I never liked working on those aircraft....pain in the ass for us Fuel Systems Maintenance folks.
Being a single engine aircraft they have an Emergency Power Unit that is fired by Hydrazine in a catalyst bed....bad, bad juju messing with that stuff.
Anytime they had one either leak or fire in flight we had to evacuate the pilot by meeting him in our full rubber suits, boots, Scott Air packs, etc...
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I loved 'em. Quick story...
Summer of '77. The first production F16 was still being put together and schools were planned but still a year or two off. I was one of 3 selected to go out to Edwards to learn the jet. That's pretty heady stuff for a young 23yr old Buck Sgt.
My daughter was only about 2mo old, so the wife needed the car at home. Edwards is HUGE... no way I was
flying out there and walking 'round the base all summer, so I loaded up the only bike that ran (trustworthy) at the time. Don't recall now if it was the R5 or an RD... was one of 'em. Had a Norton and a few others at the time, but didn't trust them much beyond walkin' home distance.
So yeah boys and girls, back in the day a 350 was considered a middleweight... and the little RD would do a cross country with the best of 'em. Fla to Death Valley took the better part of 4 days iirc, and several sets of plugs. After that I picked me up an XS650.
Anyway....
First day of duty was all about Hydrazine Safety. Yeah, scary stuff and the A. F. took it pretty serious. No one was allowed near one of the little YF's without the training.
Next day we sat down with the engineers that designed and built 'em... heady stuff, right? ACESII seat training and all that. After lunch we headed out to the hanger. The very first one I laid my greasy mitts on was the one pictured above... airframe #1. Here, almost 50yrs on I can still feel the rush.
Spent all that summer with class in the morning and working on the jets 'till well after dark. For a gearhead like me... it was heaven on earth.
In typical Air Force fashion, it was the end of next year ('79 maybe?
) before we saw our first F-16 at Eglin. The two other guys had PCS'd (transferred) and I'd forgot about half of what I'd learned. By the time I left Eglin, we had 6 of 'em and I was about as knowledgeable as anyone on 'em.
I'll have to say, my time in test wing was definitely the highlight of my career. All good things come to an end though. The F-111 community had sunk their teeth in and pulled me back. Back to NATO, back to rifle ranges and gas chambers... back to staring down the Red Bear... sigh.
