Most important flight tool?

[ea6bflyr]

Renegade one, thanks for the welcome. Grandfather flew A-4's off the Hancock, Airboss on the Ranger. Dad flew S-3's off the Enterprise ('Hook 91), and my Bro is just getting started. ROTC @ UCLA, heading for P-Cola. We're probably not the best test of perceptions .

Have you asked your father or grandfather for what was most useful? They may have something they can pass down.

-ea6bflyr

 

[MIDNJAC]

I have no idea how the Navy handles flight logs. Do they still keep a handwritten logbook or is everything electronic now?

We use a program called SHARP to log flights, and it stores your flight hours in a digital format. That being said, we all still have hard copy logbooks that get updated each month.

 

[BusyBee604]

Grandfather flew A-4's off the Hancock, Airboss on the Ranger.

PM me GramPa's name, I probably know him.
BzB

 

[707guy]

That being said, we all still have hard copy logbooks that get updated each month.

Ah yes - loved that chore when I was in Ops...no digital stuff back then just hardcopies...

 

[picklesuit]

A good watch, good flashlight (I like the minimag, but the LED is neat...must be small) leatherman, and a logon to AW's should do it...plus a fifth of Sailor Jerry...

 

[Renegade One]

Ah yes - loved that chore when I was in Ops...no digital stuff back then just hardcopies...

There will come a day when your "bound together" 2-3-4-5 (?) "hard copy" Navy Logbooks will become one of your most prized possessions...in a way that a digital iPad record, or whatever, will NEVER be. Those logbooks will have been in every squadron...on every day...onboard every ship...with everyone you ever flew with on every mission. Keep a digital record? Yeah, cool, why not? But if the Navy ever does away with "Those Little Blue Biographies"...spend a dime...get some blank ones before they disappear into the dustbin of history...and continue to keep your own.


"Now, there's one thing that you men will be able to say when you get back home, and you may thank God for it. Thirty years from now when you're sitting around your fireside with your grandson on your knee, and he asks you, "What did you do in [your Navy flying days]?" -- you won't have to say, "Well, I shoveled shit in Louisiana."

Alright now, you sons-of-bitches, you know how I feel."

 

[Renegade One]

Renegade one, thanks for the welcome. Grandfather flew A-4's off the Hancock, Airboss on the Ranger. Dad flew S-3's off the Enterprise ('Hook 91), and my Bro is just getting started. ROTC @ UCLA, heading for P-Cola. We're probably not the best test of perceptions .

You and your family have paid your collective dues...and then some. Welcome aboard!

P.S.: Sorry to hear about the Hook 91 family connection. Too much "collateral damage" in those days. I can only say we're working on it.

 

[Jim Davis]

Have you asked your father or grandfather for what was most useful? They may have something they can pass down.

-ea6bflyr

I chucked the kneeboard and stuffed the card of the day in my leg pocket for reference only. Relied heavily on situational awareness and what the base number was. Of course the S-3 had 3 others to tap for info. We would always play " where is mother". Westpac had terrible data link and we were always EMCON. We chopped to the Med during the Libya raid in "86 and every thing worked.

Seriously what we had in the 80s was light years ahead of when my dad was in A-4s in the 60s and what you guys have available today is Buck Rogers. You can get a better nav on an Ipad app.

 

[ea6bflyr]

I chucked the kneeboard and stuffed the card of the day in my leg pocket for reference only. Relied heavily on situational awareness and what the base number was. Of course the S-3 had 3 others to tap for info. We would always play " where is mother". Westpac had terrible data link and we were always EMCON. We chopped to the Med during the Libya raid in "86 and every thing worked.

Seriously what we had in the 80s was light years ahead of when my dad was in A-4s in the 60s and what you guys have available today is Buck Rogers. You can get a better nav on an Ipad app.

JIMDU?

 

[707guy]

There will come a day when your "bound together" 2-3-4-5 (?) "hard copy" Navy Logbooks will become one of your most prized possessions...in a way that a digital iPad record, or whatever, will NEVER be. Those logbooks will have been in every squadron...on every day...onboard every ship...with everyone you ever flew with on every mission. Keep a digital record? Yeah, cool, why not? But if the Navy ever does away with "Those Little Blue Biographies"...spend a dime...get some blank ones before they disappear into the dustbin of history...and continue to keep your own.

While it was tedious I always thought it a privilege to be able to update them for all my pilots. The interesting part was that you could almost tell rank by the number of books. At one point I remember filling up one book and being the first person to write in the new book that I attached to the first one. Thought it pretty cool that there would be innumerable folks who would write in that book that I started!

 

[Renegade One]

Thought it pretty cool that there would be innumerable folks who would write in that book that I started!

We probably should have included an "autograph page" for every Ops Yeoman (or whoever) who documented "The Best Days of Our Lives". Thanks for being one of them.

 

[BusyBee604]

I chucked the kneeboard and stuffed the card of the day in my leg pocket for reference only. Relied heavily on situational awareness and what the base number was. Of course the S-3 had 3 others to tap for info. We would always play " where is mother". Westpac had terrible data link and we were always EMCON. We chopped to the Med during the Libya raid in "86 and every thing worked.

Seriously what we had in the 80s was light years ahead of when my dad was in A-4s in the 60s and what you guys have available today is Buck Rogers. You can get a better nav on an Ipad app.

I was in your Dad's era (in fact I knew him slightly in Lemoore, I was in VA-146). Looking back now, yes our Nav equipment was meager, radar primitive...etc, BUT we didn't know that, it was top o' the line back then. When we got our first shiny new A4D-2/2Ns, went from Lo Freq radio ranges (dit dah, dah dit, etc) to Tacan, wow...bearing & distance...auto pilot...we couldn't believe it!

Today's "Buck Rogers" will have the next generation wondering, how did they ever manage? And so it goes..ad infinitum.

BTW, I remember yor Dad's CO IN VA-164, CDR Fred Meyers. Before he got to 164, he had the most enviable duty tour a Scooter driver could dream of; an exchange Pilot with a New Zealand AF A-4 Squadron @ RNZAFB Ohakea, colored me jealous!
BzB

 

[707guy]

We probably should have included an "autograph page" for every Ops Yeoman (or whoever) who documented "The Best Days of Our Lives". Thanks for being one of them.

Thank you Sir! I appreciate the comment! Was a pleasure to serve with the World's Finest Aviators!

 

[flaps]

if you get him a watch, it needs to be really big... especially if he gets fighters.

 

[Jim Davis]

Got him the Fenix flashlight and the Night Vision Pen. The big watch theory is taking on a new dimension for me. My eyes are going and it is a waste of a scan to even look at a watch, especially at night. So now when I see a big watch on someone over 30, it has nothing to do with afterburners. Also don't want to jinx the fighter thing. Maybe there is a Breitling (from Canal Street or Shanghai) in his future.