F-14 pilot talks about his exchange tour on Tornado F3
 

See the linky and enjoy.

F3 Exchange
 

I haven’t watched the video yet but let me guess. Does he spend a few minutes complaining about he wishes they’d sent him on a Jaguar exchange instead of to the F3?

If so, that would be completely understandable.

BV😜

No, he does not rate the F3 much as all manual etc. He liked the steam driven Hawk though Bob.



....

Brought to you by the Jeremy Vine School of Interviewing: motto "Seem like you have sh*t for brains at all times".

Brit squadrons weren't his first 'pick', as the cousins say.

CG

Wanted flying Mirages in southern France, ended up flying the F3 in Scotland.... :E

Sounds like their posters are as good as ours :ugh:

Didn't he say Super E(tendard) at Landivisiau, not Mirage?

Either way, could have been a lot more interesting if the 'interviewer' had let him speak, rather than constantly interrupting with 'High School' humour...

CW himself is a former navy Hornet driver so probably so probably probably banter like what they would act like on a carrier as shipmates.

cheers

My old air cadet mukka went the other way and flew Tomcats.
I do find the lack of knowledge in some of these things worrying. I heard one where the ex US Navy pilot thought he'd refuelled from a Nimrod.

It wouldn't surprise me, everyone knows it was a Shackleton.

Yeah, but one old reject-recycled airliner looks much like another, eh?:E

CG

Yeah, it was probably an Electra.....

"Is it Tornado or Tornardo?"
Really?

Goodness knows why some Spams have such difficulty with the word Tornado - it isn’t that tricky really... :ugh:

Indeed - his posters were as crap as ours.
- Advised him not to go on exchange as it would damage his career profile - he didn't give a toss -he just wanted to fly.
- They knew nothing about the sqn - in fact the OCU - or that it had moved from Coningsby to Leuchars.
- He had to find the phone number himself via Google !
- Just as well he did otherwise his personal effects would have got shipped to the wrong place.

I didn't realize all the wing sweep and maneuvre gizmos on the F-14 were automatically scheduled - considering it was designed much earlier - until I watched this. Everyday a school day !

Q: "Was it more maneuverable than a Tomcat ?"
A: Grim face - shaking head "Oh no - just truly horrible !"

His commentary on all the speeds and settings that had to be remembered was quite amusing as was working out what height you were at by whether you could see the legs of sheep or cows.

I was disappointed he didn't comment on the pro / cons of APG-71 of the F-14D + Phoenix vs the Tornado F3 radar and missiles.

There was none of the cheerleading about the Tornado F3 being adequate / good / ideal for the niche RAF role of the time that PPRuNe regulars are so used to seeing.

The F3 had auto wing sweep and manoeuvres, the RAF decided to disable it

Builds character

I think I recall reading (in Alfred Prices book maybe?) that during early GR1 use that auto sweep was enabled, but it was disabled because the aircraft could be unpredictable during maneuvering (loss of control springs to mind).

I hadn't considered that the fuselage would mask the tail as much as suggested in the linked video.

IIRC the auto wing sweep was disabled because, once they started fatigue testing, they found it spiked if the wing was moving in the turn under G.