org/

We also mentioned another great organization which grants scholarships to young men and women who need help. The Red River Valley Association, nicknamed The River Rats, was created by Air Force fighter pilots in the early years of the Vietnam War. There is now a River Rat museum in Bowling Green Kentucky memorializing amazing pilots from all the recent wars. You can donate to the scholarship fund by going to the River Rat website.

This and previous episodes of the Lessons from the Cockpit show can be found on our new website at lessonsfromthecockpit.show. Sign up to be one of our All Ranks Club members for a monthly or yearly fee. We'll soon have All Ranks Club virtual Bar Nights to share stories and most importantly lessons learned. Only All Ranks Club members will be able to join in the Bar Nights.

Thanks again for tuning in and downloading episodes of the Lessons from the Cockpit show!

Welcome to another episode, the seventy-fifth, of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I am your host Mark Hasara and for over 60 years my passion has been aviation.

The situation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Adan has everyone's attention. It's the continuation of the Proxy War between western powers and the Ayatollahs of Iran and their influence with the Houthi Rebels in Yemen, attacking shipping in one of the largest and wealthiest waterways on the planet. America and our allies have been here before, sometimes with tragic results. The USS Cole was nearly sunk in the Yemeni harbor of Adan after an al Qaeda suicide boat rammed into it. The weapons used are now much more sophisticated and supplied by other US enemies. But we are more prepared in my opinion to fight and win a maritime conflict in this region, which this episode discusses.

This episode is financially supported by the book Tanker Pilot, found in all four formats; hardback, softback, Kindle, and Audible on Amazon. The Hardback, Kindle and Audible formats contain the 32 pictures in color, the softback in black and white. Tanker Pilot gives readers a behind the scenes look at global air refueling and air operations in four wars.

The Lessons from the Cockpit show is sponsored by Wall Pilot, custom aviation art for the walls of your home, office, or hanger. Wall Pilot creates profile views of famous aircraft, printed on vinyl in four, six, and eight foot lengths you can peel off and stick to any flat surface. Wall Pilot can also create custom graphics of your favorite airplanes with your name, tail codes and numbers, and cool weapons loads. Support the Lessons from the Cockpit show by ordering one or two of these very detailed prints for the walls of your home, office, or hanger. We did a thirty foot long profile for one customer and his hanger!

US and Coalition forces recently struck Houthi targets in Yemen. The Navy aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has four F-18 Super Hornet squadrons in its air wing. This F-18F Super Hornet from VFA-103 represents the 22 Super Hornets involved in the air strikes in Yemen.

The strike packages were supported with electronic intelligence by the RC-135 Rivet Joint signals collection and intelligence aircraft of the US Air Force. This print is an RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft assigned to the 343rd Reconnaissance Squadron of the 55th Reconnaissance Wing, Offutt Air Force base Nebraska.

F-15E Strike Eagles from Royal Air Force Lakenheath England have deployed to the region when Iran tried to close down shipping going through the Straight of Hormuz. This F-15E Strike Eagle from the 494th Fighter Squadron is configured for the Maritime Air Support or MAS mission to interdict and destroy enemy surface ships using Laser and GPS guided weapons. The Panthers Strike Eagles carried the AN-ASQ-236 Dragon Eye pod on the centerline as this graphic depicts.

Unmanned and remotely piloted vehicles have played a huge role in the Horn of Africa, combating terrorism and piracy on the high seas. This MQ-9 Reaper drone armed with GBU-12 500 pound laser-guided bombs and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles is assigned to the 867th Attack Squadron of the 432nd Wing based out of Creech Air Base north of Las Vegas Nevada. MQ-9 Reapers are the type of drones operating out of Djibouti and Chadbelli airports in the Horn of Africa.

Thanks for downloading and listening to this and previous episodes of the Lessons from the Cockpit show. This and previous episodes can be found on the Lessons from the Cockpit website. Every lesson learned today becomes the foundation for tomorrow’s breakthroughs and your stories fuel our mission! We are always looking for guests with compelling aviation stories and terrific lessons learned from those experiences. Contact us through the website and lets talk about you becoming a guest on the show. We want to hear your lessons learned and leave a legacy of wisdom for future generations of aviation enthusiasts.

Welcome to the seventy-fourth episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show! I'm your host Mark Hasara, retired KC-135 pilot, author, and entrepreneur!

We laid to rest another American veteran this week involved in one of the greatest air strikes of Air Force histroy. He left his mark on aviation because of his incredible courage in the face of overwhelming enemy odds, innovative technique to save two commrades, and airmanship in pulling off a feat which almost got him court martialed. Twenty-two years later an evaluation board awarded him the Silver Star for his efforts to save lives. On this March afternoon, his target was the most heavily defended piece of real estate in enemy territory. This was the first time a large strike package was allowed to bomb this lucrative target.

And the enemy knew he and buddies flying in a twenty-seven aircraft US Air Force strike package were coming.

This episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit show is supported by the book Tanker Pilot, found in all four formats on Amazon. Tanker Pilot is now listed on General Mike Minihan, Commander of Air Mobility Command, Leadership Library reading list. Thirty-two pictures are included in the book, many taken during the events described in the chapters. The hardback, Kindle and Audible versionn havve th epictures in color, the softback in black and white.

The Lessons from the Cockpit show is also sponsored by Wall Pilot, custom aviation art for the walls of your home, office, or hanger. You can choose from 136 Ready-to-Print four, six, and eight foot long graphics prinrted on vinyl you can peel off and stick to any flat surface. Wall Pilot can create your favorite aircraft with your name, tail number and codes, and favorite weapons load by filling out a custom request form. These are very detailed and exhaustively researched aircraft profile graphics which you can read the stenciling on the aircraft and weapons. Go to www.wallpilot.com and order one or two profiles for your home, office, or hanger.

This F-4E Phantom II was part of the 388th Tactical Fighter Wing based out of Takhli Royal Thai Air base during the Vietnam War and is armed for a Surface-to-Air Missile or SAM suppression mission carry CBU-52 cluster bombs dropped on SAM sites to destroy the missiles and launchers. The F-4Es flew in formation with the F-105F/G Wild Weasels which would locate the SAM radars and control vans.

The Rupublic F-105F two seat Thunderchief accomplished many missions during the Vietnam War. One special mission was flying night time air strikes in a role called Ryan Raiders. This aircraft was assigned to the 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron and painted in the distinctive Ryan Raider wrap around paint scheme. The paint schem was created by Major Ralph Kuster, Thud Pilot extraordinare and MiG-17 Killer.

Russian Mikoyian and Gurevich (MiG) fighter aircraft defended the Thai Nguyen Steel Mill on 10 March 1967. The North Vietnamese Air Force flew early model MiG-21 Fishbed fighters like this example assigned to the famous US Air Force Red Eagle squadron based out of Area 51 near Tonapah Nevada.

Thanks for downloading this and previous episodes of the Lessons from the Cockpit show found on my website at www.markhasara.com under the Podcast pull-down box. I really do appreciate all of you swinging by and downloading a show or two. We are over 23,000 downloads of the show now! All episode can be downloaded from my website. The Lessons from the Cockpit show will soon be moving to its own home and website after the Christmas Holidays.

My family and I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. There will be one more show, maybe two before the end of the year.

Welcome to the seventy-third episode of the Lessons from the Cockpit Show! I am your host Mark Hasara, former KC-135 pilot and air war planner.

The US Air Force is replacing the EC-130H Compass Call with the Gulfstream G550 EA-37B, missioinized to perform the same electronic warfare missions and functions. This episode describes what some of those functions are and gives historical examples from air operations how electronic warfare dominated the battlefield... Israeli Air Force Operation Mole Cricket 19 and the Bekka Valley Turkey Shoot to the opening night of Operation Desert Storm and the takedown of Saddam's Integrated Air Defense System via PooBah's Party.

This episode of the lessons from the Cockpit show is sponsored by the book Tanker Pilot, found in all four formats on Amazon: hardback, softback with black and white pictures, Kindle and Audible. The Kindle and Audile versions have an extra file with the thirty-two pictures which downloads with the book.

Lessons from the Cockpit is also financially sponsored by Wall Pilot, custom aviation art for the walls of your home, office, or hanger. Go by www.wallpilot.com and chose from 138 very detailed Ready-to-Print aircraft profiles printed on vinyl in four, six, and eight foot long images you can peel off and stick to any flat surface. Wall Pilot can create custom profiles of your favorite aircraft with your name, tail number and weapons load on aircraft from World War II to Fifth Gen fighters.

In the electronic warfare arena, if commander's want to hard kill an Surface-to-Air Missile site they send in the Lockheed Martin F-16CJ Wild Weasel. This Viper Weasel is named BOB, the 35th Fighter Wing's flagship aircraft. The Crew Chief used a grease pencil to fill in the left sides of the eights to create BOB as it's tail number!

The 55th Reconnaissance Wing from Offutt Air Force Base is the home of two RC-135W Rivet Joint electronic intelligence collection squadrons. This RC-135W flies with the 343rd Reconnaissance Squadron and plays a critical role in the exploitation of the electronic battlefield.

General Dynamic EF-111A Raven was employed throughout Operation Desert Storm to jam Iraqi air defense early warning and acquisition radar system. This EF-111A Spark Vark as crew's called it flew with the 390th Electronic Combat Squadron Wild Boars during Desert Storm. It was based out of Mountain Home Air Force Base Idaho before being retired in May 1998.

On their last combat deployment before retiring the airframes to the Boneyard, the LTV A-7E Corsair II flying off the USS John F Kennedy were part of PooBah's Party in taking down Saddam's SAMs in and around the Baghdad area. This A-7E belonged to the VA-72 Blue Hawks Squadron Skipper, Commander JR "Shooter" Saunders. The A-7E is armed with AGM-88 High Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles or HARMs.

Thanks for taking the time to download and listen to this epidsode of the Lessons from the Cockpit Show! I really do appreciate all of you who have gone by my wesite and downloaded over 22,000 episodes of my show. This and previous episodes of the Lesson from the Cockpit Show can be found on my website at www.markhasara.com

Through the holidays I will be posting an episode every other week. My family and myself wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!