Pilot explains what taking off with an F-15 at night looks like: “it’s like being in a dark tunnel and going super fast”

The following video shows interesting footage of the 173rd Fighter Wing at Kingsley Field in Klamath Falls, Oregon.

The Wing has done night flight training last week and the NBC has filmed the F-15s taking off in the dark in full afterburner and talked with Lt.Col. Jeffrey Edwards, an “Eagle driver”.

Edwards said his first night flight in an F-15 was “unbelievable” because “One, the sheer power of the airplane; two, you lack some of the daytime cues that you normally see.  So, it’s kind of like being in a dark tunnel at night, and going super fast.”

Night flight training with Night Vision Goggles is a key element in fighter training, because, “many times initial combat operations happen at night.”

173rd FW Eagles perform air-to-air training activity, including weapons employment and air-to-air refuel, in the airspace in southeast Oregon.

About David Cenciotti

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.