Tomcat Memories video: VF-211 F-14A Tomcats tanking, Op Southern Watch, 1997 скачать в хорошем качестве

Tomcat Memories video: VF-211 F-14A Tomcats tanking, Op Southern Watch, 1997

Here's 7 minutes of video clips that I took in December 1997 showing F-14A Tomcats during Operation Southern Watch (OSW) above the Persian Gulf and Iraq. I was a RIO in VF-211 and we were on a routine six-month deployment aboard the USS Nimitz (CVN-68). The first segment is a cat shot from the carrier, and you can hear the distinctive sound of the catapult. Then our flight joins up on a USAF KC-10 tanker, and I show our aircraft plugging. It takes a few tries. I didn't edit this because I wanted to show that tanking isn't easy, and Tomcat pilots had to stay calm and patient. Then I show a typical weapons load for OSW before closing with a bonus: some video and images of the British Royal Air Force VC10 tanker. The steady "roar" in the final segment was the sound of the F-14's environmental control system (ECS), which did a great job of keeping us comfortable but was loud. Our helmets muffled this sound very well.