Victory205

One illusion that startled me a couple of times at night was looking back at a flight as it broke into the landing pattern. You would see two lights that appeared to be wingtip lights of a single aircraft as the flight separated. Hard to describe, but for a couple of seconds, it appeared that you were looking at a single aircraft getting big really fast, seconds from a collision with your own. Scared the bejesus out of me until I realized that I was looking a two airplanes a mile away.

https://hushkit.net/2020/04/07/interview-with-the-greatest-living-fighter-ace-f-14-tomcat-pilot-col-rtd-fereydoun-a-mazandarani/

That’s pretty freaking cool. Welcome to the fighter business...

You made us all remember Jim Bob. I'm sure the guys on the VF201 page appreciate it. Trust me, Jim Bob was a hoot. A high school computer science teacher by day, and a wild fighter RIO by night. We used to talk computers all the time. He was an Apple fan, long before Apple made it's amazing comeback. He'd have been amazed to see what transpired. That's a big reason that I became involved in the sim. It preserves the legacy, the history and the humanity of the F14.

If memory serves, Jim Segars was lost just before Christmas in 1992. A flat spin, pilot survived. Jim Bob was an inveterate photographer, and I got a Photo Christmas Card from him a few days after he was killed. It's sitting in my office about three feet from where I'm typing this. He had come from the Marine F4 squadron across the ramp, and was a colorful character. I can imagine what seeing the "Jim Bob Express" logo was like for the pilot in the mishap. He is a friend and a great guy. He was a mess for a long time in the aftermath. Pretty sure that each squadron got two Block 140 jets, sort of spreading the wealth strategy. Those two aircraft were delivered with shiny paint, and often ended up as aircraft "00" and "01", painted in high visibility CAG and squadron CO schemes. All of the reserve Tomcat squadrons merged into a single squadron, which ended up being VF201. Things got much, much better, because they took the creme de la creme in terms of personnel and aircraft, including all of the block 140's from the four existing Tomcat units. Eventually they transitioned to Hornets, were called up for a Combat Cruise in 2003 for the second invasion of Iraq, did a great job, and returned home. They were disbanded a few months later. Amazing at how the Navy works.

Just to be sure, the top image is VF201, the bottom is VF202. Hunters and Superheats. I served in VF201 for four years and flew that aircraft. The airbags got darker from hydraulic fluid, jet fuel exhaust from flight leads etc over time, especially where the underside of the wings rubbed the bags.

The only place I got a stall light was waiting behind the JBD with an F14 in full blower on the cat. The TIT's would slowly rise to an overtemp condition, the stall warning lights would both go off until the jet in front launched. Then the TIT's would fall back into the normal range, and the lights would stop. This happened every single time in this situation. First time it happened to me, it was like, jeesh, is this jet down for a dual engine change now? Nope, we're going flying.

Retired military guys were often a royal PITA. I had two that I have my employee number to and said, “here, put this on your ‘no fly list’” That only worked for FO’s to Captains, not the other way around. Told them both that if they showed up I’d remove them from the trip. Crappy attitudes and incompetent pilots, I’m sad to say. One a P3 CO, and other a USAF A10 CO. They just didn’t know what was going on, and couldn’t fly worth a shit. Another was the XO of USS Ranger, and he was awful too. Flying was an afterthought to these guys. Too many retired military guys put little or no effort into their flying, but thought that copilot duties were beneath them, especially if their Captain didn’t have a military background. One of the funniest was a USAF full Colonel who was all full of himself. Last leg, I pop down to the cockpit and mention that we were getting a line check from an FAA ACI. He meekly says, “Do you mind flying my leg, Captain?” ;) Most pilots are just fantastic. The ones that love to fly were a joy. I’ll miss them.

Iceland is beautiful. My arse is still sore from riding horses there... The VP guys we have at the airline come in two flavors- Happy, decent guys who just want to fly a little and go play golf, and incessant, gloomy, always “getting screwed” whiners. Nothing in between. The attitude in the “Fly Trap” spoke volumes. I stopped in Sigonella to drop off a corrosion bird, elated to get one night off of the ship and a beer, and my RIO and I ended up walking out of the little bar after listing to VP weenies complaining about how difficult their deployment was. We had lost seven guys a month earlier.

Tonight, it’s Aberlour 12. I work out a lot, so I don’t drink often. Usually Friday nights only.

Good stuff, but a lot of folks are missing that there is a desperate need for long range AA defense (which also entails strike capabilities). That entails organic tanking as well. There is such a thing as a tactical range profile as well. Having to obtain adequate range by flying a bingo profile for most of the flight has negative implications.

Lots of truth here... ^^^^

Good grief, glove vanes and sidewinder search patterns again. It's Friday, today I finished 40 years flying for a living, I'm going to pour myself a Scotch... :drink:

The blokes that new Randy well said that he was a “plodder”, someone who wasn’t that talented, but put great effort into his craft. He’d sit at night, going through the procedures to start the engines for example. Shows you how mindset makes up for raw talent. His judgement and ego ultimately doomed him, but it appears that he learned his lesson and is a different person today. Biggest contribution was the advent of Topgun at Miramar, where the best RAG instructors passed along how to fight the F4 using the vertical. Dan Pederson’s book is excellent on how the program was set up on a shoestring. Best investment the Navy ever made, well, maybe after the Angled Deck. ;) I was a pilot, with only one or two hops in the back for training. I am about to retire, as in two weeks, and want to spend more time learning the back seat in the sim. My Topgun RIO lives about an hour’s drive away, and I’d love to get him in the back seat to hear what he has to say. We get together about once a year for skeet shooting or to attend a football game, etc. I will purchase a new PC in a month or so, since I’ve been running on a Mac Pro under boot camp which adds to the hassles. The Heatblur sim is a bargain at twice the price. Yes indeed, ACM is a science based art. Nothing else compares. Once I was first exposed to ACM, I quit hunting. Fighting another human being made stalking animals seem trite. Lastly, I’d put Robin Old’s life experience far above that of most aviators. He was a fantastic leader and warrior, with a long career of achievement and excellence, starting at West Point as a star athlete. I am glad that his daughter quit her job to write the book that detailed his career. I’ve always been amazed at the WWII pilots who learned to fly in biplanes, and ended up their flying careers in Mach 2 jets. Just amazing, and Olds was one of the best. Having experienced an incompetent, backstabbing, selfish, Commanding Officer, I admire Robin Old’s leadership most.

Actually, I have “crossed paths“ with Randy Cunningham, he was the CO of VF126 when I went through NFWS. They supplemented Topgun with F5’s and he was in some of our large strike engagements providing bogey support. He was at the O’club every Friday night, holding forth about something. We all still keep in touch with him today, even after he spent time in jail for bribery, fraud and conspiracy to commit both as a US Congressman. He’s changed quite a bit. ;) Willie Driscoll gave the “Mig Killer Debrief” to our class, and ended up quite accomplished and successful in banking after his Navy Career. Everyone loves Willie... The quoted post is a Classic example of what we’ve been talking about. ;)

First and foremost, I want people here to enjoy the sim. Heatblur did a remarkable job with it, really is something special in terms of handling and fidelity.

All good points which describe the situation leading up to the first Gulf War (GWI). Had Saddam not stopping at Kuwait, USS Independence and the Saudi's would have had their hands full. I'm not a traditional Planespotter, but I sometimes use Flight Radar 24 and Flight Aware to track friends or my inbound flight. Fun when there is weather, watching your commuter flight divert where you know it will be at least five hours before you head to work. Amazing technology today. I also have a library that I built last summer, filled with over a thousand books on all subjects, from economics, to aerodynamics, to history of all era's, philosophy etc. So far, no romance novels. ;) Over a thousand eBooks as well, because they are so convenient for a constantly traveling pilot.

You guy know that the throttles are on the starboard side of the cockpit in the F14A, right? You're gonna have to switch your nifty simpits around before the A ships... ;)

Look, this is all academic, and it gets old at some point, but I'll indulge for a moment to make a point. Much of the problem is that "aviation enthusiasts", which used to be comprised singularly of book worms, and now is combined with sim jockeys, understandably don't comprehend nuance or depth of a complex environment. Most folks start with a premise, then attempt to build a narrative to suit their preferences. In the old days, it would be ridiculous, irrelevant numbers quoted from Jane's, now it's often wikipedia, and a throw away paragraph from a poor selling book. Don't get me started on Youtube videos, made without peer review for the purposes of gathering clicks. It's hilarious to watch people defend some of the BS artists, who are sitting there bemused that anyone actually believes their stories. See "LA Speed Story" for an example. The goon is referencing air to ground stand off is a good example. The range problem I am referencing is countering the air to air threat in defense of both fleet and land based allies in the Pacific. You know, China... Said goon, and I say this in a loving way, doesn't have the background to understand. Some other goons, reference everything to their experience online in DCS. It has nothing to do with the world, which is one of the reasons I am uninterested in online play or even single missions offline. Mikeck's callsign is now "Goon" by the way. :) So many of these discussions devolve into comparisons between aircraft A vs B. Well, it doesn't work that way. All fighters are part of a larger package and are integrated as such. If we are going to war, then guess what, three seconds before the declaration we're going to hit every revetment on your airbase with Tomahawks and stealth delivered bombs. We're going to crater your runways, we're going to jam your radars. Then for anyone who is stupid enough to get airborne, we're going to hurl SM2/6's at you from our floating SAM sites. What was your mission again? You forgot? Some other distractions. Currently, the typical mission for NATO aircraft in the Middle East could be accomplished by employing an AD1 Skyraider with upgraded targeting avionics. It's irrelevant to the total mission discussion. One must be very careful to not become complacent in a very low threat environment in one, small arena. Yes, the AV8's were fought like an A4. One or two turns, followed by a vertical killing move. A one circle flight could be taken immediately to a looping fight, but it was easy and familiar. No big deal. The RN boys had an AA radar, with which they were quite good. I got launched as a spare and defected to the RN to lead a section of Sea Harriers against a section of F14A. When we merged, I kept going so I wouldn't confuse everyone, and watched the fight from above. The Tomcats had little problem. I got to experience their radar work on that run, and it was exemplary. Those series of engagements, including the aforementioned 1v1's, setup by splitting sections, were specifically tasked with tanker fuel so we had time for afterburner during the engagements. Both aircraft types were carrying tanks in the North Atlantic. We had a USMC F-4S squadron at my reserve NAS. We fought them 1v1 often. It was about a 45 second kill, and ended up in guns tracking. You had a 90 degree bite after the first turn. Despite experienced aviators, the Phantom just couldn't turn, even with slats. We combined with them at Nellis to serve as bogeys for the FWS F15's developing AMRAAM tactics. Very different world when there are fifteen aircraft on your side, where sustained turning isn't the critical factor. Having a lot of hot noses with forward quarter missile capabilities changes everything. It goes back to the real world employment. Multi bogey's, surface to air, jamming, all are rarely considered by the layperson. But a Planespotter™ will come up and ask you about the dash version number of your chaff adapter. The Brits are nuts. ;) Odds and ends. I've been doing a bunch of canvassing of old friends who retired from the Navy as CDR's and CAPT's with lots of time on the F14. Guess what the average TF30 stall experience was? How many hours on average between engine stalls? We had zero issues with wingsweep in any of my squadrons. The worst aspect was trying to get the manual handle engaged the automatic slot after spreading the wings. I called it "Wing Wrestling". We did have slat and flap torque tube issues, which I suppose was an adjunct of the sweep system. They broke on occasion. There were two incidents that I knew of where F14's got their wings stuck aft, and two asymmetric sweep incident that I know about. By far, the highest maintenance issue was keeping the AWG9 running. Biggest issue in the AIM54C? Getting a clearance to fire. There is a way to do that, but politics and our superior's risk aversion precluded that in most cases. There were times where we were good to go, but no threats emerged. You can probably figure it out yourselves. Medium PRF in the D was a long sought after solution. The cancellation of the massive F14D purchase was a huge disappointment, as was the slow pace of TF30 replacement in the F14B. Had to keep those frigates sitting at the pier well stocked with beans and bored sailors. I'd have given anything for a RLG to replace the INS. I flew behind three of them in Boeings for decades- not one issue. If there were hand held GPS's back then, I'd have had one lashed to the hassle handle above the windscreen, and another one in every pocket. ;)

Bio’s Take is spot on- https://hushkit.net/2020/08/08/we-ask-a-real-topgun-instructor-to-rate-the-movies-realism-and-talk-f-14-tomcats/?fbclid=IwAR0uaUMbzZ3f-T85cL5LCamJtqLBcB581USxYkNFotUSQpUIrcIa4OQ40K0 The late 70’s were dominated by President Carter’s pathetic administration of the defense budget (Carter was a USNA grad and bubble-head). Ronald Reagan’s election and appointment of John Lehman to SECNAV completely changed the Navy‘s readiness. Parts are critical, as is maintenance talent. My squadron went from last to first, because we got a talented RIO who became our MO. He was well liked by the troops, and he brought a bunch of experience maintainers with him from the RAG/shore duty. He was like a mafia boss, calling in his chips. I learned a lot about leading men while working for him. One of the interesting aspects was that as the F14 community shrank at the end of it’s service, readiness got better because the parts supply was distributed over few airplanes with the crème of the maintenance talent being retained. The fighter pilot podcast on the F14 was a bunch of Hornet drivers who came to the aircraft late in the program. That era was far different from the Cold War days, and the primary used the aircraft was CAS and AG. The pilot pipeline was very different also, as Okie described several times. The top jocks naturally wanted to go to the Hornet. You do not want to be in a declining community, your career choices get quite grim and limited. That was happening to the F4 community when I arrived. So during the 2000’s, the F14 community got sort of the second tier graduates, along with some transfers from the A6 community. If you read bio’s, you’ll see. My view is that the biggest reason that the Tomcat was retired was the Navy’s misguided focus on having a huge number of ships that we didn’t need. SECNAV kept harping on a 600 ship Navy, based on an overwrought analysis of the Soviet threat. So the budget went to buying ships that spent most of their time sitting in port and in maintenance, leaving NavAir fighting for parts and manpower. Meanwhile, the USAF upgraded the F15 several times, re-engined it, upgraded radars, etc. Had the F14D arrived earlier with financial commitment, it might be flying today. All of that said, based on the reality of the overall threat and budget situation, it was time for the Tomcat to go. The problem is that it was replaced with a platform that is versatile, but extremely short ranged at the same time that the USN retired organic tanking resources. It’s so desperate that the USN is flailing with the concept of unmanned tankers. Step back and think about that for a moment. We’re paying the price for that as we speak, because the threat is morphing back into what we faced with the Soviets. We made intercepts of Soviet and USAF bombers over a 1000 miles from the ship. Astonishing. Today, lack of range is a huge problem. Money and politics are always the primary driver of weapons systems. The Pentagon’s job is not fighting wars, it’s buying weapons. Think about it, if money were not an issue, then by 2010 or so, the USAF tactical community would have been sitting with 700 F22’s, and the F15 would have been retired shortly after the F14. The fact that the F22 buy was limited resulted in the long service life of the Eagle. In the end, it is what it is. You can’t go back. Enjoy flying the amazing Heatblur simulator. By the way, I fought USMC and RN AV8’s. It was simply like fighting an A4F with a radar. Easy fight. Some of these anecdotes from Euro platforms tangling with Tomcats flying cyclic ops with a minute of burner time available due to recovery fuel don’t provide a valid comparison. The real world missions entail external tanks and long ranges.

I’m trying to understand your difficulties and will have a look at the F5 non-linear this evening. I have a non-FFB Virpil stick and base. In practice, while the stick does move when trimming, the pilot only notices it when doing checks on deck. In flight, trim removes the need for the pilot to hold pressure, the stick doesn’t move during trimming, because the pilot is positioning the stick where it needs to be. It is natural and can be done in formation flight, a few feet from a fight lead. There aren’t pitch bumps or displacements. So far, I find this familiar and natural in the Heatblur sim, especially since the stick forces are so low in a PC controller. The effect of trim on available stick amplitude is a different problem. Where are you running out of longitudinal control? I can’t recall ever hitting the pitch stops in the real aircraft, although I do see how a long trim envelope as it relates to and limits pitch through could be an issue. Pilot interface is fascinating and one of the more difficult and hotly debated issues in aircraft development. Little things, like making the switches different shapes so they can be accessed by feel make a big difference when a pilot is trying to make changes flying in formation or in combat when he or she can’t risk looking inside. One of the limitations of a PC sim to be sure. It takes a lot longer to do most things in a DCS cockpit than it did in real life.

All very well written. IronMike knows his stuff. Really does come down to mindset. There has long been a phenomenon in gaming/simming for users to demand that developers make the task “easier”. That is taken completely out of the equation when that isn’t an option. When the choice is “here’s the aircraft, this is how it works, either deal with it, hack the program, or go drive ships for the black shoe Navy”, it tends tends to focus the mind. It isn’t easy flying a desktop sim, and it take the same approach as learning to fly a real aircraft, starting small, breaking down basic maneuvers and mastering them. You guys are jumping into complex aircraft without the benefit of flying conventionally handling trainers. It’s tough. The display requests are similar. We get guys who struggle to fly airliners with analog gauges because they came up flying Garmin 1000’s in Cessnas at Emory Riddle and in RJ’s later. So they initially whinge, but in due course, they embrace them, and end up loving the advantages of analog gauges revealing rates and trends. Trimming is a natural activity in the vast majority of aircraft. It’s done to relieve control pressures, but you don’t have any real level of such pressures in your controllers, so you get lazy, and perhaps don’t see a need to trim. Big mistake. You want to constantly take your hand off of the controls and see if the aircraft is stable. Jet’s require fine, precision control inputs because of their velocities. Think about the resultant vector amplitude is when one leg is 600 knots in length. A half degree error in pitch results in hundreds of feet, if not thousands in vertical speed. It’s a finger tip process. One of the techniques that Navy pilots immediately have to sort, is setting up their knee board to place their right hand at the correct height on the stick to enable finger tip or small wrist inputs with the seat positioned at the proper height. If your arm in hanging in space while you are trying to fly the sim, try setting up something to support it so you can fly with only your wrist. The mindset should be, I’m going to master this module as it is. Once you own it, you’ll be amazed at the progress you make. You don’t have to love everything about a platform, no aircraft is perfect, but you have stop fighting, and learn to “make friends with it”.

Yes, the brakes coupled with anti-skid were fine. Aft stick as mentioned, was very effective in adding aerodynamic drag. It was very powerful, obviating use of brakes. When you landed ahead of a wingman, you let the aircraft roll accordingly, to give him room as needed. This could be ticklish when landing ashore with carrier pressure in the tires, which was around 350 psi. You are landing on bricks, and had to be careful with braking under those conditions to avoid locking and flat spotting and blowing a tire in a skid. NATOPS cautions to not exceed 15 units or 10 degrees pitch during a minimum descent rate landing (required when landing with fuel in the drop tanks for example). On a non- flared landing, the limit was 17 units. It interesting that the AOA test produces 17 units as the test reference. We heard, unconfirmed, that the initial approach AOA was designed to be 17 units to meet landing speed specifications, but it resulted in poor over the nose visibility and marginal burn can clearance, so it was changed to 15 units early in the test program. Who knows? The issue with aero-braking was the burner can clearance, and running over arresting gear with the mains exacerbated the issue. Field arresting gear, depending on the type, sometimes had rubber donuts affixed to raise the cable enough for consistent hook engagement. As the main tires ran over the cable, the donuts would compress and bounce back, lifting the cable into the air just in time to damage the burner cans. Dual engine change, mishap report, pilot in deep kimche...

As you can see, about six inches from dragging the burner cans in that video, which is why it wasn’t done. Big trouble for the pilot if he/she hit the cans and required a dual engine change. Aero braking isn’t as effective as nose on deck, aft stick with spoilers extended and brakes. F14 had good anti skid. Also, there is no reason to “baby” the landing gear. It’s Grumman for heaven’s sake. For those who are interested, assuming dry runways, brakes are most effective for stopping a jet. Spoilers dump lift to make the brakes more effective, it isn’t the drag from the spoilers per se. Also, in general, reverse thrust is less effective than brakes.

Aircraft unit costs are pretty difficult to pin down. There are several numbers thrown around, mostly as a requirement for procurement budgets so Congress can have their day, either to protest the Military Industrial Complex, or crow about how much pork they are bringing to their districts/states. As you can imagine, when the service purchases an airplane, they are also purchasing a logistics system of parts, training, manuals (contractors love to make up for low bid contracts by charging a mint for manual changes), technical support, maintenance rigs, test rigs, calibration standards, etc, etc, etc. If you've followed the F35 program, you've noticed that the first tranche of aircraft were astronomical because the massive R&D and startup costs were amortized over so few aircraft. All of that said, in the late 1980's, we were told the latest block aircraft were around $44 million in real dollars. If you jettisoned one, it would take a long time to repay it out of your docked salary.