Woody,

The most challenging CONDITIONS were definitely over Iraq in March/April of
2003.

Care to elaborate?

--
Mike Kanze

"Wineau - A person who drinks wine from a glass."

- Sighted on a T-shirt

"Doug "Woody" and Erin Beal" wrote in message
...
On 5/12/05 7:52 PM, in article , "Mike
Kanze" wrote:

Guy,

John put it fairly well in his post. Some aircraft types (not just the
F-8)
found themselves in the A-7's exhaust a mite more often than comfortable.
Not a show-stopper, but when you factor in the other variables that can
crop
up (night, low state, etc.), having to deal with this just made the
experience less pleasant.

More to my earlier point: While it was good to know that the Air Wing
could
tank from the A-7 if other assets weren't available, it was not the best
use
of that platform. Same-o for putting forward firing ordnance on the A-6.
You
could do it if needed, but rockets were better employed by the SLUFs.

Not to pile on, but A-6E plugging into an A-7 was really no big deal. I
think the worst platform I ever tanked from though was the British Victor.
The baskets were so high up that you were constantly in his wingtip
vortices. It took a bit of rudder and coordinated aileron trim to stay in
one spot and keep from sliding to the center of the aircraft (where the
jet
tanking on the OTHER side was also trying to slide). Still, it wasn't
unmanageable, just made the event more interesting.

The most challenging CONDITIONS were definitely over Iraq in March/April
of
2003.

--Woody