[R-390] G-8 Summit Security...

[blw]

> Interesting times indeed.  There has been all sorts of references to
> jammers (presumably of cellular frequencies) being employed by the
> RCMP.  These are otherwise illegal in Canada.  Jordan, by the way, CF-104s
> (Starfighter) went out of service while I was serving in Lahr, Germany in
> 1985/86 and were replaced by the CF-18 Hornet.  These aircraft, as well as
> American F-15, and more likely F-16 fighters will be giving top cover
> during the summit.  The CF-18 is based in Cold Lake, AB, but might possibly
> be located a bit closer to the action at a forward operating
> base..........Walt.


I think those were the F-104F models, heavily modified by the Germans. That
is why they lost the lawsuit against Lockheed because so many of them
crashed. 

We flew our helicopters pretty low in Germany, but those Starfighter's flew
UNDER us all the time. There were too many near-misses to remember them all.

I once had to ferry an aircraft solo to Mannheim for IR painting. There was
a gigantic German radar site near my flight path called Strawbasket for
cross border surveillance. I would flight follow with them over the hills
into the Mannheim valley. That morning, Strawbasket called me up and asked
if I would like to be intercepted. I hestitantly okayed an intercept if I
knew the direction and altitude of the guy. Some pilots said no to this, but
these guys always took care of me on ferry flights. Strawbasket answered me
and said, "your 9 o'clock, one mile out". Yikes! There was a big black line
of exhaust moving right at me. This shiny black Starfighter crossed 50 feet
in front of me and a bit lower. He had white checkboards painted from the
nose to the exhaust down the sides of the plane. It looked like a personal
jet and was beautiful. The pilot waggled his wings and kept on going. I
asked a lot of German pilots about this plane and one said he thought it was
a squadron commander's jet, but nobody was ever sure about it.



Barry