TBT…

Yeesh…

I know I’m old, but dammit… Airplanes I flew on are now in museums…

The old favorite, the T-39 Saberliner…  I was a crewman on these in the early 70s at NAS GLYNCO, GA and then as a plankowner in VT-86.

This one is a T-39D, modified in 1977 by McDonald Douglas with an F-18 nose and a complete APG-65 radar system so that engineering tests could be run.

Also note the ‘old’ TPS logo… T39 2

Just as a comparison, here’s a big CT-39 at VT-86 in Pensacola.  Note the actual nose shape (and more windows/longer fuselage)…

T-39 4

And I did get a half hour ride in the back of one of these…  One of them broke and came into Glynco.  I got to ride in the back (see the little bitty window behind the pilot).  It’s an RA-5C Vigilante also known as the Viggie!

A5 1That has to be one of the scariest rides I ever took!!!  You can’t see s**t from back there!!!

And the pilot was doing checklists and not telling me what was going on!  Talk about being kept in the dark… sigh…

(No it wasn’t THAT RA-5C)… They were reconfigured to RVAH after the ‘little’ problem of bombs trailing the acft after they tried to drop them from the internal bombay…

This is the ‘bomb bay’ door… And yes, it IS between the engine exhaust!

A5 3

The whole door would ‘eject’ and the bomb was supposed to exit along with the extra fuel tanks…

Another ‘strange’ thing with the A-5 was that it didn’t have ailerons, rudders or elevators… It used spoilers on the wings to turn, and the ENTIRE vertical and horizontal tail structures moved… Truly weird to watch one land and see the whole ass end wiggling…

And the fuel dump was also between the engines… Talk about fire for effect!!! Full AB and dumping fuel made for one hell of a fiery tail!  And they did it LONG before the F-111s started doing it… 😛

A5 4

Stories have it that a Viggie driver did a dump and burn over an AGI back in the day because he kept causing the carrier problems during recoveries off Vietnam… And that it occurred shortly after THIS incident took place…

Comments

TBT… — 28 Comments

  1. So what are you saying? Should you be in a museum? 🙂 I suppose your experience with planes is much different than mine. I take it…you evaluate a plane like I do vehicles. In a plane, I am just happy when I am not next to a fat person and it is the kind that stays in the air. I don’t need the Mercedes version, just safe. Gosh. I sound like a Democrat. (exiting stage left)

    • Someone had to be the Observer for Orville and Wilbur… 😮

  2. So that ride in the RA-5C was scarier than that ride you got in Eddie Rickenbacker’s back seat over Boche-occupied France?

    We don’t think of you as really being “old” so much as we consider you an eyewitness to a lot of history! (Like that time that a storm was coming in and that Franklin guy said to you: “Here kid, hold this kite.”)

  3. It’s cool and it sux at the same time to see what you did or rode on in a museum. The first T-Rex I ever killed is proudly displayed in a museum in Chicago. They did a good job putting the bones back together…

    The Vigilante was one of my very favorites. I never scored a ride or a trap in one but it was an aircraft well before its time.

  4. That’s a helluva story at the link. CDR Wunche may have been a hero to the crew of the Bonnie Dick but I’m thinkin’ the management was less than pleased… officially.

  5. I’ve heard tell that in the back of the Viggie, if you knew the systems, you could see out quite well using the cameras.

  6. In the mid 80’s I went home on leave and my dad and I went to the March Field museum, he made the same comment about feeling old because the planes he flew in were there. My reply was how do you think I feel, By the front door of the museum was a 3’50 mk22. That was the main gun of the ship I was on at the time. I used to keep a list of parks and VFW posts that had one so I could get parts if needed.

  7. Those are cool. Just found out there is an aviation museum near us that we plan to take the boys too.
    I will show them this post. Our oldest loves every thing to do with planes. He does models, and the ceiling in their room looks like the battle of Britain…he has them all suspended by thumb tacks and rubber bands.
    For Christmas he is hoping for a large scale of the Enola Gay.

  8. When I read of the harassment and back and forth of the “Cold War” era, I’m amazed at the actual restraint displayed by both sides.

    I think of myself as a 20 year old buck sergeant, and my group of heavily armed 17-19 year olds.

    I’m glad we were never in a position to spark any international incidents, WWIII, etc. etc.

  9. Thanks for the info on the A-5, sir. I was not up to speed on that aircraft. An interesting one, even if it does sound as though it may have been designed by a committee.

    I too was a fan of the T-39. As I recall, it was basically an F-86 airframe with a cabin on top. Hence, the “Sabre” in “Sabreliner”.

    I’m old enough to have known a retired AF pilot who was taught to fly by an instructor who was taught to fly by Charles Lindbergh. He used to joke that Lindbergh was his granddaddy.

  10. “I know I’m old, but dammit… Airplanes I flew on are now in museums…”

    I know the feeling. I was talking with someone today about windshield wipers, and I made the comment that today’s electric ones were a vast improvement over the old vacuum-driven ones.

    Blank stare in response…

  11. It’s called experience,
    They’re called war stories!
    Youngters need not apply.
    Revel in them.
    You worked hard to stay alive this long.

  12. Fargo- My going in argument is what are the EPs (Emerg procedures) and how the hell do I get out if I need to… 🙂

    SPE/Murph- 😛

    LL- LOL, good one! And it was/is an interesting airplane! VERY advanced for the time!

    Buck- LOL, probably…

    McThag- Probably true, but NOTHING was turned on… I was a mushroom putting weight in the seat…

    Carb2- LOL, that’s a damn good idea! 🙂

    JUGM- If he gets one, I’d recommend something ‘stronger’ than thumbtacks… 🙂 Hope he enjoys it!

    SPE- True… sigh… I ‘think’ the only reason it didn’t was cooler (read more senior) heads tamped down a LOT of reports…

    GR6- Great story! And I’ll tell you, those little T-39s COULD pull Gs… 🙂

    WSF- Thankee kind sir! 😀

    LCB- Yeah, butt ugly, but it worked and flew… 😀

    Tim- Heh… Try telling them about the high beam switch on the floor, or the starter switch to the right of the gas pedal…

    Ed- Yeah, experience is a mistake you survived… 🙂 Thanks for the perspective Ed!

    • I know! He got a Blackbird SR-71 for his Bday, and just now started working on it. No way that thing is going to hold up with a thumbtack..lol

  13. Right out of A school and assigned to the O&R in Quonset Pt. After being there a few months got into flight status after all the practice for AC wings, Dilbert, Lots of PLF’s etc. The flight line had an F3D to test fly and I got to do the preflight and ride along. Like you I wanted to know how to get out post haste if need be. Well all personell were wearing seat packs and the exit was down a chute between the drivers seats and aimed aft. You were supposed to go feet first to hit the trap door exit! Sure am glad I didn’t have reason to try it out in the air!

  14. Ev- Oh man… Yeah, the ‘All Three Deads’ were scary airplanes to get out of… You know it’s bad when they have the overhead escape hatch OPEN when they take a cat shot! And EPs can and will save your ass!

  15. Dammit, I knew you and I crossed paths. I went through VT-86 at NAS Glynco and earned my wings in March ’74 on the way to Viggies at NAS Key West.
    Once, a few years later, we did a burner take-off out of Patrick AFB, with a itty-bitty fuel dump passing 6,000′. We’re told to never come back. Those blue-suiters don’t have any sense of humor!

  16. Oh, by the way, those Viggies in the picture are from RVAH-7, the Peacemakers. My squadron.

    MikeyB

  17. You are not old, I learned to fly in a PA-18 Super Cub and a Cessna 120.

  18. Heard that story. Wish’d he cracked throttle when he did it. 😉

  19. Mikey- I was probably one of your plane captains…LOL

    Ed- Ouch…

    PA- Me too! 🙂

    Dammit- True… sigh

  20. Had a friend who learned to fly in a yellow Piper J-3. He asked me to shoot some 8mm movie film of his landings.

    I believe I remember reading that the Vig was just about the fastest bird the navy had until the Crusader came along.

  21. NATTC Glynco, 1967. The ground controller (?) school had a magnetic drum storage unit, and on it some artistically talented folks had duplicated the Mattel logo, about two feet in diameter, “You Can Tell It’s Mattel – It’s SWELL!”