Boomer wrote:

Hey AK we miss ya over at WT :-)

I thought all AF fighters had the trigger dedicated to the gun, and that
Navy fighters fired selected weapons with the trigger. Am I way off here or
is it always "personal preferance" ?

I suspect it may be more company preference. The F-8 had AIM-9s on the pickle
button, guns on the trigger, but the F-4 had everything A/A on the trigger. The
navy (or McAir) went with the F-4 method for the F-18, while the F-16 uses the
trigger for guns/pickle for AAMs approach. I know the latter set up led to at
least two inadvertent AIM-9 launches during DS, when the same F-16 pilot, on two
different missions, switched from A/G to A/A mode while pulling off target,
while still holding the pickle button firmly depressed. To be fair, the
situation was rather hectic on both occasions, but after the second occurrence
his squadron mates rather forcefully insisted that he be returned to the states,
as they were getting tired of having to watch for errant AIM-9s in addition to
SAMs and AAA.

Guy