Scooters Forever (A-4 Skyhawk Tribute Thread)

[brownshoe]

BzB, "Elderly Flatulent"[/B]

Steve

(I'll give you a call over the weekend.)

 

[rondebmar]

My question, has any one here that flew the A-4 ever use the JATO assist and if so what did it feel like?

I vaguely remember JATO bottles. Check in with Busybee604 and Rondebmar, both were A-4 drivers during Nam. PM them if they don’t respond to your post. (Tell them I sent Ya! Good luck with these two old farts.)

Steve

Yeah...imagine...2100 and I'm still up!!

Nope...only JATO bottles I ever saw were on the Blue's C-130...believe the USMC used'em in the FOB application..."Marsten Planking" (?) for the runways...JATO for TO...arresting gear for landings.

But an even bigger kick was a max gross cat shot off the old class boats which still had the hydraulic cats. That'd place your knees up around your shoulders...what a kick!!
Had a few of those...

Sidenote: Had a friend (LT with ST Johns County Sheriff's Office) who very nearly lost a leg when A4 caught a wire in the above circumstance (USMC ground crew at an FOB). Wire broke, left one of his legs attached by skin only...Docs at a USAF hospital in Asia saved it, though barely. He was forever grateful.

 

[rondebmar]

Where the heck is the chat room when you NEED it?? LOL!!

 

[brownshoe]

Yeah...imagine...2100 and I'm still up!!

Me too! I take it you're back home? I'll phone you over the weekend.

Steve

 

[A4sForever]

My question, has any one here that flew the A-4 ever use the JATO assist and if so what did it feel like?

Marine A-4s ... Chu Lai ... Phu Bai ... those were the USN/USMC A-4 JATO fields ... I'm obviously talkin' TACAIR only ...

 

[coolhandlukesd]

A4sForever, brownshoe, and rondebmar, thank you very much for taking the time to respond. I have also seen the Blue's C-130 do a JETO take off, and I am never get tiered of seeing that.

 

[Alpha_Echo_606]

A4sForever, brownshoe, and rondebmar, thank you very much for taking the time to respond. I have also seen the Blue's C-130 do a JETO take off, and I am never get tiered of seeing that.

It's JATO, but last year was the end of the JATO shows for Fat Albert. It would seem the world’s supply of JATO bottles is almost totally depleted and part way through last season they cut back to one performance per show weekend. This year they were to stop that portion all together. Here is a little piece I put together from the last JATO show I saw last year.

AE 606 photos

 

[Flugelman]

Yeah...imagine...2100 and I'm still up!!


But an even bigger kick was a max gross cat shot off the old class boats which still had the hydraulic cats. That'd place your knees up around your shoulders...what a kick!!
Had a few of those...

.

My Dad tells the story of his first catapult launch in a F9F. He said he turned to salute the cat officer and the next thing he knew he was saluting the water off the bow. A real kick in the arse.

 

[Catmando]

My Dad tells the story of his first catapult launch in a F9F. He said he turned to salute the cat officer and the next thing he knew he was saluting the water off the bow. A real kick in the arse.

I only had three hydraulic cat shots, but that was too many. Even light-loaded. The Lex was in the yards, so I CQ'd in the TF9J Cougar aboard the USS Hornet.

Those hydraulic cats were brutal! ... on both the body and on the aircraft.

 

[A4sForever]

My HYD-CAT shots were in the right seat of the STOOF or the back of the C1 COD ... USS HORNET and USS BENNINGTON.

On the COD as a PAX ... since you sat facing 'backwards' ... everyone's' hands/arms/feet went straight out (i.e., horizontal) on the CAT stoke ... very jolly.

 

[rondebmar]

My HYD-CAT shots were in the right seat of the STOOF or the back of the C1 COD ... USS HORNET and USS BENNINGTON.

On the COD as a PAX ... since you sat facing 'backwards' ... everyone's' hands/arms/feet went straight out (i.e., horizontal) on the CAT stoke ... very jolly.

Thanks for the memory trigger, A4s. Same situation (COD PAX), but trapping aboard. Never noticed the aluminum clad AC logbook only lightly secured on the shelf in front of me...facing aft, just behind the pilot. Upon trapping, book crashes into the bulkhead about three inches to the right side of my head...had it hit me square on, I would have become a casualty...or at least had my face totally rearranged. Really pissed me off...had a very illuminating chat with the pilots immediately thereafter!!

 

[MIDNJAC]

Didn't get to snap any photos, but there was an A-4 bouncing at NKX this afternoon. Real awesome to see one in person!

 

[A4sForever]

....there was an A-4 bouncing at NKX this afternoon....

For go-fast, jet-jock Naval Aviators ... there will ALWAYS be one A-4 out there ... "bouncin" ... somewhere ... somehow ... forever and a day ...

'Cause it's the right thing to do ...

 

[Catmando]

Pics from an Argentine friend:

Where's Waldo? He is the A-4 speck inbound on the horizon line in this photo, taken from the bridge of a British Warship about to be struck in the Falklands war.

 

[highside7r]

Searched to make sure this one wasn't posted:

Brazil Scooters in action around the boat.
http://www.patricksaviation.com/videos/rsobra/5276/