F-16 Keys

Search engine didn’t find me a thread on this, so here I am.
If I’m rehashing old hash, please lock or otherwise terminate this thread. :slight_smile:
The column link: Do you need a key to start an F-16?

Well, I was in the Army, and the vehicles I dealt with were mundane compared to F-16s.
You didn’t need a key to start any of them. Except you did, because every one was padlocked shut.
Cutting those locks would have been possible-but-challenging, picking them was improbable.
I have to believe an F-16 is locked down at least as tight as a cargo carrier.

Then there’s the hangar door (or motor pool gate). That’s locked, and you need a different key.
Ground vehicle might drive through the front gate, but a plane can’t batter its way out of a building.

So yeah, if somebody leaves an F-16 just sitting around with the canopy up, you could jump in and zoom away.
But that’s not going to happen. And stealing one quietly is going to require keys.

Lock your F16.
Take the key.
Don’t let a good boy go bad…

So they don’t have an ignition key, but are typically kept locked in a hangar and probably have a lock on the “door” (canopy). Even if an aftermarket add on rather than original manufacturer’s equipment.

Do you need a big ol’ truck full of batteries, or a big ol’ truck full of jet engine starter?

Nope. Assuming the Jet Fuel Starter accumulators are charged, the engines are ground started from the accumulated hydraulic pressure.

The JFS accumulator pressurizes a JFS starter motor (a hydraulic motor) which turns the JFS (a gas turbine auxiliary power unit which burns jet fuel) until it catches, and then the power output of the JFS turns the main engine shaft until it can catch.

From Wikipedia:

So the F-16 can self ground start without any Aerospace Ground Equipment. This is visibly part of the USAF Thunderbirds flight demonstration; the demonstration program includes a stylized (high-precision) version of flight launch operations, including the pilots moving out to their F-16s in formation, ground prepping, mounting up, clearing the plane, and ground starting.

Cool!

Ammo is a whole other question.
Not only locked up, but locked up elsewhere.

So, no Sidewinders. :frowning:

Before you “hop” into an F-16 that’s just sitting there unwatched to go aviating, just a couple of points:

  1. Is there a downcheck on the aircraft?
    B. Is there fuel in it?
    III. Is the O2 bottle charged?
    4th. Do you have a G-suit (the leggings)?
  2. Do you have a helmet to hold the O2 mask up to your face?
    ||||| |. Do you have an O2 mask?
    Seven. Do you know where ALL the “Remove before flying” safety pins are that you have to pull?
    10<sub>(8)</sub>. Do you know how to properly strap yourself into the ejection seat?
  3. What will you do with the ladder that you used to climb into the plane now that you now longer need it?
    J. Do you know the proper sequence of switches to throw to start the engine?
    XI. Do you know how to taxi an F-16?
    Twelfth. Did you remember to remove the chocks?
  4. How good at you at absorbing .50 cal and 7.62mm rounds? Because someone is going to notice a F-16 just meandering around a taxiway in the general direction of a runway and won’t be pleased about it.

I’m reading a book.

So, you truly don’t need a key?!?
9a) how you gonna get back down if you toss the ladder?
I’d probably miss Point Twelve, and leave a chock in place.
Just seems like my kind of error. Probably happens IRL pretty often.

If my plan is to stay at low altitude and not do high-G maneuvers, so I need these? Maybe I took out the real pilot, and they’re at least expecting me to take off.

Or maybe Mothra’s attacking, and they can’t bother with me right away.

I just thought you jumped in the cockpit and started thinking commands to it in Russian.

I flew for the AF briefly. I did not fly the F16 but there is likely at 50 step start up procedure for that aircraft to get the aircraft in motion. Certainly no keys. Likely an ignition button.

Good points, but easily countered with a disgruntled ex-F16 pilot.

Remember the M1 Abrahms Tank, that a disgruntled ex M1 commander took on a joy ride in California? He caused millions of dollars of damage.

An Ex-F16 pilot could do a lot of damage, without a G suit or oxygen.

And I see F16’s parked on the tarmac for extended periods of time (not in locked hangers) - especially at AFNG bases. These are in fact armed, because a F16 with the Air National Guard based at Ft Wayne Baer Field, once accidentally triggered a live round that landed in some kids bedroom. That F16 was parked on the tarmac for days prior to this. If you go by there now, you will see an entire squadron of F16’s out in the open.

There is a youtube video that shows the entire cold start cockpit procedure for an F16

and even the real McCoy:

(turn volume down & wear ear plugs)

Parking brakes?

Jesus Christ, is it the most advanced aircraft in the world, or a Buick?

F16 key? My keyboard only goes up to F12.

What? On, never mind.

(This is the first thought every time I see the subject line. The VT escape code for that would be, what, ^[[28~ ?)

Well, F16 is 4 better, isn’t it? It’s not 12. You see, most blokes, you know, will be fine at 12. You’re on 12 here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, Where can you go from there? Where? Nowhere.What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do? Put it up to 16. Exactly. Four better.

But what about:

[QUOTE=Ranger Jeff]
9. What will you do with the ladder that you used to climb into the plane now that you now longer need it?
[/QUOTE]

Unless our disgruntled former F-16 jock has an accomplice, won’t this be a issue? If the ladder is on a wheeled stand, he’s going to have to push it away hard enough that he won’t clip it with a wing when he rolls out of there. And if it’s just leaning, he probably won’t want to run over it with one of the wheels of the aircraft.

I was talking once with a USN Aviation Machinists Mate who was a plane captain on a carrier. He got so personally annoyed and professionally affronted at the LtJg who never bothered to do a walkaround of the his F-14 before he went off to aviate that he arranged that when the plane was down for engine service (both engines completely removed) to have the plane moved to the flight deck and had the ‘board’ changed so his favourite Val Kilmer/Tom Cruise wannabe was assigned to it. Much ado as the pilot could not get the engines to light off. More ado when it was pointed out that if he had done a proper walk around instead of reciting his mantra about his “need for speed”, he might have notice there were NO ENGINES in the aircraft. It seems the USN expects pilots to notice that sort of thing.

Yeah, the AMM got a minor ass chewing too, but his warrant stood up for him.

Been there (Ranger CVA-61), wish I’d done that.

I would presume anyone engaging in such grand theft would simply jump out of the cockpit and bounce away on his giant-sized balls.