///AMG
Well-Known Member
Yeah I guess literally
2 people safely eject from jet that later crashed during Thunder Over Michigan air show 8/13/2023
- Thread starter fholbert
- Start date
Yeah I guess literally
The pilot of the A-6 transferred to the Navy Reserve and was killed in an A-6 crash at Alameda NAS in 1994 along with his BN, who ironically was a PSP-based Skywest pilot as his main job.
fholbert
Mod's - Please don't edit my posts!
I knew the father of the F-18 pilot, he was a former Navy A-7 pilot.
I was told, before punching out he pointed the F-18 at an empty canyon. The force of the ejection pushed the nose down into the homes.
///AMG
Well-Known Member
The airplane was a glider, so there was pretty much nothing he could have done at that point.....as soon as you lose residual or windmill hyd pressure, which would happen very quickly slow and dirty, the thing is uncontrollable. Not just a little uncontrollable, like pretty much immediate departure and crash. He's probably lucky to have gotten out at all.
DE727UPS
Well-Known Member
757/767 has a RAT. Ram Air Turbine that comes down with dual engine failure. Allows the flight control hydraulics to be pressurized with loss of both engines. I'm surprised fighter jets don't have this. I guess they figure you don't need it since you can always eject...haha. I'd trade my RAT for an ejection seat.
///AMG
Well-Known Member
Most single engine fighters/tactical aircraft do. In the F-16 we had the hydrazine powered EPU, and in the T-45 we had a RAT that would pop out like in your 75/76. But twin engine fighters I suppose are not expected to commonly suffer dual engine failures. Only examples I can think of in the history of the F/A-18 were due to fuel starvation, or in a few rare instances, a keel bay fire where the whole back end of the airplane is on fire. And then, as you say, there is an ejection seat.
VA-304, A-6E 155594, Returning to NAS Alameda in April 1994. They had just come up initial for the break for RW 13 at Alameda, at the 180 for final, the jet descended and impacted the bay. No ejection by LCDR Rand McNally or LCDR Brian McMahon.
///AMG
Well-Known Member
ahhh ok, yeah I think I've read parts of that SIR before. Sounds a lot like a fatal mishap we had up here decades before my time. A-6 broke overhead, and accidentally shut both engines off, followed by two unsuccessful ejections. I guess it all happened in front of a crowd out on the back deck of the O club that afternoon.
FlyingAccountant
Well-Known Member
He had also prearranged and prepaid for a cocktail party at the o-club on the day of his death, should it ever happen. What a legend.
Back when the Miramar NAS O’Club rocked on Wednesday nights and was THE place to be.
///AMG
Well-Known Member
I think 9/11 did in the practice of giving gate passes to young women (and strippers)....
Lawman
Well-Known Member
The check pilot at my part time gig was Miramar from 1975-83, then 87-90, F-14, F-4S, then F-14 again. Said it was an awesome time.
FFIFY
Skåning
Well-Known Member
No mandatory age 65?
He just does the sim training mostly and flies empty legs occasionally.
///AMG
Well-Known Member
I assume active component Tomcats the first time, then to the reserves for F-4 and eventually F-14 again? What an awesome ride he had. Like I've said, I would have given my left nut to even do a tour in the Intruder. And similarly, I'd have given my right nut too, to have a tour in either the Phantom or Tomcat. I was a Top Gun baby, and that jet (and later the A-6) were all I wanted to fly. Ironically, I remember not even thinking the Hornet was cool at all. A bit more than a couple thousand hours in every variant and production lot built, and now 30+ years later, I guess I was wrong
Complete side tangent, didn't NAS Dallas have a reserve Tomcat squadron or two towards the end of the old reserve hardware days? Or were they only NKX?
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I assume active component Tomcats the first time, then to the reserves for F-4 and eventually F-14 again? What an awesome ride he had. Like I've said, I would have given my left nut to even do a tour in the Intruder. And similarly, I'd have given my right nut too, to have a tour in either the Phantom or Tomcat. I was a Top Gun baby, and that jet (and later the A-6) were all I wanted to fly. Ironically, I remember not even thinking the Hornet was cool at all. A bit more than a couple thousand hours in every variant and production lot built, and now 30+ years later, I guess I was wrong
Complete side tangent, didn't NAS Dallas have a reserve Tomcat squadron or two towards the end of the old reserve hardware days? Or were they only NKX?
Back in the day, CVW Reserve 30 was west coast, and CVWR-20 was East coast. NAS Dallas had VF-201/202, and Miramar had VF-301/302, insofar as the fighter components of each respective CVWR. All four squadrons had F-8 Crusaders, F-4 Phantoms, and F-14 Tomcats, during their time.
He was in the first class of Ensigns to show up to F-14 RAG in 1975/76, first assignment VF-211, then back to NKX for a RAG IP tour in VF-124, where his usual RIO was MiG ace NFO LCDR William Driscoll. Following that, took an east coast tour in A-4Es with VC-12, then got out of active duty, going to both Alaska Airlines and VF-302 F-4S Phantoms back at NKX. Then when VF-301 transitioned to F-14s, he moved from -302 to -301 to be a Tomcat IP again. Left the Navy in 1990.
Lawman
Well-Known Member
I assume active component Tomcats the first time, then to the reserves for F-4 and eventually F-14 again? What an awesome ride he had. Like I've said, I would have given my left nut to even do a tour in the Intruder. And similarly, I'd have given my right nut too, to have a tour in either the Phantom or Tomcat. I was a Top Gun baby, and that jet (and later the A-6) were all I wanted to fly. Ironically, I remember not even thinking the Hornet was cool at all. A bit more than a couple thousand hours in every variant and production lot built, and now 30+ years later, I guess I was wrong
Complete side tangent, didn't NAS Dallas have a reserve Tomcat squadron or two towards the end of the old reserve hardware days? Or were they only NKX?
There’s a fighter pilot podcast episode that talks to one of the guys that did the A-7 to F/A-18 bridge during that big transition in the Navy.
He talked about how as the A-7 and F-4 communities moved over there was an obvious slant of each towards either the Tomcat or the Hornet without a lot of balance and that later translated to the initial cultures of both unit types. It was also interesting to hear him talking about A-6 vs Hornet communities on that first 72 hours in Desert Storm. Essentially the A-6 community went into that fight with the Vietnam era low level tactics that hadn’t really evolved and got a lot of aircraft back to the boat but so shot up with light/med AAA as to basically take them out of the fight. Meanwhile Hornets we’re adopting that more medium altitude tactics set to avoid the AAA at the trade off of mission planning to mitigate the SAMs.
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