Throwback Carrier Ops: F-14 Tomcat and friends
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- Опубликовано: 29 фев 2024
- #fighterpilot Podcast friend Dave 'Bio' Baranek (www.topgunbio.com) shares footage of VF-2 Bounty Hunter #f14tomcat operations aboard USS Ranger (CV-61) circa 1989.
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The 80's were so cool, what a time it must have been to be a naval aviator, flying the coolest airplane ever!
I was an H-46 maintainer who did 3 Westpac/I.O. deployments from 84 til 88, then went Aircrew as a C-2 COD Aircrewman from 89 til 2002. I wish we had GO PRO cameras back then. I have a few old VHS tapes of COD Ops & me loading & unloading the plane, but always had to bother someone else to film or take the photos or videos. B.T.W. The C-2 "COD trapping in this video was from my old Squadron VRC-50 out of Cubi Pt, Philippines. RG 432. I made the last C-2 "full ride" Deployment of 1 aircraft operating off the ship aboard the Carl Vinson in Spring 1990. We flew off back into the P.I. in June, and our next Det aboard the Independence shore based in Bahrain after Iraq invaded Kuwait in Aug 1999. After that the C-2s (2 CODs) Deployed with the carriers but flew off and shore based in route & in Bahrain.
Thank you for posting this fantastic trip down memory lane for me, Sir. I was with VF-142 aboard the Ike a couple of years prior to you taking this footage. Made my living as a Tomcat maintainer. Looking back now, it was a honor and privilege to work on such a beautiful jet with great shipmates, especially in such a hazardous place like the roof. A flood of good thoughts come back, and one or two not so good ones, especially of shipmates who didn't make it back or who went down the wrong path.
I listened to you and Crunch on your podcast every chance I got, and caught up with the episodes I missed. First rate stuff!
Thank you again, Sir, for this terrific video!
You’re welcome!
Bio has done a great job documenting the Tomcat by his books and videography/photography
Thanks Bio for that trip down memory lane. I was an AE in VF-2 on that deployment.
Thank you so much BIO for taking and sharing these videos! What memories for those lucky enough to have experienced it first hand.
Flight deck operations continue to amaze me.
I was an ABE3 in the waist cats on this deployment, I was the center deck operator, and would sometimes fill in on weight board. This is some great footage, and a reminder of some of the awesome things we got to do. I really miss it and wish I could go back and do it all over again.
2:41 You can count the 5 zones of afterburner of these TF-30 engines. Amazing shot.
Never gets old to watch or hear that power .
I flew Tomcats in VF-111 Sundowners I from 1980-1983. USS Kitty Hawk CV-63 and USS Carl Vinson, CAG 15. NL was our tail fin code. “Munchchin” was also in my squadron at the time. Our last reunion I found out he was later in VF-2 and VF-194.
good memories, was on Forrestal 88-89. Tomcat was magical.
Was a Prowler guy myself, ALWAYS loved the 14's!!! #BravoZulu y'all!
Nice coverage. 91-93 Rangers last Ride. V-3. I was able to sit in an F-14 cockpit once and feel that joystick. It was amazing. Nice to see my first boat with my fav aircraft!
Ahhhh the SPS radar writing pulses to the video tape. Good times when Grumman Iron ruled the flight deck!
💪
Grumman should've used Rolls-Royce instead of Pratt & Whitney from the start. Or at least when better Pratt & Whitney fell through
@@TyrannoJoris_Rex I flew F-14As and have no love for the TF30, but with passing years I've taken a different view: the NAVY should not have selected the afterburning TF30 for the F-14. Or they should've come up with the money for a better engine sooner. I blame the Navy money people, not P&W. Now I guess we can sit back with our popcorn and watch the comments fly?
@@dandlb Right. Air Force F100 having issues, Navy pulls out on F401 (AKA "better P&W"), P&W loses funding for it, F401 cancelled, TF30 stays on, 130 or so F-14As kill themselves in US Navy operations over its career, yay history.
And true, they had a deadline by the end of 1970 to get the thing flying, so they used as many similar parts as possible from the F-111B to speed things up. But in that time, the A-7E had gone into service replacing the TF30 with the more powerful and reliable TF41, showing palpable improvement, so in that time of rushing the F-14 into flight, they should've been taking up Allison's development of the afterburning TF41 variant(s) and installed that in the F-14A while P&W was still ironing out the F100 and F401 problems, the latter of which to go into the F-14B by the late-'70s, early-'80s
The vanguard of the Navy, Always fascinating 💯
Love this stuff. There is literally no way to make an F-14 look bad.
Except maybe this:
ruclips.net/video/0p85dJMsXIk/видео.html&ab_channel=djhitmann003
7:10 the money shot!!
Miss all the variety on the flight decks.
There was a bit more in the 80s than today.
Can someone explain how the information from the Precision approach radar is communicated to the pilots? Is it just verbal cues or is there a data link? If I am forming the question all wrong - perhaps someone can explain how the radar works.
The information is typically displayed as an indicator in the HUD.
What was up with the right maingear tire on the first Tomcat that landed at the 6:20 mark? Looks like it was locked up?
Pilot may have had his foot on the brake
Certainly looked like it. But yet it looked good after. Must be run-flats, ha ha
@@bobthefrog4588 😜
@@bobthefrog4588 😆
“..the occasional blip is from the ship’s radar…”
No wonder former combat pilots “drop like flies”!
Were that the case, all the deck hands would also be.
Guessing the cameraman did not realize that if you wrapped aluminum foil around the old VHS cameras, leaving only tge lens & viewfinder uncovered it would reduce or negate the radar signal causing the glitch & lines.
I used to do that with my 8mm but the signal still snuck through
I think I actually did that, but I guess I didn't do a good job. We knew about the foil wrap trick.
One Tomcat appeared to launch off the waist without the JBD up...
If memory serves, some carriers like Ranger did not have had a JBD on cat 4
@@FighterPilotPodcast learn something new every day! I was concerned, could see the nose of another jet (albeit off to the side) not far behind it...
Just curious why no drop tanks while doing carrier ops? I know i saw it quite a bit at Oceania but never on the carrier
Very observant! (For those who missed it, Bullet 207 doesn't have tanks, visible starting about 6:25.) We usually flew with tanks because in most contingency ops we planned to carry as much fuel as possible, and didn't want to have to hang a lot of tanks and check them when preparing for something. So we left them on. But I guess there had been some problems with 207's tanks so they were removed. With 16K internal, an F-14 could make a 1+45 cycle if the pilot was careful with fuel, even without refueling and maybe using burner a little. But as every fighter pilot or RIO will tell you: more fuel is more better.
Was down below providing steam to the cats P-1 Div 1MMR CV Bye God 61 go VF-2 and VF-1
Such beautiful planes even by todays standards. Now ask yourself this - did Top Gun make the F14 Tomcat famous OR did the F14 Tomcat make Top Gun famous 🤔 😮
Question if the f18 that shot down a mig21 in desert storm..do you Think if that was a Mig 29 ODDS are Mig 29 would have shot down a FULLY LOADED HORNET 🤔?
Too hypothetical to say
would the par set teh rawr gear off?
We didn't turn it on on deck, IIRC.
What kind of film gets scratched by radar?
8mm, for one.
VHS video. I'm pretty sure I wrapped the camera in aluminum foil (we usually did that when using video cameras on deck), but either I didn't do a good job or thought I could get away without it.
It's kinda sad that the C-2 could very well be back in service at the rate things are going.
It is in service
RG 422 looked like it had seen better days even back then...