F-8 versus F-4

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

On 5/13/05 2:01 PM, in article , "Mike
Kanze" wrote:

Woody,

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

Care to elaborate?

Owl,

Turbulence like you read about in the North. Most of the refueling was IMC.
In fact, I had one rendezvous (night, NVG's, wingman) where we didn't
visually break out the fully lit tanker until .3 miles in the HUD (STT radar
lock, distance reported by lead because *I* was certainly flying welded
wing--looked reasonable though). NASTY! Several nights the weather was
from nearly the surface all the way above 350 to 400.

Getting into the iron maiden on the KC-135 is challenging in turbulence
(actually, staying in is the rough part), but with WORPS or WOPR stores on
the 10 or the 135 in turbulence with all that excessive amount of hose
bouncing the basket all over, it was downright hard as hell! One night, we
had a Prowler rip a store off the tanker and a Tomcat rip the probe off the
aircraft and divert. Toughest tanking I've ever seen!

Speaking of which, I'll never figure out how the Prowlers found the tankers
on those IMC nights, but they always managed to just by using their
yardstick. Those guys did some very impressive work.

Frankly, we hung it out a bit in conditions that we normally wouldn't have
accepted to get ordnance to the folks on the ground.

--Woody

Woody,

Thanks. Sounds every bit as challenging as anything I saw in my day - if not
more so.

***

BTW, two nice pix of your outfit's (VFA-201) fly-bys during your CompTUEx at
MCAS Kaneohe last November. See the current HOOK (Spring 2005. Pix and
accompanying article on pp. 58-59).

--
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 5/13/05 2:01 PM, in article , "Mike
Kanze" wrote:

Woody,

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

Care to elaborate?

Owl,

Turbulence like you read about in the North. Most of the refueling was
IMC.
In fact, I had one rendezvous (night, NVG's, wingman) where we didn't
visually break out the fully lit tanker until .3 miles in the HUD (STT
radar
lock, distance reported by lead because *I* was certainly flying welded
wing--looked reasonable though). NASTY! Several nights the weather was
from nearly the surface all the way above 350 to 400.

Getting into the iron maiden on the KC-135 is challenging in turbulence
(actually, staying in is the rough part), but with WORPS or WOPR stores on
the 10 or the 135 in turbulence with all that excessive amount of hose
bouncing the basket all over, it was downright hard as hell! One night,
we
had a Prowler rip a store off the tanker and a Tomcat rip the probe off
the
aircraft and divert. Toughest tanking I've ever seen!

Speaking of which, I'll never figure out how the Prowlers found the
tankers
on those IMC nights, but they always managed to just by using their
yardstick. Those guys did some very impressive work.

Frankly, we hung it out a bit in conditions that we normally wouldn't have
accepted to get ordnance to the folks on the ground.

--Woody

On 5/16/05 4:32 PM, in article , "Mike
Kanze" wrote:

Woody,

Thanks. Sounds every bit as challenging as anything I saw in my day - if not
more so.

***

BTW, two nice pix of your outfit's (VFA-201) fly-bys during your CompTUEx at
MCAS Kaneohe last November. See the current HOOK (Spring 2005. Pix and
accompanying article on pp. 58-59).

That was definitely a good deal USNR detachment, and we were happy to
provide Cat IV OPFOR for CCDG 2 and do the cemetery fly-by for the Governor.
I still haven't read the article yet, but I've had lots of folks mention it
to me in passing.

--Woody