F-100 Super Sabre: a fighter pilot’s perspective

[Major Shaitan Singh]

Former fighter pilot Scotty Wilson gives you the low-down on flying the magnificent ‘Hun’.

1.What were you were first impressions of the F-100?
I transitioned to the Hun right out of UPT after flying the T-38. The T-38 was small, sleek, white and sexy. The Hun was, by comparison, huge, camouflaged, grimy and a workhorse. Best of all -it only had one engine and one seat. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen!

2. When did you fly it? With which units?
I flew the Hun (C/D/F) from 1973 to 1979 for about 1500 hours, mostly with the 178 TFG (Ohio) and 131 TFW (Missouri) Air Guard units.

3.What was the best thing about it?
It was an “honest” airplane with excellent control harmony and good visibility. It was simple and reliable.

4.What was the worst thing about flying it?
Pilots like to say the Hun invented adverse yaw, and one did have to be careful with lateral stick input at high AOA. Final approach speeds were relatively high (166 KIAS + fuel in the D; higher in the C). It was underpowered – like a lot of the early Century-Series airplanes – and we had two power settings: “not enough” (military power); and “just okay” (afterburner). It was hard to fly really well.

5.Was it an effective weapon system?
I never flew the Hun in combat, so I’m not the best one to ask. I have several friends who flew as “Misty FACs” (Forward Air Controller, a very dangerous mission) in South East Asia; I never heard them say a bad thing about the plane. In training missions, it was a stable bomb and gun platform.



6.Did you ever fly mock dogfights against any other types, what was this like and which types were the most challenging?

We were commonly called-upon to do duty as MiG-15/17/19 simulators and as training partners in DACT with more advanced fighters such as the F-4, F-14 and F-15. We often flew “canned” scenarios or profiles specific to another unit’s training requirements.

“Huge, camouflaged and grimy…the most beautiful thing I had ever seen!”

Occasionally, we’d get an opportunity to do anything we wanted. A “clean” Hun – even the heavier D model – could climb to above 45,000 and get up to Mach 1.3 in a shallow dive. No one looked for us up that high, and we could usually engage from above unseen – the first time. We could generally win a 1-vs-1 guns-only or rear-aspect missile fight against a hard-winged F-4 and break even against a slatted E, unless the Phantom pilot was very good (Ron Keys comes to mind) and didn’t fight our fight. Same with the F-14. Best tactic was to go single-circle, co-plane. We’d give up knots for angles and out-rate the other guy, who would honor your nose position and become defensive immediately. (I have 2000 hours in F-4C/D/E and know those airplanes pretty well.)

The F-15 was a superior airplane in every respect and it was rare you got the advantage on one unless the pilot was a doofus (and there were a few).



7.What three words best describe the F-100?
Honest, reliable, predictable.

8.What was your most memorable flight in a F-100?
14 hours in the cockpit / 12 hours flight time during a winter-time redeployment from Ramstein AB Germany to Richards-Gebaur AFB, Missouri. We strapped in and started-up, then shut-down and waited in the cockpit while our tankers at RAF Mildenhall fixed a problem. After we got airborne and mid-way across the Atlantic both tankers lost their drogues (equipment, not pilot error). We found another tanker – this one scrambled out of Canada – using UHF-ADF and Air-to-Air TACAN while IMC in 1 NM visibility conditions. When we finally joined with two more tankers we flew…and flew…and continued flying westward because the weather at every AFB east of the Mississippi was below landing minimums. (The F-100D didn’t have ILS at the time.)
I don’t think we ever saw groundspeeds in excess of 360 knots the entire route. Only if you have worn the old-style poopy suit* can you appreciate how enjoyable the last four hours of that flight was like.

Scotty Wilson is currently leading a project to build a flyable Bugatti 100P, what many describe as the most beautiful aeroplane ever designed.