It's quite possible, as 775 has one that they painted up that way. I never saw it, but several plane captains at 303 talked about it on different occasions. They apparently keep that one in the hangar whenever it isn't flying.
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Camouflaged Aircraft and related topics
- Thread starter TheBubba
- Start date
It's quite possible, as 775 has one that they painted up that way. I never saw it, but several plane captains at 303 talked about it on different occasions. They apparently keep that one in the hangar whenever it isn't flying.
Were they afraid they couldn't find it if they left it out?
Xtndr50boom
Voted 8.9 average on the Hot-or-Not scale
No offense intended, I just assumed everyone had their own to use, like the AF. Another question though; what is SFARP?
Harrier Dude
Living the dream
I've heard this from prior USAF guys (now Marines) on det......"Where's my rental car? I always had my own when I was a TSgt."
Welcome to the Corps. The CO has his own (which he may lend out) and everybody else scrambles to get one of the vans for general use.
The Navy/Marine Corps is notoriously cheap on anything that could be even remotely construed as a convenience.
hfrog84
Token Air Force (Viper) Guy
Guess I can understand not having them on the boAT with limited storage space and all. But why not at the home drome? Our "blivets" (travel pods) were nothing more than a napalm canister with a hole cut in the side. I think made locally? Eeach squadron had a pant load of them. So on a a 4 ship cross country you could each have one, a larger deployment you might have to share.
Back in my A-model (F-16) days, we had an empty bay in the avionics compartment that our maintainers had made a vinyl bag insert for. It held a gym bag for a weekend cross country. That rocked as we had fairly severe G and airspeed restrictions with the travel pod. Although I happen to know the pods were good at least 1.5 Gs / 50 Knots over the printed limit -- maybe it was more of a guideline. Anyway with out having the pods, you could fight full up on your cross country.
Harrier Dude
Living the dream
As to the CATMs....we're always short, but not as bad as when HJ was describing. My AF buds tell me (true or not) that their jets have CATMs on them "all the time". We end up swapping our out from jet to jet. A 14 plane squadron will probably rate about 8 (guess), of which about 4-6 will work properly.
As to the blivets, I've looked into their origin several times and always ran out of interest before I got any real answers. They are definitely converted NAPALM canisters, but how they became blivets and who did the work is unclear. I've seen the air force ones up close and they're the same design as the ones that we have, but ours are just ghetto. They're bent up, scratched beyond belief, and the doors are jerry-rigged. There are probably 5 or 6 per squadron and only about half of them are safe to fly with.
We have nobody to blame for this generally except ourselves. We could fix up our blivets, but it takes time, manpower, and parts that are scarce and we have more pressing issues to attend to. Blivets are a "nice to have" vice a combat necessity. It's just not surprising that the air force is overflowing with "nice to have" itmes like this. But that's a mainly envy.
We have the same G and airspeed issues (I think it's 450 kts and 4.5 Gs, but I forgot) with them anyway, so most of the time it's better to just cram stuff under your seat.
hfrog84
Token Air Force (Viper) Guy
Yes in the viper we had a CATM per jet (at least -- not sure how many spares) and flew with them damn near every sortie.
The 450kts/4.5G numbers fired a long dormant brain cell --- those were the numbers. Think u didn't forget very well.
I've always liked the Air Force grey on AFSOC helos - it's a smooth surfaced paint, not totally flat. Cleans up well and does the job regardless of theatre.
You look at our aircraft, in the standard NADEP grey - never cleans up well, and a good corrosion control program means there are a ton of paint touch ups of various shades of NADEP flat grey.
You look at our aircraft, in the standard NADEP grey - never cleans up well, and a good corrosion control program means there are a ton of paint touch ups of various shades of NADEP flat grey.
DangerousDan
I could tell you but I would have to kill you
Trio of VFC-12 F/A-18Cs earlier today at NAS Oceana
Photo by HJ
I absolutely love the blue paint job... the Hornet was always my favorite fighter. However, while learning recce the MiG-29/Su-27 Series became my favorite Non US fighter... They just look beautiful and have such graceful lines.
phrogpilot73
Well-Known Member
Listen to all the jet guys talk blivet this, CATM that... I don't see what the issue is - cooler, barbecue, motorcycle, I've taken them all with me on cross country! 
The dark gray USAF-style paint is the coming wave in the Marine Corps. As A4s says, "Believe it."
I've always liked the Air Force grey on AFSOC helos - it's a smooth surfaced paint, not totally flat. Cleans up well and does the job regardless of theatre.
You look at our aircraft, in the standard NADEP grey - never cleans up well, and a good corrosion control program means there are a ton of paint touch ups of various shades of NADEP flat grey.
I disagree -- yeah, that AF paint cleans up easier, but I think that the NADEP paint is far harder to see. Besides, we know the Af is all about one thing -- trying to look good (hence the ascot).
