The Great, Constantly Changing Picture Gallery

[invertedflyer]

Maybe this is destined for the "stupid questions about Naval Aviation" thread, but when you are out there on station for 12 hrs, what do you do to pass the time? Are you busy, or is there a lot of down time? Obviously I'm not looking for any OPSEC-violating info here, but it seems like a lot of time to be up there.

Are guys still in the practice of knocking the a/p on and writing letters/reading books?

also: my somewhat less-cool addition to the picture gallery.

 

[Tom]

SNA picture for 5 Aug 2008

A division of T-34C Turbomentors.

 

[squeeze]

Example of the Desaturated look:

/Yours Truly on the tramline.

 

[Single Seat]

Hey Squeeze, I was out on the line the other day looking at a Harrier, what the hell is that thing in the nose, looks like an IRST or seeker head?

 

[squeeze]

Hey Squeeze, I was out on the line the other day looking at a Harrier, what the hell is that thing in the nose, looks like an IRST or seeker head?

You're probably referring to the Dual Mode Tracker (DMT) in the nose of a Night Attack variant. It has a 6X TV Camera and Laser Spot tracker both tied to an Angle Rate Bombing System (ARBS) that uses a laser spot or contrast to lock onto a point, compute angular rate change, and use that to accurately solve HAT for the bombing triangle. It's a pretty accurate system, but has largely been replaced/outdated by the Litening Pod.

It can be slaved to an INS designation, a laser spot, a contrast lock, or the AIM-9 boresight.

Edit: Or, you're talking about the bump on the nose of both the Radar or Night Attack variants... which is a Navigational FLIR with selectable FOVs fixed about the AC waterline. You can project the FLIR image into the HUD as well.

 

[Old R.O.]

Old R.O. Picture of the Day for 6 Aug 2008

Section of VF-301 F-14A Tomcats is joined by a VC-13 TA-4J Skyhawk over San Diego's Mission Valley as they return to NAS Miramar (mid-right edge of photo) from an ACM hop in W-291. circa 1986.

 

[xj220]

I'm rather disappointed with the lack of P-3 representation here. There's got to be some good action shots out there, right?

 

[Harrier Dude]

You're probably referring to the Dual Mode Tracker (DMT) in the nose of a Night Attack variant. It has a 6X TV Camera and Laser Spot tracker both tied to an Angle Rate Bombing System (ARBS) that uses a laser spot or contrast to lock onto a point, compute angular rate change, and use that to accurately solve HAT for the bombing triangle. It's a pretty accurate system, but has largely been replaced/outdated by the Litening Pod.

It can be slaved to an INS designation, a laser spot, a contrast lock, or the AIM-9 boresight.

Edit: Or, you're talking about the bump on the nose of both the Radar or Night Attack variants... which is a Navigational FLIR with selectable FOVs fixed about the AC waterline. You can project the FLIR image into the HUD as well.

Somebody has been studying for their section lead test........

 

[Flugelman]

I'm rather disappointed with the lack of P-3 representation here. There's got to be some good action shots out there, right?

Gimme a couple of days, I've got to dig out some old slides and try to scan them.

 

[HAL Pilot]

I'm rather disappointed with the lack of P-3 representation here. There's got to be some good action shots out there, right?

 

[Orion4life]

Nice Orion pics. I have very few originals, but I'll have to wait a week or so before I can find them and post.

 

[HAL Pilot]

The problem is that when you're flying around doing your thing, there is rarely a wingman in another P-3 hanging around to take your picture.

 

[BigIron]

Helo pic for today

The "big'n"

 

[Sky-Pig]

P-3 photos?

Okay, these aren't P-3Cs...but if you want to go a bit old school in MPR land...that's about as action-packed as it gets in VQ

 

[picklesuit]

awesome P-3 Pics, I like seeing the VP-16 planes...how old are those pictures?