Larry Brown

Larry Brown of Denton, Texas, is a retired U.S. Air Force F-15 pilot who is using the lessons he learned as a fighter pilot as a GA pilot in his Cessna P210. Brown, who has more than 3,000 hours total time during his 35 years of flying, also was an instructor pilot and flight examiner in the Air Force T-38 and instructor pilot in the T-52, the military’s version of GA’s Diamond DA40.

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Article

| September 21, 2017

Behind the scenes of grassroots success Operation Airdrop

What has become one of the largest overnight grassroots general aviation disaster relief groups—Operation Airdrop—started with a phone conversation Aug. 29 between pilots Doug Jackson and John Clay Wolfe (also a Dallas-Fort Worth radio personality) while Jackson and his friend Chip MacLaughlin drove from Rockport, Texas, back to their homes in Decatur after delivering a trailer full of supplies to the South Texas area that was hit hard by Hurricane Harvey.

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Article

| September 19, 2017

Small efforts add up to help Texans clean up, rebuild

After Hurricane Harvey battered much of Texas, my wife, Ann, and I knew that we wanted to help with the relief efforts in hard-hit South Texas. We were left untouched at our home in Denton just north of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

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Article

| June 3, 2016

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Fly like a fighter: Lose sight, lose the fight

Early in F-15 training I learned the importance of visual lookout. Whether it was acquiring an attacker to avoid being shot, or gaining a tally first to go in for a kill, we were guided by the phrase, “Lose sight, lose the fight.”

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Technique

| May 9, 2016

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Fly like a fighter: Full speed ahead

About halfway through my initial F-15 training we were doing three-ship missions during which one instructor would take up two students. The instructor would pair up with one of us while the other student played bandit, then we would alternate until reaching bingo fuel.

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Fly like a fighter

| April 5, 2016

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Fly like a fighter: 'He'll fly right by'

The practices fighter pilots employ in dogfights can help keep you safe in the traffic pattern. Retired U.S. Air Force fighter pilot Larry Brown explains.

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Fly like a fighter

| March 9, 2016

Fly like a fighter: Night IMC tanker

If you ever need to fly a really smooth, stable, and precise aircraft, imagine that you are flying at night, in the weather, with three aircraft in close formation on your wing.

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Fly like a fighter

| February 8, 2016

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Fly like a fighter: 'GPS direct'

Retired U.S. Air Force pilot Larry Brown explains one circumstance where it may be a good idea to fly a longer route rather than filing and flying GPS direct.

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Fly like a fighter

| January 4, 2016

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Fly like a fighter: Never give up

An Air Force pilot on his first flight training dogfight against an F-16 struggled to keep up and pull off a shot. He managed to "tree" his opponent four times and later learned that he had a brief window when he could have taken a kill shot.

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Fly like a fighter

| December 4, 2015

Fly like a fighter: Maintenance flight checks

Retired U.S. Air Force pilot Larry Brown explains how general aviation pilots can borrow some practices from the Air Force's maintenance program to enhance safety.

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Fly like a fighter

| November 9, 2015

Fly like a fighter: Speak up

Retired Air Force pilot Larry Brown counsels general aviation pilots not to make his mistake and to speak up as soon as they lose sight of traffic they are instructed to follow.

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Fly like a fighter

| October 5, 2015

Fly Like a Fighter: Chemical warfare

Training flights using the chemical warfare or gas mask proved painfully uncomfortable for one Air Force fighter pilot whose forehead looked like someone had hit him with a two-by-four after wearing it.

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Fly like a fighter

| September 9, 2015

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Fly like a Fighter: Too tired to notice

Every time we fly we need to assess whether we are rested enough to take to the skies. If not, then we should act as pilot in command and take charge to delay, reschedule, or cancel the flight.

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Fly like a fighter

| August 10, 2015

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Fly like a fighter: Free and correct

Preflight tasks admittedly aren't nearly as exciting as flying itself. But doing, or not doing, certain things before flight can have significant, even fatal, consequences, writes retired Air Force fighter pilot Larry Brown.

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Fly like a fighter

| July 6, 2015

Fly like a fighter: 'Unable'

Even in a T-38 jet trainer, sometimes the appropriate response to a clearance is, "Unable," recalls retired Air Force pilot Larry Brown.

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Fly like a fighter

| June 8, 2015

Fly like a fighter: Blindfold cockpit check

Use a fighter pilot's tip and close your eyes to visualize locations of key controls and cockpit switches before flight.

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Fly like a fighter

| May 6, 2015

Fly like a fighter: Spin cycle

A "simple" power-on stall got really exciting, but then turned into a nonevent because of the training the pilot had received.

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Fly like a fighter

| April 7, 2015

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Fly like a fighter: Operation empty Sic-Sacs

After getting sick on his first five flights in a T-37 early in his training, an Air Force pilot made it his goal to create an experience in which none of his passengers would get sick, whether he was flying reporters or controllers in an F-15 and T-38 or friends in Cessna 172.

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Fly like a fighter

| March 9, 2015

Fly like a fighter: Slightly lost

A low fuel indication sends an F-15 rookie pilot back toward home base away from his training team. While troubleshooting the problem, the pilot follows the wrong landmark. Find out the lessons that he learned and now applies to every flight.

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Fly like a fighter

| February 9, 2015

Fly like a fighter: Dress for egress

Many pilots won't fly over large bodies of frigid water necessitating a wet suit, but the same principle for preparedness—dress for egress—applies wherever you fly. Retired Air Force pilot Larry Brown shares his lessons learned from flying an F-15 over the North Sea in a "poopy suit."

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Fly like a fighter

| January 6, 2015

Fly like a fighter: Double trouble

During a two-ship F-15 training sortie, one Air Force pilot experienced a complete radio failure in his jet while the other experienced a failure in one of his jet's hydraulic systems. Find out how they made it back to base, and how you can prepare for similar emergencies.

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Fly like a fighter

| December 8, 2014

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Fly like a fighter: Smoke in the cockpit

Passing 3,000 feet and only 9 miles from the field, smoke started coming out from between the seats of the T-37 the Air Force student was flying with an instructor pilot.

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Fly like a fighter

| November 12, 2014

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Fly like a fighter: 'You can't bust me'

An Air Force student gets a surprise when his solo flight is deemed unsatisfactory for safety of flight. You might not be graded on every flight, but a “You can’t bust me” attitude is dangerous.

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Fly like a fighter

| October 8, 2014

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Fly like a fighter: Lessons learned from 400-knot overtake

An Air Force student egged on by his instructor overtakes the three-ship he is supposed to join at 400 knots. Find out why he urges pilots to, "Set your limits and stick to them, even if you have a cheering section inside (or outside) of your airplane."

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Fly like a fighter

| September 8, 2014

Fly like a fighter: Inner voice

An Air Force pilot offered the opportunity to fly a risky show with the Italian Frecce Tricolori air demonstration team had a choice to make: Fly with them in an airshow or go out with an Air Force nurse he had just met. Something inside told him to go with the nurse. During the airshow, the demonstration team suffered a midair collision.

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Fly like a fighter

| August 4, 2014

Fly like a fighter: O say, can you see?

On his first lesson in defensive dogfighting in an F-15B, an Air Force pilots learns that stepping up to the new aircraft is harder than he thought. In a 7-G turn at 420 knots, he couldn't lift his head to look outside the cockpit, forcing him to fly blind off his instructor's commands.

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Fly like a fighter

| July 7, 2014

Fly like a fighter: Are you ready for a systems failure in IFR?

With warnings of a looming systems failure in a T-38A, an Air Force instructor weighs his options for getting the aircraft safely on the ground under instrument conditions.

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Fly like a fighter

| June 17, 2014

Fly like a fighter: Lessons learned from a fatal bailout

Could the time tested fighter pilot saying, “lose sight, lose the fight,” have misled a pilot to not properly strap in an RF-4 and contributed to his drowning after a successful ejection over the ocean?

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Fly like a fighter

| May 5, 2014

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Fly like a fighter: ‘Bail out, bail out, bail out’

A training engagement between an F-15 and two RF-4Cs goes terribly wrong when the F-4 pilot uses ailerons to roll left and see the F-15. The jet immediately departs controlled flight.

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Fly like a fighter

| April 7, 2014

Fly like a fighter: Gunshot

How can learning how an F-15 pilot uses a gunsight help make you a more precise pilot? Retired Air Force pilot Larry Brown explains.

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Fly like a fighter

| March 7, 2014

Fly like a fighter: Missile shot

With a closing speed of about 900 knots, Air Force pilots on a training mission have seconds to aim and shoot heat-seeking and radar guided missiles at a drone target. Their success came from repeated rehearsals. But as author Larry Brown writes, "there is nothing like the real thing to gain experience."

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