BlackLion213 Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 (edited) More F-14 videos from the late-80s. The first series of videos feature all the aircraft of the airwing. The first is from work-ups at NAS Fallon. The second two videos were mostly shot on the USS Carl Vinson and USS Nimitz. [ame] [/ame] [ame] [/ame] [ame] [/ame] The first video takes place at NAS Fallon during work-ups for CVW-11 in 1989. It also features a cameo by these handsome devils. :D You can easily identify VF-213 (and VF-114) F-14As by their distinctive false canopies as seen here: A cool and distinctive feature among the otherwise uniform TPS F-14s - I think it looks cool. :) The last video is in cockpit footage from the Gulf War, courtesy of VF-14. [ame] [/ame] We're getting there, just another 10-11 months and you'll be able to do this with TrackIR! The last video is from USS Forrestal, again late 1980s. [ame] [/ame] It includes footage of VF-31 with their classic "pencil" scheme. :D Happy Watching! -Nick Edited February 6, 2016 by BlackLion213 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hummingbird Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 (edited) Excellent stuff Lion, thanks! Note that in the video of the F-14 on CAP during the 1st Gulf War in 91 the glove vanes are active. Edited February 6, 2016 by Hummingbird Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackLion213 Posted February 7, 2016 Author Share Posted February 7, 2016 Note that in the video of the F-14 on CAP during the 1st Gulf War in 91 the glove vanes are active. Yeah, I noticed that...but was trying not to say anything. :music_whistling: That said, Leatherneck's plan to not have aerodynamically functional vanes (though the 3D model will deploy them if wished) is quite reasonable. It's hard to find good documentation on the issue of when the vanes were deactivated and it seems that it was not standardized in the fleet. Here is a quote from a VF-211 maintainer: I worked on the F-14 in VF-211 in the mid 80's and with VF-101 in the mid 90's as an aviation hydraulicsman (AMH). When I was in 211 beginning in 84, the glove vanes were not working properly. They would have difficulty retracting completely or not at all. During ground checks, when the wings would retract from 22 degrees to 55 degrees, the gloves were supposed to pop out and retract during wing retraction. What we would do is disconnect the hydraulic lines from the actuator and cap off both the actuator and lines. The glove itself was heavy enough to remain in the retracted position. On the rare occasion we saw one popped a bit, we simply pushed it back in. We had not been told to remove the actuators at that time, so we just disabled them. Later in VF-101, the know the actuators had been removed on the A models. I believe that the whole glove was gone as well by that time. Our planes had been ones already cycled through the fleet and were faired over. Never had to worry about it with the B's and D's Another quote from a VF-101 AMH in the 1990s: The glove vanes were disabled on the F-14A's in the mid to late 80's. I was in VF-101 as an AD1 from 1993-1999(also the squadron F-14A/B/D turn-up instructor and the only Mech CDQAR.) NO aircraft in VF-101 had operational glove vanes in the 1990's. Just sayin'.............. Here is the source: http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/thread/1216573825/Any+F-14+Tomcat+experts+here-+(Glove+vanes) Anyway, from reading other tidbits, it seems that there was no fleet-wide policy concerning the glove vanes. Squadrons made their own decisions and many chose not to keep them operational, but there was no deliberate effort to deactivate all them (from what I can tell). So during the 1980s, a squadron may have a mix of aircraft with functional and nonfunctional vanes. Basically, if an aircrafts vanes started to act up, they would cap the hydraulic lines, and leave the actuators in place. Some squadrons tried to keep the vanes operational (probably - I haven't seen this in writing yet). To me, based on what I've seen/read, a mid-80s F-14A with deactivated or functional glove vanes is accurate. If deactivated is better for Leatherneck, then they should stick with that - the workload for the F-14 already seems quite high. (I'll also admit, I'm not a huge glove vane fan for whatever reason, so it doesn't bother me). Perhaps it will be another feature (still optional I hope) that will creep into the F-14 after release for those who are interested. :) -Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheckGear Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 These are some awesome videos! This was the peak of U.S. naval aviation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sideswipe Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 I don't know if they have been posted already, but here is a fascinating video [ame] [/ame] And a classic [ame] [/ame] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grundar Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 Found this one this morning, not sure if it's already been posted, apologies if so: (lots of videos on this forum!) [ame] [/ame] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackLion213 Posted March 13, 2016 Author Share Posted March 13, 2016 Found this one this morning, not sure if it's already been posted, apologies if so: (lots of videos on this forum!) Very nice! Excellent "Speed and Angels" footage. And a classic This one is a favorite of mine! -Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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