It's the small things that often impress--Blue Angel #1

[A4sForever]

I nearly got all excited today ... two, count 'em ... TWO Queer A-6's came into the break @ warp overdrive --- and it's only Tuesday. They snapped it into the break with a very short interval. Good show ... and probably just for me.

It's always great to hear that delayed engine-driven "whump" from those two Pratt P8's or P408's and then the "W-O-O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o" as the RPM's unwind. Hard to describe in words --- when you hear it, you'll know what I mean.

 

[A4sForever]

It's amazing how slow 250 knots feels now coming to the break (night break here is 250). .

Not to worry ... save your 500 KIAS breaks for the daylight when you can be somebody. No one can see you at night.

Night time is not Show time ...

 

[Fly Navy]

Not to worry ... save your 500 KIAS breaks for the daylight when you can be somebody. No one can see you at night.

Night time is not Show time ...

Oh of course, I'm just saying that because we're limited to 250 at night, it's the only time we feel it in the break, so it feels weird flying that slow at that point. I wasn't implying htat I wanted to go to 350 at night.

 

[A4sForever]

^Yeah, I know, yo comprendo ... just sayin' ... speaking of which:

CUBI Point ... 1974, I think. We left two crews on the beach det --- we were going to the I.O. with no bingo fields and the powers that be figured since we were "over manned" anyway we would leave two of the "weaker" crews on the beach. (We were in the post-VN surfeit in pilots/BNs -- many soon to be RIFF'ed) ... So we left 'em, so they would be safe. So they wouldn't hurt themselves. So they wouldn't crash and burn. Because they were sh!tty @ the BOAT.

Soooooooooooooo .... we got a message about a month later saying one of our young stalwart crews had crashed into Subic Bay. Oooops !!!

They apparently came into the field @ the pilot's first SH!T-HOT, warp overdrive break --- 500 KIAS --- and he promptly shut both engines down when he "snapped" it. You could do that -- shut 'em down --- if you were a cretin or a marginal idiot in those days. As the two of them (his BN was also marginal --- "WOXOF" was his "call sign" ... and richly deserved, may I add) sailed across the bay --- downwind for RW 07 --- they noticed it was getting very QUIET in the cockpit with both engines shut down. Forgetting to pop the RAT and forgetting that the igniter's needed ELECTRICITY to fire didn't help, either. He kept banging on the dead igniter's until they decided it was time to "step out". They landed in shallow water, closely followed by the airplane. At least it was all trimmed up ....

Some Marines doing their laundry or something waded into the water and pulled them out. All-in-all ... not a good show. I have a picture from the investigation somewhere --- I'll see if I can find it --- of the tail sticking up out of the water next to the beach across the bay from the runway. Great stuff .... The pilot --- "BAB-O" --- was responsible for a later "fix" to the throttle quadrant so "this" could not happen again (??) ... ... right.

He decided to hang it up after that --- it was the culmination of a series of non-career enhancing gambits on his part.

He became a Catholic priest ...

 

[Schnugg]

...his BN was also marginal --- "WOXOF" was his "call sign" ... and richly deserved, may I add....

Now THAT is a classic callsign!!!

 

[Catmando]

Good friend of mine . . . and a good fighter pilot got transferred from F-4's to EA-6B's when they were brand new. And while they were still brand new, this former fighter pilot, in a Sierra Hotel break in his new aircraft accidentally shut 'em both down!

Boom-boom, boom, boom! The first EA-6B ejection. Embarrassing, and not career-enhancing.

He's not a Catholic priest; he's a recently retired Alaska Captain, a great guy, and friend and was a great fighter pilot. But hey, everybody is entitled to one bad day.

Meanwhile, I have a question for any Miramar Marines. I notice the F/A-18's don't come into the break as fast as they used to. Is there a new "speed limit?"

I remember an anal admiral at the old Navy Miramar, who used a hand-held radar gun from his specially renovated-for-this-purpose office in NAS Operations, to track our F-14's speed into the break.

The underground communication system must have been pretty good because it was obvious to all on base as to when the admiral was in or out of his office.

One only had to look up and judge the speed of aircraft in the break, to know of the anal admiral's presence.

 

[Brett327]

Boom-boom, boom, boom! The first EA-6B ejection. Embarrassing, and not career-enhancing.

Queer indeed. Seems like you'd be able to get something started in that situation, but i wasn't there, so...

Brett

 

[Catmando]

Queer indeed. Seems like you'd be able to get something started in that situation, but i wasn't there, so...

Brett

I thought so too, but I wasn't there either...

Hey, the guy has a house full of guns, fishes for salmon all the time in grizzly country, women love him, (even his ex) is respected by co-workers and his company, has a perfect record before and after that day, has flown a lot of combat missions, was and is liked by all, and is a helluva lot bigger and richer than I am, so I'm not about to quibble. I may have wondered, but never asked. You can though. It's a fair question.

 

[raptor10]

Woxof??

 

[A4sForever]

Woxof??

I'm gonna' cut you some slack, 'cause you're only a 3/C Middie and probably don't have an NAS WX department handy to call:

WOXOF: Meteorology speak for: Indefinite ceiling zero, sky obscured, visibility zero, fog

let's see if I can do it from memory (?) -- can't remember where "indefinite" goes (I could look it up --- but I'll let you):

W= weather (indefinite?)
O= (indefinite?) ceiling zero
X= sky obscured
O= visibility zero
F= fog

... don't say I never did anything for you ... makes me smile with pleasure

 

[Catmando]

"WOXOF"…………. also the apropos name for that notorious, back room JO bar at the Miramar O'Club (and immortalized in the Top Gun movie).

Ah, the memories……………. if I could only remember…....I think I may have too often been in a fog, in the WOXOF Room, to accurately remember.

But if I can't exactly remember, I can still imagine - Ah, yes, the fog clears!

 

[A4sForever]

"WOXOF"…………. also the apropos name for that notorious, back room JO bar at the Miramar O'Club (and immortalized in the Top Gun movie)......!

ABSOLUTELY !!! And how weak of me not to mention it. And during the TOPGUN "bar" scene (???) --- the "stud" --- NOT 'STUDent" --- who took away the movie female TOPGUN instructor icon_lol: :icon_boun :icon_woma ) from Tommy Cruise --- who never went on "cruise" --- Kelly McGillis --- actually, she's got/had a great bar in Key West .... he's Pete Pettigrew -- VF-114 Aardvark MIG master --- the same Pete who loves the sound of his own voice --- loves to stand waaa-a-a-a-a-a-ay too long in front of the mirror while shaving and/or doing his prematurely gray hair ... my first Wing LSO when I was a trainee ---

Yeah ... those were the days ....

 

[A6-EA6]

On another Cubi break story, an A-6 from "Brand-X" had one coming out of the maintenance facility there that needed a checkride. Pilot and BN wrang it out on the countryside and RTB'd for a max knots break. Airplane didn't have parent racks under the wings due to the maintenance so it was slick...and fast (for an Intruder anyway).

I'm sure he was 500kts or so into the carrier break and really laid on the G's as we all looked on from the club. Halfway through the break, we saw two streaks break away from the airplane. He had over-G'd the airplane, bending the wings enough to delaminate the walkways on the top right next to the fuselage.

It made for a great show for us (since it was Brand-X) and we watched the next day as he got skewered by the CO and the Intruder was sent back to to the repair depot for another month of work. Lots of fun abusing the two of them over that for the next year!

 

[A4sForever]

Ah .... CUBI breaks ... gotta' love 'em.

One VA-195 --- A-7 --- did a "tuck-under" break ... as a result the "guy" was in hack up at the 'Q annex for the next week. He broke "hack" and went to town for some R&R ... and San Miguel''s ... got caught ... and spent the next week in hack up at the 'Q annex.

... Chained --- leg irons --- to a chaise lounge in front of his room. We took a couple of beers over to him and shot the sh!t --- CUBI.

 

[raptor10]

... don't say I never did anything for you ...

Thanks for the gouge, googled it right after I asked, and got the same answer, (Indefinite Ceiling Zero, Visibility Zero Due to Fog)

makes me smile with pleasure

thats what she said...