Hi
Just noticed this on you tube and it reminded me of your post.
An interview with a F-14 Pilot who went to fly the F-3 Tornado with the RAF for three years.
F-14 Questions Answered - Ask Away
- Thread starter Astro14
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Hi
Just noticed this on you tube and it reminded me of your post.
An interview with a F-14 Pilot who went to fly the F-3 Tornado with the RAF for three years.
Tikka - Never that lucky. Did a lot of interesting training, just not that event.
I’ll give that YouTube video a watch.
On a personal note, I lobbied the assignment officer (known as a detailer in the Navy) very hard to get assigned to that Tornado exchange slot. I didn’t get it. A friend, who we will call “AJ” got the assignment, and I went on to be an F-14 instructor pilot. Better from a career track perspective, but not nearly as much fun...
A good friend (RIO) ended up going there in early ‘93. Still has some great stories about it.
I’ll give that YouTube video a watch.
On a personal note, I lobbied the assignment officer (known as a detailer in the Navy) very hard to get assigned to that Tornado exchange slot. I didn’t get it. A friend, who we will call “AJ” got the assignment, and I went on to be an F-14 instructor pilot. Better from a career track perspective, but not nearly as much fun...
A good friend (RIO) ended up going there in early ‘93. Still has some great stories about it.
Hi Astro14.
Thank you for replying. I really appreciate your time.
For a Navy Pilot to pit his/her skills against top tier german pilots flying the very capable Mig29 must have been the ultimate test.
As a layman i was suprised just how prized the foreign assignments are with Pilots. A very good you tube vid is a RAF pilot sent to fly F15 in Florida. Spent 3 years before returning to UK. Then returned to US to train as test Pilot. His favourite US aircraft to fly? The F-14.
Incidently he survived two ejections. RAF Lightening and an air show display Hunter.
Thank you for replying. I really appreciate your time.
For a Navy Pilot to pit his/her skills against top tier german pilots flying the very capable Mig29 must have been the ultimate test.
As a layman i was suprised just how prized the foreign assignments are with Pilots. A very good you tube vid is a RAF pilot sent to fly F15 in Florida. Spent 3 years before returning to UK. Then returned to US to train as test Pilot. His favourite US aircraft to fly? The F-14.
Incidently he survived two ejections. RAF Lightening and an air show display Hunter.
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Hi Astro 14.
I caught an interesting podcast interview with a Tomcat pilot last night. I loved one of his jokes 'better to die than look bad'. He was refering to an incident that caused expensive damage to his F-14.
When taking off from a Carrier he would automatically move to raise the wheels once he felt the initial 'G' of the launch subside. This time when he took off from a conventional airstrip he simply forgot! Some warning noises in the cockpit and $750k damage to the gear were the result. Seems they had to bring in the jacks to service the aircraft.
Did you have any close calls you can talk about?
I caught an interesting podcast interview with a Tomcat pilot last night. I loved one of his jokes 'better to die than look bad'. He was refering to an incident that caused expensive damage to his F-14.
When taking off from a Carrier he would automatically move to raise the wheels once he felt the initial 'G' of the launch subside. This time when he took off from a conventional airstrip he simply forgot! Some warning noises in the cockpit and $750k damage to the gear were the result. Seems they had to bring in the jacks to service the aircraft.
Did you have any close calls you can talk about?
I talked about many of my close calls in the thread. I forget what I’ve related, but no airplanes were physically damaged as a result of my mistakes. I mean, I peeled the paint off one, once, taking it up over Mach 2 the morning after it was rolled out of the paint shop. My mistake. I bought the corrosion control guys a couple cases of Bud in apology for the extra work I caused.
That said, I had lots of things go wrong with the airplane. It was the nature of high performance machinery.
Many of my close calls were just that: close calls, from which I recovered, learned, and became a better pilot. Learning experiences.
That said, I had lots of things go wrong with the airplane. It was the nature of high performance machinery.
Many of my close calls were just that: close calls, from which I recovered, learned, and became a better pilot. Learning experiences.
They said "don't wax it for 3 months", but forgot to mention "don't exceed Mach 2 for 3 months". That will teach 'em.
Maybe a dumb question but serious, did you ever see a UFO?
Honest answer - no.
There were several times when I couldn’t tell what I was seeing. Lights, or their movement, didn’t make sense. I couldn’t figure out what I was looking at for periods of several seconds to several minutes. Eventually, my brain caught up with the image and I could tell.
There were several times when I couldn’t tell what I was seeing. Lights, or their movement, didn’t make sense. I couldn’t figure out what I was looking at for periods of several seconds to several minutes. Eventually, my brain caught up with the image and I could tell.
Lets say you exhausted all missiles and you only have the 20mm cannons left, how many rounds do you typically carry, and how accurate is the targeting for the cannons. Is there a targeting sight for cannons, and what is the maximum effective hit range for the cannons ?
The 20mm is good to about a mile range. It's very effective, if properly aimed. The sight was in the HUD and either an instantaneous lead computation based on own aircraft body rates (including G) and nominal range, or, with radar lock, based on range to target and all of the body rate calculation.
It's a challenge, but that's why we trained in air to air maneuvering. You can get a good feel for a when a gun opportunity was going to present itself, and how to maneuver the airplane to align the sights, through practice.
We shot real bullets at banners being towed by other airplanes for practice. At a range of 1500 yards, hits, at least, my hits, were consistent. It's like aiming a rifle, with the pipper precisely on target, that's where the bullets were going.
The jet could carry up to 750 rounds, but a typical load out was 500.
It's a challenge, but that's why we trained in air to air maneuvering. You can get a good feel for a when a gun opportunity was going to present itself, and how to maneuver the airplane to align the sights, through practice.
We shot real bullets at banners being towed by other airplanes for practice. At a range of 1500 yards, hits, at least, my hits, were consistent. It's like aiming a rifle, with the pipper precisely on target, that's where the bullets were going.
The jet could carry up to 750 rounds, but a typical load out was 500.
Funny video, i like 0:20!
GUYS ASTRO SAID HE SAW UFOS
Astro would be the knowledgeable one here, but i'm thinking its an anti-fatigue heads down display , keeps you awake.What multi-function display software upgrade is that at 3:07 ?
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That's a good video - like the choice of U2.
The cockpit at 3:07 is the F-14D back seat. No idea how they got the display to show those images. I never actually flew the -D, only the simulator, but, clearly, the airplane had some nice upgrades...
The cockpit at 3:07 is the F-14D back seat. No idea how they got the display to show those images. I never actually flew the -D, only the simulator, but, clearly, the airplane had some nice upgrades...
Hi.
The thread has enjoyed discussion of the F14 flying scenes in the film 'The Final Countdown'. Here is some more information from the guys present.
How low did he go? - YouTube
The thread has enjoyed discussion of the F14 flying scenes in the film 'The Final Countdown'. Here is some more information from the guys present.
How low did he go? - YouTube
Not as low as people claim, but awfully low. No danger, but dramatic enough for the movies, aided by the telephoto lens...
I'm wondering what your typical weapons load was. I guess it might have been mentioned somewhere in the previous 30+ pages, but I'm not going to look for it.
Also - a lot of movies (especially Top Gun) show a missile completely obliterating a target. My understanding of a missile with a small warhead like a Sidewinder is that they're more likely to just damage a target enough that it's no longer (more or less) airworthy.
Also - a lot of movies (especially Top Gun) show a missile completely obliterating a target. My understanding of a missile with a small warhead like a Sidewinder is that they're more likely to just damage a target enough that it's no longer (more or less) airworthy.
