As far as we could tell, nothing was going on. We were just doing some SSC for them during COMPTUEX. Nothing was on the air plan for another few hours and it was first light. May have just been whoever was in tower didn't feel like having us bumblefucking around like a big ogre retard.
No doubt well before the start of normal flight ops, tower not manned (at least not by the Boss), nobody really there with enough pull to authorize it. Keep at it. Brett
Yeah, we are taught when upgrading to always stay as far from the boat as possible so we don't screw up the launch and recovery cycle. One of our S-3 retreads was like "That's retarded. Just look at the airplan, talk to the right people at the right time, and you can do whatever you want." I thought my portside flyby of the Lincoln at 290 kts and 200 feet was pretty bitchin. Nobody on the flight deck seemed to notice.
Sometimes when bored on BarCap, I used to turn off the TACAN and see if I could find my way back to the ship by seat-of-the-pants, DR. Not hard. Of course I always had my RIO backup. Over the North we had nutt'n for Nav.... Zip squat didly! And the Gomers didn't turn on their TACANs for us either. So it was dead reckoning and visual navigation, along with all the usual multiple distractions. [Once was in an Alpha Strike headed 180 degrees out towards China's Hainan Island instead of N. Vietnam because lead's compass precessed while orbiting overhead the ship waiting for the strike package to all join up (The ship finally called and asked where the &&%$#? are you going! Reverse!) .... Also went to Red China mainland briefly once because of the precessed compass of my lead. Too many rugged mountains instead of anticipated low lying rice paddies alerted us as to our huge mistake at 500kts low level, so we reversed course southeastward.]
Repost from the Picture Gallery thread- VP-8 CAC-5 fly-by of the JFK in the Red Sea, Feb. 1991. Sorry about the picture quality; it was the pre-digital era, and the TACCO window was scratched to hell (as per usual).
Yeah, that was the last cruise of the A-7. And of course the Tomcats, Vikings, Intruders and Sea Kings are all gone too.
Sometimes they don't appeciate the request for a flyby. Years ago we were running a Harpoonex against the Ranger and got into visual range off the starboard beam (about 25 miles) without being intercepted. Neither Strike nor the Air Boss were receptive to our request for a flyby (although I admit I'm not sure what point in the launch-recovery cycle the ship was in at the time).
Yep. Always start saving gas once onsta in case you have to stay longer than planned, and we used to shut down two whenever we could. Wonder if the P-8 will ever shut one down? Or just inflight refuel when they run low coming home?
IFR. Shutting down a turbofan saves no gas as it will incur a loss of thrust AND an increase in drag since you can't fx the fan. I once asked a Tacamo guy if they ever shut one down for loiter and he looked at me like I was on crack.
I know the P-8 is plumbed for IFR but I thought they nixed that? In flight refueling...awesome. As if the first 10 hours of ISR weren't bad enough.
It's all relative. Guys on the flight deck don't care how SH a pass is or who's doing it - they just a get a kick out of it. Brett
