SANG fighter pilot reflects on night flights
Shooting stars, wind farms seen from above
It’s a rarity that fighter pilots are just out star gazing when flying at night.
Night flying for fighter pilots is an important part of their job and training, because most major combat operations take place at night, and pilots need to get used to not seeing other airplanes, not seeing the clouds, the ground or even a horizon.
But when there is a pause in their work a starry night can be an awesome sight.
“There are so many shooting stars,” said Lt. Col. William Rundell of Shelby Township, an A-10 Thunderbolt II pilot and the 107th Fighter Squadron Commander
at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township.
For civilians walking on the ground seeing a shooting star is a magical experience. But pilots flying at night on training exercises or missions wear night goggles, which magnifies any available light. So, it not only enhances their ability to see a shooting star but can produce a dramatic show, as the meteor flashes across a blackened sky before vaporizing in the Earth’s atmosphere.
As for Christmas lights from the air?
Ho-hum, it’s not much to see anymore says Rundell, who has logged more than 3,500 flight hours since becoming a pilot,
700 of them being at night.
Most people use LED lights because they are energy efficient and though colorful on the ground, they no longer use the kind of electricity that can be seen by pilots flying 15,000 feet in the air. What can be a great show from the ground are wind farms. One in particular that many pilots can see while flying at night sits on the northeast shore of the Georgian Bay, south of Sudbury, Ontario.
It has 87 turbines.
“On each one is a red light,” he said. When the sun is setting, the farm lights up like a giant red strobe light, moving with the sun from the west to the east.
“That at night is pretty cool to see,” said Rundell, who was flying in an airplane 11 years before he was driving a car.
“My dad was a pilot for 30 years and my mom was a flight attendant,” Rundell said.
“We flew all the time,” he added.
His first flying experience came at the age of 5. His father took him up in a small private plane.
“When you’re a kid, you have no fear,” Rundell said of his earliest flight. “I also trusted my dad and knew that he would never let anything happen.”
He could not reach the peddles while sitting on this father’s lap, but to this day, his father boasts about the 5-year-old who landed his plane safely on the ground. Having a family who flies and experiencing the passion at such a young age, it is no surprise that Rundell chased the same dream as his father.
After graduating high school, he went on to attend Western Michigan University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in aviation science and administration. After that he went on to earn his wings and a permanent career as a pilot in the Michigan Air National Guard. While in flight school he applied directly to the 107th Fighter Squadron, which is a component of the 127th Wing at SANG. His father, Navy Capt. Howard Rundell, retired, is among the base commanders who served at SANG during the early 1990s.
On New Year’s Eve, Rundell will not be flying at night. He and members of his crew will be soaring through the skies over SANG during the day so they can enjoy the fireworks and other nighttime activities at home with their families. But he has experienced the thrill of flying at night during a fireworks show.
“My sister, my dad and my mom, we used to fly all the time,” Rundell said.
Among the fondest memories he has of those family flights came while flying at night over the Detroit River. It was the Fourth of July fireworks and before 911 and aviation restrictions made it impossible to observe a fireworks show from the air, they were able to fly right through them.
“It was probably the coolest high-definition show you could ever experience as a child,” he said.
That was long before kids had drones that could capture the moment on livestream and record it on video but still among the experiences that fueled his frenzy for flying.
However, it’s important to note that these are fun experiences. There have been many moments in the air that had him wishing he was safely on the ground, including a rescue mission that had him flying below the clouds and very close to the mountains of Afghanistan, in order to provide support for the people on the ground trying to reach safety.
Still, he loves flying.
“It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do,” he said. The same was true of his father who used to tell him, “I don’t want to work for a living. That’s why I became a pilot. It’s not work. It’s a joy every day. And no matter what is happening on the ground once you get above the clouds all is right with the world.”
Happy New Year to the service members at SANG and those serving in other cities and countries near and afar.