Elite F-14 Flight Officer Explains Why The Tomcat Was So Influential
We sat at the end of the runway, our F-14's GE-110 motors humming, awaiting our clearance to begin what would be the last F-14 Demonstration ever. The Air Boss's voice crackled over the radio: "Tomcat Demo, you're cleared to five miles and 15k feet. The air show box is yours" At that very moment, I distinctly remember what my Commanding Officer told us before the show: "Fellas, make it a memorable one… just not too memorable!"
And F-14 is way overkill to cook a turkey.
F-14 Tomcat Ping...
I know We have some FReepers out there that are Retired F-14 Pilots and RIO’s. Would love to hear from Y’All.
Thank You to All Our Veterans and Active Duty Military for doing what You did/are doing.
And for All the F-4 Phantom and other Bird Drivers out there I’m working on more. I have not forgotten Y’All.
Meanwhile at my house:
The F-14D really came into its own when it ditched the compressor stall-prone TF30 turbofan engines with the F110.
Nice pics! Ooooh ya.
But...I'd rather cook a turkey wrapped in bacon than try to maintain a Tomcat. It's all about what you've trained for.
one of my all time fav pix...
I remember back in the day when I was crew on an F6F hellcat at the airshow at NAS atlanta when one of the prototype F14 performed a max take off climbing straight outta sight.Most impressive.I was 16 years old and that was the wildest thing I had ever seen.
While I was working at Pt Mugu, the VX squadron was still flying the Tomcat. They loved to do their carrier break right over the old hangar my office was in. 2-3 of them all hitting the afterburners just over our heads. Great fun to be on the phone when they did that. I could hear them at my house miles away at times.
Always liked the classic look of the Delta wing interceptors of the 50’s - 60’s era having spent a year providing security for F-102’s in ROK. But when I saw my first F-4 I was in love. Then, in another departure from conformity, I was again blown away by the F-111’s we had at Nellis. BTW, they had great queen sized bed sized main landing gear flaps!
The F-14 had amazing “legs” - I was was a flight test engineer, and we could count on getting a lot of testing done in a single flight. By comparison the E/F had hardly any gas at all.
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