CJ Martin

Ha! Worked on both of these 'cats back in the day. SD 202 is designated as an "NF-14A", i.e. it is not a Fleet standard configuration. Miles of orange wire internally to support instrumentation is the primary reason for this. Fun fact, this aircraft was used extensively to test what effects deleting the glove vanes would have in various configurations. For one set of test flights, the entire AWG-9 radar system was removed from the nose (antenna, everything in the TX bay and the power supplies on the other side. Lead weights were added aft in an effort to move the CG as far aft as possible. Dur

Sorry guy hit another snag with Photobucket - got tied up over the weekend with house projects, and this morning it seems I can no longer access Photobucket at work. I still have a handful of pics to post.

Outstanding job and choice of markings. Bravo Zulu!

Another shot of 200. Here you see our Ordies loading the gun. Notice the soot from the gun firing - this is after cleaning. Again that low vis paint just would not clean up well.

Ok, here is BuNo 161142 when she was AB 200. A few things I'd like to point out here. First, the spot painting which is mostly around fasteners and panel edges. Almost all of this spot painting was done with spray cans, and it seems the paint locker never quite had the right shade of paint on hand. Any paint is better than bare metal out to sea, so this is what you end up with. Also the low vis paint was VERY hard to clean (nearly impossible) which only made things worse. Another thing I wanted to point out is the sealant on the TCS pod. This is good old -8802, a dark gray two part

Hit a bit of a snag posting as I was not aware there was a limit on pics posted directly to the forum. I'm going to have to set up a photobucket account or something similar. UPDATE: That was easy!

More pics when I can upload more!

In this thread I will post some of my personal pics taken when I was in VF-33. Most were taken underway aboard the USS America in 1985 (North Atlantic) or 1986 (Med). To start off, here is the tail of the ill fated Starfighter 213. I believe this was BuNo 161148, M.A.T.S. has the mishap date correct for this BuNo but lists it as a VF-32 bird - believe that is a typo. We got this jet just prior to departing on our '86 cruise and she was one of three block 110's we had. She was a flier, strong radar, and all around good jet. She was during a PMCF flight where somehow she ended up in

I've heard this explanation a couple of times now, and it is not what I was told back in the day by our Mech's. Now granted, I was an AT, but here is a pretty good explanation that matches up with what I was told back then: http://www.anft.net/f-14/f14-detail-engine.htm Looking forward seeing your VF-33 build completed, even if that paint scheme came after my time! I was a Starfighter from early 1985 to mid 1988. When I checked in, we had two Block 110's, and the rest were a mix of lower Blocks all the way down to 75. Before I left we added (and then lost) another block

This particular jet eventually was transferred to VF-33 following a depot maintenance period, where she was repainted in the low vis tactical scheme. Upon her return, she was assigned modex 200 and had the low vis star and lightening bolt with the thin yellow interior lines. She was one of three Block 110's we had when I was there in 1985-88. She was a good bird, strong radar and a perfect missile shoot record (when I was there at least).

Screw it, i'm out. Life is too short for this sillyness. Mods feel free to delete this account. -CJ

Yes you are correct. Sorry I wasn't clear. Also those were F-14As, so maybe not exactly what the OP was looking for. -CJ

When we flew against Libya (really dating myself here) both us (VF-33) and sis (VF-102) were configured 4/4/0 plus the two drops. We had deployed configured for 2/2/2 but the Battle Group commander was afraid one of the Tomcats would take a long range Phoenix shot and start a war. We got the word to reconfigure all our jets one night early in the cruise...what a circus that was! The ship actually ran out of the LAU-92 B-stations so we had at least one jet 2/6/0 for a while until they flew more in from the beach. I was in IWT, fun times trying to get all the missile checks done! We kept the 4/4

I love the Spartacus series, but it really hasn't been the same since Andy Whitfield passed away (his illness was the reason Gods of the Arena was filmed). The new lead is ok, but he's no Andy. Also, they killed off Mira! -CJ

These look great! Former Tomcat maintainer here, going from memory... Center windscreen should be tinted greenish for the F-14A. This was because the HUD was projected on the windscreen. IIRC, the F-14D had a different HUD using seperate combiner glass, so the windscreen may not be tinted. The "NF-14A" aircraft (developmental aircraft, had the TF-30's but all the D avionics) on display here at Pax River have the canopies frosted. The tactical paint was almost impossible to clean, so on the boat it got really dirty. The steps and ladder area, plus up onto the wing should be a mess. Basically

I hesitate to jump in here, I retired a long time ago from internet flame wars but what the hell... Since this is after all the internet, and anyone can claim to be anyone, even a super-hero, you'll just have to take my word for it that in the mid-80's, I was a F-14A maintainer. AT (IWT shop) for those that want to know. Maintaining the AWG-9 and the rest of the Comm/Nav/IFF/ECM suite was what I did for a living. Combat cruise (of sorts) against Libya, 1986 aboard the late great USS America. CDI, final checker qual'd, etc, etc. There was a comment (in very small print) that the the Tomcat co