Right, TopGun is on the telly, educate me about F14 Tomcats
Discussion
YAD061 said:
aeropilot said:
YAD061 said:
fast and deceptively agile for their size. I love em, a thug of a plane
Can't believe it's now almost 13 years since I last saw a F-14 flying
YAD061 said:
good job they didn't have the command eject system as fitted to the Tonka otherwise the pilot would have followed and the plane would be have been lost
The F14 did have command eject, but in this case, as with the Tonka, it was selected to 'front' as there was a passenger in the back. There was at least one incident with the Tornado when the nav banged-out unnecessarily, taking a rather bewildered and probably pant-soiled pilot with him. It happened to Pablo Mason IIRC when he was bounced over Germany at low-level whilst his nav was head-down in the back. The nav thought they were piling-in and decided that jumping out was prudent, taking them both.speedtwelve said:
There was at least one incident with the Tornado when the nav banged-out unnecessarily, taking a rather bewildered and probably pant-soiled pilot with him. It happened to Pablo Mason IIRC when he was bounced over Germany at low-level whilst his nav was head-down in the back. The nav thought they were piling-in and decided that jumping out was prudent, taking them both.
At the time of the incident there was some concern amongst certain members of the Tornado force that proximity to a RADHAZ could affect the Tornado's fly by wire system resulting in an undemanded control movement. The navigator in question was an ex Vulcan nav and one of the faction worried about the unproven RADHAZ problem.According to the findings of the BoE he was head down in the back, doing whatever it is that self loading freight do, when the pilot had to manoeuvre the a/c violently (bird avoidance IIRC), believing it was an UCM he pulled the yellow and black handle resulting in two Martin Baker Let-Downs and an expensive hole in the ground.
Ginetta G15 Girl said:
speedtwelve said:
There was at least one incident with the Tornado when the nav banged-out unnecessarily, taking a rather bewildered and probably pant-soiled pilot with him. It happened to Pablo Mason IIRC when he was bounced over Germany at low-level whilst his nav was head-down in the back. The nav thought they were piling-in and decided that jumping out was prudent, taking them both.
At the time of the incident there was some concern amongst certain members of the Tornado force that proximity to a RADHAZ could affect the Tornado's fly by wire system resulting in an undemanded control movement. The navigator in question was an ex Vulcan nav and one of the faction worried about the unproven RADHAZ problem.According to the findings of the BoE he was head down in the back, doing whatever it is that self loading freight do, when the pilot had to manoeuvre the a/c violently (bird avoidance IIRC), believing it was an UCM he pulled the yellow and black handle resulting in two Martin Baker Let-Downs and an expensive hole in the ground.
Good old Pablo, he's had a hell of a career really, the flying world could do with a few more like him, he's the bane of management though!
Ginetta G15 Girl said:
speedtwelve said:
There was at least one incident with the Tornado when the nav banged-out unnecessarily, taking a rather bewildered and probably pant-soiled pilot with him. It happened to Pablo Mason IIRC when he was bounced over Germany at low-level whilst his nav was head-down in the back. The nav thought they were piling-in and decided that jumping out was prudent, taking them both.
At the time of the incident there was some concern amongst certain members of the Tornado force that proximity to a RADHAZ could affect the Tornado's fly by wire system resulting in an undemanded control movement. The navigator in question was an ex Vulcan nav and one of the faction worried about the unproven RADHAZ problem.According to the findings of the BoE he was head down in the back, doing whatever it is that self loading freight do, when the pilot had to manoeuvre the a/c violently (bird avoidance IIRC), believing it was an UCM he pulled the yellow and black handle resulting in two Martin Baker Let-Downs and an expensive hole in the ground.
Never knew it was Mr Mason though.
There is one on deck of the USS Midway in San Diego, which is now a Museum ship.
The Midway, constucted during WW2, was too small for the Tomcat, although 1 or 2 did land on it when they couldn't made it back to the USS-Enterprise do to bad weather (from memory when I visited the museum)
The Midway, constucted during WW2, was too small for the Tomcat, although 1 or 2 did land on it when they couldn't made it back to the USS-Enterprise do to bad weather (from memory when I visited the museum)
mko9 said:
YAD061 said:
fast and deceptively agile for their size. I love em, a thug of a plane
Not so much. The F-15 which was built at about the same time and nearly identical in size is far more maneuverable. As are both the F-16 and F/A-18.
) than the F-15 which was designed to more of a dogfighter is not that surprising.Tomcat is my favourite.
Edited by andy400 on Monday 22 February 08:09
. Definitely one of my all time favourite aircraft.Fantastic, capable aircraft, but horribly let down by a dog of a powerplant, the TF-30, with the 'A' versions.
I did an exchange visit to a Yank carrier many years ago (I'm ex Royal Navy) and got a few really good dits from a Tomcat crew. Really hospitable bunch of guys.
As was mentioned above, it really came into it's own as a 'bombcat'. It never was designed as a true dogfighter, in say the model of the F-15, but more as a stand off fighter with the AWG-9 radar allied to the Phoenix missile, it could 'reach out and touch somebody' at silly ranges.
Handy if you have a fleet of Soviet bad boys inbound to your expensive carrier fleet.
I think one of the reasons to drop them from service was the maintenance requirements. I remember something like 200 hrs ground time for every hour spent flying being told to me. Way more than the Hornet.
Still a beautiful machine though. Big beast as well. I've got some pics somewhere of me sat in and on one, and I'm no smally lad, but it makes me look tiny.
I did an exchange visit to a Yank carrier many years ago (I'm ex Royal Navy) and got a few really good dits from a Tomcat crew. Really hospitable bunch of guys.
As was mentioned above, it really came into it's own as a 'bombcat'. It never was designed as a true dogfighter, in say the model of the F-15, but more as a stand off fighter with the AWG-9 radar allied to the Phoenix missile, it could 'reach out and touch somebody' at silly ranges.
Handy if you have a fleet of Soviet bad boys inbound to your expensive carrier fleet.
I think one of the reasons to drop them from service was the maintenance requirements. I remember something like 200 hrs ground time for every hour spent flying being told to me. Way more than the Hornet.
Still a beautiful machine though. Big beast as well. I've got some pics somewhere of me sat in and on one, and I'm no smally lad, but it makes me look tiny.
XB70 said:
The AIM-54 Phoenix was orignally designed for the A-12 (think of an SR-71 with missiles)
One of the few facts I remember from my favourite childhood book, just entitled "Aircraft". It could fire that missle with a lock on from 160km away.- awaits Eric MC to tell me said book was wrong.
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