quote:

Originally posted by slosig:
Scooter? Is that the nickname for the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk?

Yes. The A-4 has several nicknames such as "Kiddiecar", "Bantam Bomber", "Tinker Toy Bomber", and, on account of its speed and nimble performance, "Heinemann's Hot-Rod" (named after its designer Ed Heinemann), but the name that stuck was “Scooter.”

As many have said, the A4 was a plane you strapped on, not into.

Freedom

sadly I think those are being phased out, correct?

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quote:

Originally posted by Sig209:
Freedom

sadly I think those are being phased out, correct?

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From what I read online they are being phased out and replaced by the F-35B variant sometime in the next 5 years or so.

quote:

Originally posted by mrapteam666:
Wow
and Really...............

16 years of living in Richmond, VA (before relocating to durham) and I never saw anything cool like this.......


Lucky dog..

I used to run a grocery store in Bottoms Bridge,
and would head up to the airport area for lunch sometimes,

back when VANG was stationed at RIC, got to see some F16's take off every now and then,



later worked for another chain near the airport, and had to do bird dog duties for corporate jets ,
drove around a few spots here and there on the backside of the airport but never lucked into some harrier action

When i was a contractor at Buckley AFB I used to park near the control tower and watch F16’s,F15’s,F35’s,Canadian F18’s,Talons, Italian Typhoons,C17s and various other planes land and takeoff. It was my private air show and loved every second of it and almost forgot the Super Guppy

Bumpin’ cause everyone neeads some v/stol goodness in their life

I'm not a pilot, just a fan. The AV8-B is one of the coolest jets ever. I've been to a shit load of air shows but only got to see the Harrier a couple of times. And it was loud but no worse to me than an F15, F16, F35, etc.

In 1996, I was in a composite squadron with HMM-163. We had maybe four AV-8B's from VMA-214 (The Black Sheep Squadron) and I spent 6 months with those guys. The picture in my avatar is a CH-53E, which is what I worked on.

While not in use, we would fold the helicopter blades and park the CH-53E's in the back corner of the flight deck. Our nose was just outside the runway boundary.

I worked the night shift and sometimes we would sit in the cockpit of our parked CH-53E's and watch the Harriers take off and land. Nowhere in the world can you get any closer to a Harrier when taking off and landing than where I was sitting those nights. If I looked straight up, the harrier was maybe 50 feet above my head and I would see glowing exhaust coming from the thrust ports, or vector ports, or whatever they were called.

I'll never forget that sound as long as I live. The high pitch squeal that would change tone, and the rumble of the main engine was incredible. The helicopters chained on deck shook from the downwash and I could feel the engine rumbling right through me. As they cut the engines, from where I was sitting in the cockpit, the wingtips weren't any more than 10 or 15 feet away from my face.

Takeoff was awesome too, but a quick and short event. Nighttime landings were magical and the show lasted much longer than takeoff.

Tony.

Okay, after writing that, I had to go find a video.

At Kandahar, we often ended up on the same ramp as a Harrier squadron (not sure which one). Occasionally we shared a shelter with their personnel during a rocket attack, and we'd frequently see the aircraft taxi out loaded with ordnance, and return shortly thereafter, empty.

How to tell an old Richmonder,like myself, is if they still refer to the airport as Byrd Field, its original name, having been named after Richard Byrd, the explorer. I did not get to see the Harriers but several times have seen Air Force One, as it practices touch and go landings there. I'm told it uses Richmond to avoid the crowded airspace in the DC area. Seeing that big 747 with USA on it never fails to stir my heart. Another impressive sight is the C5-A that also uses Richmond for the same purpose. There is a WAWA station on the edge of the airport directly under one of the approach flight paths (brilliant design, right?). I was in there one day when that C5 came in about 200 ft off the deck. Impressive. Years ago, when you could park right in front of the terminal, they were having an airshow. As I was getting out of my car, I heard this huge roar. Taking off and emerging from behind the terminal building, climbing and banking was B-1 bomber. I remember mouthing, "Oh my God!".
If you've only seen one in photos, you don't appreciate how big it is. It looks like a jet fighter on steroids. Quite a sight.

Funny story about the B1. Back in 98 we were participants at the MacDill AFB air show (CF-104D). On one of the high speed passes
we were a little faster than planned, not really sure how fast but close enough to Mach 1 that we created a pressure wave and a loud
cracking sound, it was enough that hundreds of car alarms were set off in the parking area. After landing the FAA inspector assigned to
the show was pissed. While getting our ass chewed by the FAA rep I noticed the B1 taxing by for his demonstration, you guessed it, on his first pass with the wings retracted he did exactly the same thing, every car alarm near the flight line was set off. The B1 turned into a giant fuzz ball. At the OC that evening the B1 AC told us, jokingly of course, he wasn't going to be over shadowed by a 40 yr old
aircraft and a 66 yr old Pilot. The Air Force Lt Col in charge of the event simply told us don't do it again tomorrow. We didn't!
BTW the B1 is assume

Did someone say Harrier, Skyhawk and 'Bulldogs'?



After seeing a VMA-214 Harrier do a demo at a airshow back in the '90s I decided to build the AV-8B in 'Black Sheep' livery, the kit is OOB with the use of aftermarket decals. The Skyhawk is a more recent project, at the time I started on it Nobody offered a kit of the TA-4J in 1/48 scale, this is a kitbash of a OA-4M and A-4E, again using outsourced decals.



Many years later, at yet another airshow there were two 'Bulldogs' AV-8Bs on static display, I was able to chat with the two aviators and during the course of our talk purchased this patch, the Marine Corps aviators I spoken with at airshows have always been some of the friendliest flying personnel to visit with and by purchasing the patch I gladly added to their "Beer Fund".

This short movie shows how you CAN land safely even having lost the entire nose-wheel assembly....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h4-TF_3LHQ

Very nice models Club! Those were the two aircraft I primarily flew. That A4 model looks just like what we flew in Meridian (although a lot cleaner looking lol)

The Harrier was a great high performance machine and allowed us unmatched versatility in some areas. But the Skyhawk was just a pure joy to fly.

Way back,64 or 65 we had a Navy A-4 group join us for a 3 week long War Game at Eglin. We were flying
mostly F-100/104/105s. We were quite impressed with
the Jet, seems all they did was gas it up and re load. IIRC the Harriers of that period were of the original British design before the Marines redesigned it. I could be mistaken, it was long
ago. I do remember they had to remove the engine
in the Harrier, they removed the entire Wing assy

During 72/73 I had a chance to visit Cherry Point. I was standing along the fence and saw 2 fighters coming in. They didn’t land and kept coming right towards me. All of a sudden they both slowed, stopped dead in the air, landing close to where I was standing. I was awestruck. I didn’t know we had any aircraft that could do that.

I also, while stationed on Okinawa, visited Kadena AFB and watched a SR71 take off.

Ah, yes. Kadena and the flight line. I used to love sitting on the flight line and watching the constant string of F-15s in the air prior to the take off or landing of the Boackbird. The locals called it “Habu”. Straight up badass.

It would tear ass down the runway. Wheels would come off the ground, and it would turn near straight up until it disappeared into the clouds.

NAS Meridian?

quote:

Originally posted by mojojojo:
Unfortunately I wasn’t one of the chosen ones so instead I went to teach fledglings to fly “Advanced Strike” jets in Mississippi.

quote:

Originally posted by SgtGold:
NAS Meridian?

Yes. I was a flight instructor there for a couple of years.