GW8345

The Tomcat's seat does not redirect upward after ejection, they are just like the ECAPAC seat, they go where they are fired. Example, Lt. Hultgreen ejection in Oct 94.

The D-704 did in fact carry 300 gallons of fuel. The reason why you don't see that many pics with A-6's with buddy stores and weapons is because there was a limited number available so they were usually reserved for the Airwing's dedicated tankers and not the bombers. Usually a carrier would have about 7 or 8 buddy stores on board, each A-7 squadron would have two tankers and there was always one or two down in the hanger going through maintenance so that left a few for the A-6 squadron to supplement the KA-6D's (usually 3 or 4 assigned per squadron).

There are no mix load (wing loading) restrictions associated with carrying a buddy store on the centerline.

WALLEYE on mid-board station on one side, an AWW-13 ERDL Pod (Data Link Pod) on the mid-board station on the other side.

You are correct sir.

We flew dummy Sparrow missiles on the forward stations on the F-14 when TARPS pod was load when weapons rails were not installed for weight and balance purposes. The Phantom was the same way for certain load out/stores, they would put dummy Sparrow's on the nose stations for weight and balance purposes. The Bullwinkle pod is the AN/ALQ-167 Pod, it was common out in the fleet back in the 80's and 90's.

AO1, I think you are a little confused on some details; 1) The A-7 was never cleared for the AGM-78 and the loading procedures were never in the -75 loading manual. You would not have loaded the weapon for proficiency sake if the aircraft was not authorized to carry and employ the weapon and there as no loading procedures for the weapon in the -75. 2) If a bomb is painted blue, it is inert, even if it has a spotting charge installed it is considered inert since it does not contain high explosives. Spotting charges are Class 1.4 Pyrotechnics and thus do not

The Saratoga was the same way.

The little boat contained all the electronics for the demo charges, it was designed to float away when the ship sunk thus saving all of the electronic gear. Watch the documentary on how they sunk the Oriskany, looks like the America was sunk the same way.

The canopy's and boarding ladders were only left open if someone was working on the aircraft or if the aircraft was scheduled to fly shortly (to allow the cockpit area to cool). If no one was on the aircraft or within the vicinity (i.e., on the next aircraft) the canopy was closed and the aircraft was "buttoned up". This was done in case of rain and also to keep birds/bugs out of of the cockpit. The boarding ladder was buttoned up to keep the wind from blowing in and the steps were closed to keep rain out. You can pose the canopy open and the ladder down with not one on

That Phantom is an aircraft handling trainer. I believe that picture was taken while the ship was transiting to the west coast from the east coast and they are hauling it to San Diego with them. CVW-3 took the Kitty around the horn (from the east coast to west coast) after it finished SLEP and some of those F-18's look to belong to VFA-37. It was common to haul stuff when a carrier was transiting from one port to another. Given the configuration of the aircraft on the flight deck and the flight deck antenna's it appears that the ship is preparing to conduct an underway

Ok, take the ads out since you are not trying to make money off of your videos that you post on ARC, that way no one can say you are posting the videos on ARC to up your hit count and thus up your revenue you get from the videos. Yet you had not problem defending yourself down in your in progress thread, are there any other members who post in progress videos vice pics?

A few Questions; Do you make any money off of your videos that you post on ARC? Why did you post this thread up in the General Discussion instead of keeping this discussion down in your in progress thread?

The red square on the other side of the chaff buckets is where the ECM system safety pin goes. The opening at the end of the ventral fin on the nacelle is the oil cooler exhaust. GW

I would say those are Mk 83's, they look too fat to be Mk 82's. Never seen anyone fly Shrikes just for a bombing mission, if you notice, on the recoveries, they bring all the Shrikes back.

Yep, if you are flying Shrikes/HARM's, you are doing an Iron Hand/SEAD mission.

You can do that but normally, if you are carrying Shrikes you doing a SEAD mission, Mk 83's weren't normally used for SEAD. If you want to do GP bombs I would suggest Mk 82 Snakeyes.

I believe this is the picture MrVark (Jim) is talking about. It appears that there was nothing loaded on the TER on station one, the ejector foot on the bottom station is not extended. Both centerline stations on both MER's had something loaded, you can see the ejector feet extended. On MER's and TER's the ejector feet did not retract when fired, the ordies would push them back in after the bird landed. I would suspect that they would have been carrying Cluster Bombs on those MER's. Not a Vietnam load out but when I was in A-7E's we would carry cluster bombs when carryi

It varies from squadron to squadron, names are painted on the aircraft in order of rank, the Gunner is pretty low on the totem pole. Some squadrons will put four names on one bird, two on one side and two different on the other so if the squadron is a Super Hornet (like the one picture, that is a VFA-211 bird) then they will put all officer's names on a bird, and will even do some of senior enlisted like the CMC and MMCPO. Other squadrons will but one name on both sides so not everyone will get their name on a bird since squadrons will have more pilots/back seater's than they have

The launch bar abort switch does not retract the launch bar, it only raises about 12 inches and the pilot has to hold the switch, if he lets it go, the launch bar lowers. What safety interlock are you talking about?

The squadrons Weapons Officer, ie, the Gunner.

Yep, remember those days well. Did four cruises before the internet came along (2 with e-mail), the only news you got was what the ship told you and what the misses wrapped your care package stuff in.

I believe he is talking about the Nimitz fire back in 81, when the EA-6B went down the port ladder and into the four row, taking out 3 Tomcats and 14 people total. That crash started the Command Urinalysis (known as the "wiz-quiz for us military folks) since several of those killed on the flight deck had drugs in their system when they did the autopsy on them. The Forrestal was cause by an accidental firing of a 5.00" rocket, the Enterprise was cause when a huffer was parked too close to a 5.00" rocket pod and the hot exhaust cook-off a warhead.

Push back on CAT 3, lend a hand! Boy do I remember those days.

The missiles came as AUR's (All Up Rounds), the ship/station weapons departments simply uncanned them and then sent them to the squadron. The missiles are assembled at the depot/factory. Missile were cycled through depot level maintenance on regular intervals and refurbished components were used to replace components that needed rework or mod's. When that was done the reworked components were finished in the new paint scheme while the components that were still serviceable were left in the original paint color. After a few cycles through the depot all the components would eventually match up.