Gums -
The A-7 sounds like it had no tricky habits; the F-35 thanks to all its technology is meant to be one of the easiest fighters to fly. Even in the hover over ship it looks rock-steady, not the slightest twitch.
The SLUF seems to have been one of the most versatile and effective aircraft made but lived in the shadow of the supersonic fighters (as Harrier did). As well as a highly effective bomber, it served on land and sea and I heard the A-7 was highly capable in air-air close-in scenario. I read USN A-7 pilots were highly skilled in dogfights and 'roughed' up the 'double-uglies' who initially relied upon their missiles to do the dogfighting for them (being fair to them it was the policy taught early on, based on overzealous claims from makers of the wonder weapons).
How did you find learning to fly the A-7? Any tricky behaviour? Did you get good air-air training? Do you think they could have fitted a bigger radar on it to enhance air-air ops? Was there anything that could have been done to make it better?
Interesting technical info on A-7:
"The Vought A-7 Attack Fighter"
A-7 at sea:
"Vought A-7 Corsair II - "Short Little Ugly F@#?$r""
Visceral clips of fastjets at a few feet off the ground; the initial clip gives a good idea of what Mogwi was doing on 1st May 1982, whilst being shot at and trying to hit the target; a clip about 7:30 shows a 'Double Ugly with its left wing tip almost in the troughs of the waves (and its a calm sea!):
"Fighter Jets Low Flyover Most Shocking Moments - Part 2"