Confessions of a US navy Orion Pilot

[save]

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/confessions-of-a-pilot-behind-the-us-navys-airborne-sub-1598415741

Enjoy !

[Oldman731]

Thanks, Save, that was interesting.  We used to have P3s based at Willow Grove NAS, before they shut it down.  Very impressive to watch.

- oldman

[Serenity]

Pushed this to a buddy of mine who was a classmate in API and Primary, and just started his first deployment a few days ago as an EP-3 driver (And here I am STILL in flight school lol).

I particularly enjoyed the insight into the P-8A. I know a couple of Poseidon drivers, and from a pilot's standpoint, it seems like a complete nightmare (According to my guys in the FRS, once they rotate, they turn on the auto-pilot and don't touch the controls again until it's time to flare...) but from an operational standpoint, it sounds pretty impressive!

[Puma44]

Pushed this to a buddy of mine who was a classmate in API and Primary, and just started his first deployment a few days ago as an EP-3 driver (And here I am STILL in flight school lol).

I particularly enjoyed the insight into the P-8A. I know a couple of Poseidon drivers, and from a pilot's standpoint, it seems like a complete nightmare (According to my guys in the FRS, once they rotate, they turn on the auto-pilot and don't touch the controls again until it's time to flare...) but from an operational standpoint, it sounds pretty impressive!

Someday, you'll learn to appreciate an autopilot.

[Serenity]

Someday, you'll learn to appreciate an autopilot.

oh don't get me wrong, it would be nice on long legs, but I compared to NEVER touching the controls? Not a trade I'd like to make.

[Arlo]

Reading that P-3s don't carry 'special weapons' anymore seems surreal. But ok. Sounds like something to tell the public.

(I don't know.)



During my tour with 67 we flew Alphas. No mamby-pamby multiple launch tubes for the buoys. My best friend wasn't in a TAR outfit. He was in 47 and they flew Charlies.

It was all Cold War, then. Easy duty. The world ending on our watch was taken for granted. Get that Philippine deployment in.

That article wan still rather enlightening and enjoyable.

[Puma44]

oh don't get me wrong, it would be nice on long legs, but I compared to NEVER touching the controls? Not a trade I'd like to make.

"Never touching the controls" may be a bit of an overstatement from your bud.  Hand flying is a perishable skill in a heavier aircraft.  Disconnecting the autopilot in the flare (about 10' in the 737) is definitely an overstatement, unless they are practicing for carrier landings.   Trading off autopilot for pilot skill won't bode well if both the auto pilot channels have failed.  Yes, that has happened in the 737. 

[Oldman731]

"Never touching the controls" may be a bit of an overstatement from your bud.  Hand flying is a perishable skill in a heavier aircraft.  Disconnecting the autopilot in the flare (about 10' in the 737) is definitely an overstatement, unless they are practicing for carrier landings.   Trading off autopilot for pilot skill won't bode well if both the auto pilot channels have failed.  Yes, that has happened in the 737.

Yeah, yeah, and, like, how would you know anything about that?

- oldman

[Puma44]

Yeah, yeah, and, like, how would you know anything about that?

- oldman

I read it on the internet.  It must be true.  Right?

[DaveBB]

As a kid in the late 80s and early 90s, I used to see P-3s landing at Standiford Field (Now Louisville International Airport) with the big MAD boom protruding out of the tail.  It wasn't everyday, but at least twice a week I would see them taking off or landing.  What were P-3s doing so far inland?

For that matter, I still quite a few fleet F/A-18s.  If I remember, I try to look up the tailcode and see what ship they are on.  But again, why so far inland?

[Arlo]

Not sure `bout the 18s (were they all single-seaters?) but our P-3s picked up some of our reservists for drill weekends in the nearby areas often (we were TAR). NAS Memphis (Millington, Tenn) was an inland training command. Louisville was a 'short hop' turning a five and a half hour one-way road trip to less than a couple of hours round. Some of the airline pilots at Louisville were likely Naval reservists in my squadron. VP-67 has been disbanded and NAS Memphis is now 'merely' Naval Support Activity Mid-South.





Once was:



Home of:

VR-53 (detachment)





The squadron would get C-9Bs in 1982.



VMA-124





They were relocated to Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth in 1994 and disbanded in 1999 (never transitioning to the 18s).

VP-67

[DaveBB]

Cool photos.  Though I didn't see the MAD boom on those P-3s.  These definitely had them.

Both single seat and double seat F/A-18s come through here.  Last group I saw were Growlers.  Looked them up.  Also saw a strange triple vertical stabilizer turbo-prop naval plane (two of them) a few months ago.  Maybe this is just a good spot to refuel. 

On a side note, Navy Seals actually train near Louisville.  There is a small river (Salt River) that runs on the north side of Fort Knox that is used for live-fire for swift boats.

[Arlo]

Its the angle. There were/are mad booms on every Orion.

[Arlo]

[DaveBB]

Its the angle. There were/are mad booms on every Orion.

(Image removed from quote.)

If the P-3 uses the same wing and engines as the C-130, why is the vertical stabilizer so much smaller?