OK Folks, just got back from Miramar (went to the Saturday show). The F-22 Rator demo was simply amazing $235,000,000.00 well spent. Not to be nit picky, but i noticed something very weird. I know for a fact the F-22 demo team is out of Langley A.F.B. Virginia, I also know that the tail modex is (FF) respectively. Maj. Paul "Max" Moga was flying aircraft out of Edwards A.F.B. I know this because the 2 jets on the flight line had a (WA) and (OT) on the tails......................................Does anyone know why he didnt fly his jet out from Langley A.F.B.

Hi and welcome to ASB, your not the only one who has noticed this. The tailcodes of WA and OT are from Nellis AFB not Edwards. ED is Edwards. Ive noticed this too, it seems they dont like flying the raptor cross country for shows. A lot of west coast pictures ive seen are of WA and OT performing the demos. It seems to be about half and half. Only the people involved know the real reason. Prolly a lot cheaper to just airline it cross country and pick up nellis jets.

Illini, this seems to be the true answer, according to everything I have heard. It is getting near the end of the fiscal year, so military spending is getting tight. Of course, that is all relative so yeah, take that excuse for what it is worth.

Probably because he doesn't have his own plane. I believe they fly what is available to them at any given time and that they are all the same for the most part.

This was actually the first time that Max has used Nellis birds. At Pt. Mugu in 07' they were Langley birds and at March ARB they were Tyndall jets. BTW, why does Nellis have two different tail codes?

That was not the first time the DEMO team has used an aircraft from another unit or a Nellis jet. Its fairly common for them to borrow jets. Just like Al said the DEMO team doesnt have aircraft specificaly prepped for them like other TAC DEMO Teams have. To answer your other question Nellis has two units that fly the F-22.

I have photos of Max in the Nellis birds during the Fiarchild AFB airshow (Sept 08). I too asked the same question in that thread, but as I look at other photos from around the country, I agree he must pick up the jets nearest to the show. At Fairchild he flew the OT and WA birds as well.

Which is actually the neat thing about the F-22 Demo.

All the other Demo teams have specific jets is a specific demo configuration.


The Raptor demo just uses a regular jet they schedule with the regular units.

Kevin
aero-engineer

Max flew a Tyndall TY jet at the late March Tyndall airshow.

I believe Max used a jet from Elmendorf's 90th FS at Arctic Thunder - tail # 100 on both days, if memory serves me correctly.

From working on the Abby show, I believe the Raptor Demo Team uses assets that are available and the a/c can change from show to show. As far as I know, they do not have dedicated airplanes. Hope that helps.

Ken

I would imagine the Demonstration team borrowed a Jet from both the Weapons Academy and the 422nd TES instead of both from one squadron to allow the squadrons to have as many jets as possible for their mission.

I wouldn't be surprised if Max flew a 49th FW jet at Holloman.