F-14A-70-GR VF-1 during OP "Frequent Wind"

[Rapier]

Hi there,

just want to build a early Tomcat from Hasegawas K39 1/72-kit.

There are two options for VF-1 Wolfpack

NK-100 158979 and

NK-111 158993

Both differing by the kind of used "Beavertail" and the amount of stencilling or silver leading edges. In John Lakes book is a profile of NK-100 which confuses me more in comparism with Hasegawas building instruction.

Anyone able to tell these details in early tomcats? :)

[Skull Leader]

I'm not sure if I understand the question....

are you asking which beavertail the jets would've had during "frequent wind"? If so, they had this one:

In terms of stencilling, the longer a jet is at sea (and consequently has the paintjob touched up), the fewer stencils you are likely to see. I would imagine that all of the jets had full stencilling at the time they deployed for Yankee Station. Late in the cruise? it's hard to say.

As far as bare-metal leading edges, almost ALL of the tomcat paintschemes of the 1970s featured BMF leading edges on every flight surface.

I know one of the pilots that deployed with VF-1 on that cruise, I'll forward these to him and ask.

[Rapier]

Thanks in advance, Skull Leader, and you understand my question quite well...

Hasegawas building instruction stated for NK-100 like your picture from home of the m.a.t.s.. There I can't find information on circumstances for taking off the dielectric panels. NK-111 is stated to have the dielectric panels installed while cruising. Are these panels taken off at Grumman or at the Enterprise?

NK-100 is in full, NK-111 is in minor stencilling.

Color Instruction stated for both planes only wing leading edge and tail leading edge as bare metal, not for the horizontal stabilizers.

Homepage of VF-1 doesn't cover this early Tomcats by shown pictures. ;)

[rotaliscia]

As for World Air Power Journal book (I'm not at home now, and don't remember the title)

the dielectric panels were removed due to the vibrations they generated.

Regards

Paolo

Edited January 5, 2011 by rotaliscia

[Rapier]

Thanks rotaliscia,

Next question appeared: Do the planes have an Alpha-probe or not. What IRST-/TCS-pod do they carry?

[Brian P: Fightertown Decals]

No alpha probe. No TCS. They did have the old IRST on some jets during the first cruise, but I don't know if that was on all of them.

-brian

[Rapier]

Thanks, Mr. Plescia!

Your outstanding hints were the cause for building Hasegawas early Tomcat!

[VFA-103guy]

A lot of what you're asking depends on the production block you're wanting to build.

I can almost guarantee VF-1's first deployment F-14's were block 70 or 75 jets, or a mix of both as Brian stated.

If memory serves correctly, here's a quick break down.

Block 70 jets were fitted with the dielectric panels and the ALQ-100 receiver under the nose.

Block 75 jets were fitted with the IRST with the dielectric panels removed.

Either way, there was no Alpha probe on either version. The Alpha probe didn't appear on the F-14 until the block 95 upgrade.

[Rapier]

Thanks, VFA-103guy!

As posted in the headline both serials belonged to block 70 according to my referrences. :mellow:

But I've found no pictures from operation "Frequent Wind". In John Lakes book a flight of VF-1 is shown but in low resolution. Nothing to see for sure.

But till now it's good to know:

- no Alpha-Probe,

- ALQ-100

- dielectric panels

all this stated Hasegawa for NK-111, BuNo 158993.

This aircraft should have full stencillling - but color-instruction tells only minor stencilling.

So not every question ist answered till now. :unsure:

[Skull Leader]

If the paintscheme is calling for gull grey with the bottom of the aircraft being white, I'd go full-stencilling.

[Skull Leader]

Ok, I just got an email back from "Turk" and he confirmed that some of the jets went to cruise with the dialectric panels installed, but those were all removed at some point during the cruise (so I guess in theory you could build them with or without and still be accurate). He wasn't the CC officer for VF-1, so he could not say for 100% certain, but as near as he could remember, all the jets had full, standard stencilling (with the gull grey over white paintjob). I had asked him before about the IRST sensor, and I seem to recall him saying they only took one or two of those pods with them, and they almost never got used. I'll email him again to see if he remembers which jets had them installed.

[Rapier]

Thanks, Skull Leader!

Yes it's 16440 over 17875 with a 33613 nose.

[Skull Leader]

I asked him again about the IRST pods, and this is all I got from him:

"Some of the jets had them, but we never used them... I think the pods were empty by that point"

He gave me the email of a guy who used to be a grumman tech during those days, I'll ask him more about frequent wind tomcats.

[Rapier]

He gave me the email of a guy who used to be a grumman tech during those days, I'll ask him more about frequent wind tomcats.

I'm looking forward to your reply!

[Sig Saur & Son]

According to my research, the following Tomcats were assigned to VF-1 during OPERATION FREQUENT WIND timeframe.

However, the squadron only took ten on deployment.

158979

158981

158982

158984

158989

158990

158991

158993

158994

158996

158998

159000

159001 (Lost 1-75)

[Rapier]

Great, Sig Saur & Son!

Both - 158979 and 158993 are confirmed for Frequent Wind by that.

First Part of the model (display card) ist done.

[rotaliscia]

Thanks for the infos and for sharing your contacts, Skull Leader.

Please, extend our thanks to both them.

And obviously thanks to Sig Saur & Son as well.

There's a lot of us here interested on VF-1's First Cruise.

(...when a new and correct decal sheet?)

Paolo

Edited October 1, 2008 by rotaliscia

[Sig Saur & Son]

My confidence is high in those BuNos because they came right from the VF-1 Command History.

Cheers,

dave

[Brian P: Fightertown Decals]

Sitting on about 3000 pictures from the first Tomcat workups and cruise, effectively their first 4 years of Tomcats from a photographer in the squadron that just happens to live down the street!!

VF-1 and VF-2 Delivery-first cruise (and more) is high on the priority list. It's taking a while but the result will be a heckuva decal sheet!

-brian

[RedHeadKevin]

ON an unrelated topic... I just decided that after a big meal, or lots of fiber, that I'm going to start euphemistically calling the aftermath "flying in Operatioin Frequent Wind."

[Rapier]

My thanks once more to Paolo, Dave and Brian.

I see we aren't at the end of this topic...

But there be a lot more to discuss around Tomcats first cruise.

[Firehawk]

Well I can confirm that Bu.No. 158998 was involved with Operation "Frequent Wind". I work with an aviation museum that has this bird in our collection. Just a little bit on the aircraft:

Our F-14 has a total of 1599 flight hours, 387 carrier landings and 375 carrier catapult takeoffs (known as cat shots).

This aircraft was the 59th built and the 57th to be delivered to the Navy on February 20, 1974. It first served with VF-1 "Wolfpack" aboard the USS Enterprise from May 1974 through July 1976. VF-1 along with VF-2 "Bounty Hunters" were the first operational Tomcat squadrons ever deployed on an operational Cruise. During this time, our Tomcat flew missions during a WestPac cruise under the code name Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of Saigon, South Vietnam. This makes our Tomcat a true Vietnam vet.

The aircraft was transferred to the training squadron VF-124 "Gunfighters" in July of 1976 were it spent approximately 1 year. In June of 1977, it was transferred to VF-2 "Bounty Hunters", the sister squadron to VF-1 aboard the Enterprise again. While with VF-2, this aircraft also flew off the USS Ranger and USS Kitty Hawk.

After serving aboard ship, the aircraft was assigned to 3 prominent Naval Air Stations:

* NAS Point Mugu from August 1986 to September 1989

* NAS Patuxent River from April 1990 to March 1991

* NAWC Warminster from September 1989 to April 1990 and again from March 1991 until it was stricken on April 7, 1992.

As a slightly more interesting note, the E-2B Hawkeye (Bu. No. 152484) in our collection was also aboard the USS Ranger at the same time in 1981.

[rotaliscia]

Good to see this interesting old thread on early VF-1's Tomcats re-upped.

An F-14 with just 1599 flight ours in total, before to rest in a museum?

From 1974 thru 1992?

Seems to me really few, I wouldn't have never guessed.

But it's normal?

How many flight ours can be considered the standard for an F-14's operative life?

Regards all!

Paolo

[Jennings]

387 carrier landings and 375 carrier catapult takeoffs

Can somebody 'splain me how you can have 12 more landings than takeoffs? I went back through all of my log books, and (thankfully) so far, the ratio of takeoffs to landings is exactly 1:1.

[Milo]

Can somebody 'splain me how you can have 12 more landings than takeoffs? I went back through all of my log books, and (thankfully) so far, the ratio of takeoffs to landings is exactly 1:1.

You're kidding, aren't you? It's pretty obvious.

387 carrier landings and 375 carrier catapult takeoffs (known as cat shots).

I'm not a Naval Aviator, but I'm pretty sure they can take off from a land-based runway and fly to a carrier at sea.

I think I saw it on TV once....