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Roger Ball, good and not-so-good questions about the world of "Paddles"

1 below for SA......don't forget the mighty Prowler my friend :)

Which are a national asset and almost all but phased out? My comment was aimed mainly at how homogeneous the aircraft now are on a carrier.
 
Which are a national asset and almost all but phased out? My comment was aimed mainly at how homogeneous the aircraft now are on a carrier.


Phased out for the Navy! :icon_wink Of course, we don't send them to the boat.
 
Why is this guy smiling?

pict0003is.jpg
 
Found this the other day and thought it was pretty cool. A4s you in here?


Actually, A4s was a west coast Sailor. The Skyhawks bouncing in this video (dated 1967) belong to VA-44 (400's nose numbers - AD on the tail) from mainside Cecil Field. Walt, Derf, and I were there in 67. :icon_wink Busybee would have been there in March of 1968, that's when he reported to 44. :D

Steve


(Busybee - I spoke with Ron last night. Good news! They figured out what was wrong and he'll be heading home soon. I'll phone you over the weekend and fill you in.)
 
Found this the other day and thought it was pretty cool. A4s you in here?


Question for you tailhook types...

Can the A-4 land w/ full Aux tanks? In that video, they're carrying tanks, but presumably they're only flying into Whitehouse from 5 miles away (Jax or Cecil), so do they really need the tanks? Just wondering what the overall plan was for that.
 
Question for you tailhook types...

Can the A-4 land w/ full Aux tanks? In that video, they're carrying tanks, but presumably they're only flying into Whitehouse from 5 miles away (Jax or Cecil), so do they really need the tanks? Just wondering what the overall plan was for that.

VA-44 was the east coast A4 RAG, we were busy with all sorts of training missions. Most of our planes carried the two external drop tanks, but they were usually empty. We just planned ahead for all sorts of training exercises. Keeping the drop tanks on the racks (empty) was just SOP. As far as landing with 9400 LBS of fuel... Well, maybe BzB or A4s will chime in soon.

Steve
 

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A-4 Droptanks

Question for you tailhook types...

Can the A-4 land w/ full Aux tank s? In that video, they're carrying tanks, but presumably they're only flying into Whitehouse from 5 miles away (Jax or Cecil), so do they really need the tanks? Just wondering what the overall plan was for that.

Roger Shoe: The answer is NO. The max gross landing weight for the A-4 is 14,500#. The dry gross weight of the airframe+pilot is 11,000#; therefore, fuel state must be 3,500# or less to land. Full droptanks = 4,000#. In the event of an emergency landing w/ full drops, they must be jettisoned, and internal fuel (if full), dumped/burned to 3,500#.

As Brownshoe stated, 2-300 gal. drops is the normal config. for 95% of training flights. Playing "musical droptanks" in accordance w/ particular mission requirements, was found early on, to be a huge waste of time & labor. The one big exception to this is that on weapons dets. where missions are short, drops are removed & bombs/rockets carried on wing stations. :icon_mi_6
BzB
 
Gotcha. That makes a lot of sense, actually. I'm a little embarrassed I didn't put put two and two together and that it would save maint. man hours. I blame it on a long week. Thanks for the responses.
 
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