From: "José Herculano"
Date: 7/20/2004 15:04 Pacific Daylight Time

See this pictu

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/624542/L/

I've never seen a picture or movie of a Tomcat doing a display without a
RIO. To my knowledge, there is nothing physical that mandates the RIO in
there for the Turkey to be flown in a demo - take off, do some aerobatics,
land...

Could be wrong, but it's my understanding that the Tom requires a RIO.

Now, I've seen quite a few photos of operational F/A-18Fs doing demos
without the WSO.

As did the Blue Angels with the F-4J ...

So, what gives? Is the Tomcat such a difficult bird to fly that it requires
a RIO with a NATOPS on his lap, or is the Super-Bug so underpowered that
200lb of weight make a difference in the demo?

And if the WSO isn't there just because he is not needed, how does it affect
the morale of the WSO community?

Perhaps not needed it would seem for just a short demo flight by Boeing company
pilot Ricardo Traven.

MW