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YANKEE AIR PIRATE 34 - Khe Sanh Intruders

Posted By: Simon Read

YANKEE AIR PIRATE 34 - Khe Sanh Intruders - 04/06/07 08:45 AM



680122 Khe Sanh Intruders 1
Weather: - Broken Cloud 9000 Ft VIS 30 Nm
TOT: - 1130
Aircraft: - (2) A-6A (VMA (AW)-533 'Hawks'), DaNang
Flight Time: - 45 Minutes


Having already flown and reported 'The Mining of Song Ma', and accompanied A-6 Intruders on many other missions, we return for some more Intruder missions that stretched this sim-pilot's ability, and nerves.

After Action Report;
We have good weather today, visibility is fine. The broken cloud puffs are fairly small and easily cleared, although they do tend to cling to the hillsides. We shall treat them with respect, but they are hardly fog banks...

Approaching Khe Sanh, we are loaded with 24 Mk82s, one hell of an ordnance load that some poor sods are going to have to swallow. We have to hit the NVA guns, positioned in the hills around the American outpost. This situation is shaping up to be a disaster for us. Let's see if we can tip the balance by taking out the enemy's heavy artillery.

On the way in we watch the artillery duel. Flying this mission (the first time was many months ago) was actually the first time that I saw some of the amazing new objects and figures that we now take in our stride. Never forget the masterpiece scenery-building the YAP Team have achieved, I get to appreciate it again...



The 'Gunslingers' are also here, four Phantoms of the 390th TFS are already on station ahead of us. The more powerful and agile aircraft are concentrating on attacking AAA type threats. The Phantoms make a series of steep, twisting dives, swooping on their targets like birds of prey. Well, we are the Hawks, and the 533rd is about to go hunting!

OK, we are coming into the combat zone, let's start the music, set the ground-radar to short range, drop the tank, set the pickle-release for single pairs, check the chaff dispenser. We are going to be getting down 'n' dirty with these guys so our best defence will be to keep our speed up and fly an un-predictable flight path, sort of swoop like the Phantoms are doing.



I am leading this two-ship flight, so we have a wingman, let's give him his chance to make a name for himself and be a bit of use to us all. My BN spots a big NVA artillery piece, describing its position to our wingman, who I send after it. He's good, dropping his tank and smoothly diving toward the hillside, he nails that piece a few seconds later. I have another one targeted further along the hill, so I follow on and dive in, putting a couple of Mk82s right on it, one each.

We do have to keep our speed up though. A large AAA gun on a hilltop blazes away and small arms fire is considerable. I leave it alone; it's only one isolated gun we can easily avoid, our priority is the heavy artillery. I try to use my wingman wisely, making sweeping passes and re-forming away from the small arms fire, trying to keep him out of un-necessary trouble.



During several passes we take out more guns and some enemy troops (they were just unlucky). The cratered hillside opposite Khe Sanh smokes like the landscape of hell. Spidery black fingers reach through the clouds; we have done what we can here, both of us are now Winchester and un-damaged, not a scratch on us!

I reform the flight and lead us south down the coast back to DaNang. Recovery on this long strip of concrete is quite a luxury to Marine pilots!



Wow, Khe Sanh! Once again Yankee Air Pirate holds open the door of history and kicks your ass through it! Wonderful stuff and I do love the Intruder. I wonder if I will still love it after the next mission...

Which of course turned out to be 'Delta Sierra'.

Posted By: MigBuster

Re: YANKEE AIR PIRATE 34 - Khe Sanh Intruders - 04/06/07 01:48 PM

Great job as usual Simon - A recent mission called Delta Sierras a very good A-6 mission.
Posted By: Whistler

Re: YANKEE AIR PIRATE 34 - Khe Sanh Intruders - 04/10/07 03:40 AM

Great pics... your threads here have pretty much sold me on YAP... I'm going to start buying the packages over the next few weeks... I just finished reading "Bury Me Upside Down" and I'm craving a more involving WoV experience...

BTW Does YAP change the flight models or any aspects of the stock planes? I imagine it comes with new skins for the stock planes and also the YAP made planes (ie RF-4, AC-47, etc) but do they change any of the flight parameters or loadouts or anything? Also are all the planes listed on the "Aircraft" page of the YAP website flyable?
Posted By: Simon Read

Re: YANKEE AIR PIRATE 34 - Khe Sanh Intruders - 04/10/07 11:05 AM

Oh yeah, I did a fresh install, just for the YAP stuff. Everything is modified and many new planes, objects etc are added.
Posted By: Simon Read

Re: YANKEE AIR PIRATE 34 - Khe Sanh Intruders - 12/06/07 07:54 AM

NOTAMS: This mission was originally released with the first YAP Set 1-10, now we have much more Khe Sanh material and this flight can been seen in its proper context.
Posted By: 8 L.E.I.N.

Re: YANKEE AIR PIRATE 34 - Khe Sanh Intruders - 12/06/07 09:36 PM

 Originally Posted By: Whistler
Great pics... your threads here have pretty much sold me on YAP... I'm going to start buying the packages over the next few weeks... I just finished reading "Bury Me Upside Down" and I'm craving a more involving WoV experience...

BTW Does YAP change the flight models or any aspects of the stock planes? I imagine it comes with new skins for the stock planes and also the YAP made planes (ie RF-4, AC-47, etc) but do they change any of the flight parameters or loadouts or anything? Also are all the planes listed on the "Aircraft" page of the YAP website flyable?



Whistler, then your gonna love the Misty missions. One tip, get low, get fast! The AC and loadouts are mission specific and you get everything you need for that mission.
The outcome depends on you, thats the beauty of YAP.
Great job Simon.


Misty FAC
Posted By: Simon Read

Re: YANKEE AIR PIRATE 34 - Khe Sanh Intruders - 01/17/08 08:45 AM

Well, what do you know! This thread made 20MMs 'favourites' for 2007 - Thanks mate!

I do seem to have evolved into a big YAP fan over the last year. Now approaching the 80th YAP AAR!

Although the threads are kept alive by SimHQ, I have all the original AARs on a spare drive somewhere and was toying with the idea of putting them all together, perhaps as PDFs, if anyone wants them...


Posted By: Sundowner

Re: YANKEE AIR PIRATE 34 - Khe Sanh Intruders - 01/17/08 08:27 PM

PDF's.....sounds a great idea Simon......keep up the great work.
Posted By: Burn92

Re: YANKEE AIR PIRATE 34 - Khe Sanh Intruders - 02/18/11 06:16 PM

Great pictures guys. This game looks epic. I'm going to have to consider robbing my piggy bank to get it. I love the reports. Keep it up!
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