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F-14 Dog fight

The article in the OP suggest that one of the two F-14s involved is being transferred to the Pima Air Museum in Tucson. If you're ever in the area, check that place out. They're right across the street from the boneyard, and have managed to get their hands on what seemed like one of everything the military has ever flown that had fan blades instead of pistons. Oh, and a hell of a nice WWII bomber exhibit, too.

A must see for airplane junkies. Finish off the day at the Titan Missile museum, a little south of Tucson.
 
I was stationed at NAS Miramar in San Diego during the 70's, the heyday of the F14's. My squadron (Grumman E-2B's) shared a hangar with Top Gun for a year or two. The Jet Jocks that either taught there or were going to school there were certifiably nuts. They used F5's and A4's as "enemies" and flew either F4's and or F14's as friendlies. I thought then (and still do to this day) that the F14 was one of the greatest fighters the US ever made. I was sad to see them go away.

Interesting to note that Iran has a whole slew of F14's they bought from us in the mid 70's. There were even Iranians in my avionics school in 75-76 as we were training them to fix the aircraft. The arms embargo of 1980 meant they could no longer get spare parts for the 80 or so F14's that we had sold to them. Somewhere in a warehouse in Iran there are almost new F14's just sitting there...
 
I apologize if this is a naive question, but why would the U.S. pilots give a crap that the enemy pilots were able to eject and deploy their parachutes ("two good chutes")? Or is that just part of describing the scene for the folks in the command center?
 
timbo said:
I was stationed at NAS Miramar in San Diego during the 70's, the heyday of the F14's. My squadron (Grumman E-2B's) shared a hangar with Top Gun for a year or two. The Jet Jocks that either taught there or were going to school there were certifiably nuts. They used F5's and A4's as "enemies" and flew either F4's and or F14's as friendlies. I thought then (and still do to this day) that the F14 was one of the greatest fighters the US ever made. I was sad to see them go away.

Interesting to note that Iran has a whole slew of F14's they bought from us in the mid 70's. There were even Iranians in my avionics school in 75-76 as we were training them to fix the aircraft. The arms embargo of 1980 meant they could no longer get spare parts for the 80 or so F14's that we had sold to them. Somewhere in a warehouse in Iran there are almost new F14's just sitting there...
Click to expand...

Group buy?
 
Salyeica said:
I apologize if this is a naive question, but why would the U.S. pilots give a crap that the enemy pilots were able to eject and deploy their parachutes ("two good chutes")? Or is that just part of describing the scene for the folks in the command center?
Click to expand...

A code of unwritten ethics between men that strap those things to their butts. Even if he is your enemy, you can respect his ability to master the machine and slip the bonds of Earth. It's not a skill that any man can accomplish. When I entered Pilot training I did so with 135 other people in my class. 22 of us earned our wings.
 
FreeWillie said:
A code of unwritten ethics between men that strap those things to their butts. Even if he is your enemy, you can respect his ability to master the machine and slip the bonds of Earth. It's not a skill that any man can accomplish. When I entered Pilot training I did so with 135 other people in my class. 22 of us earned our wings.
Click to expand...

Understood. Thank you for the clarification.
 
Sig Sauer Shooter said:
And their breathing gets heavy as the heart starts racing.....
Click to expand...

Actually that's a combination of the physical stress and the increased adrenaline. It's not uncommon to be pulling 6-7 G's maneuvering the aircraft during target acquisition. At 6 G's your body weighs 6x what it weighs at 1 G. That's a lot of physical stress. Movement becomes a chore. The F14 doesn't have reclined seats so the full effect of G loading is straight down the spine and we aren't built for that. Ever noticed that the astronauts takeoff in a fully reclined position? That's because the G loads are more tolerable in that position.

It's a crazy ride in the cockpit during those maneuvers. You can go from 6 or 7 positive G's to -3 G's within fractions of a second. And that repeats itself over-and-over. You need to be in pretty good shape to tolerate that roller coaster ride. It's physically draining.
 
Salyeica said:
I apologize if this is a naive question, but why would the U.S. pilots give a crap that the enemy pilots were able to eject and deploy their parachutes ("two good chutes")? Or is that just part of describing the scene for the folks in the command center?
Click to expand...

Read " A Higher Call". Outstanding book. The brass balls fighter and bomber pilots have never ceases to amaze me. It will also explain why the Tomcat pilots noted the 2 good chutes.
 
Libyan Su-22 fighters attempted to engage F-14s eight years earlier in 1981 in the Gulf of Sidra, with the same result.

This is the radio recording of the shootdown
 
Last edited by a moderator:
CWulf said:
I found it interesting that the RIO was the one launching the missiles... In the movie Top Gun, Maverick does all the fancy flyin' and shootin', Goose the RIO spends his time looking around. [rofl]
Click to expand...

Pilot shoots, rio locks them up. On the radar. Rio is responsible for communication so the main voice is actually the rio and not the pilot.
 
CWulf said:
I found it interesting that the RIO was the one launching the missiles... In the movie Top Gun, Maverick does all the fancy flyin' and shootin', Goose the RIO spends his time looking around. [rofl]
Click to expand...

The RIO doesn't launch the weapon. That choice is squarely on the shoulders of the pilot in command. It's his call and his court martial if he's wrong.

ETA: BobP beat me to it.
 

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