The A-4 was a fantastic plane. I never worked on it, but my best friend who went into the Navy with me got sent to VF-126 at Miramar, I think they were the "aggressor" squadron for the ACM training, and he worked on A-4's out there.
After being a Plane Captain, I had a few more jobs.
The next job for me was the guy who goes up to each plane and figures out the weight. I had to determine the fuel in the plane, how many fuel tanks were on it and how full they were, add up all the ordinance, total everything, and show that value on a small grease board to the pilot. The pilot would give you a thumbs up. I never made a mistake in this job, so I don't know what they would have done if I got the weight wrong!
Funny, I don't remember who I gave that number to. They needed it to calibrate the strength of the steam catapult so they wouldn't rip the nose gear off, or do a cold cat shot into the ocean.
Next, I went to work in the Powerplants shop. I was now a mechanic, a "Green Shirt". I was a good mechanic, and in short time, I became a QC Petty Officer. I didn't mind that either, because it was recognition by someone that I did good work.
I was very particular and anal about my safety wire work...:)
I did hate to see poor work, because I dislike sloppiness in anything mechanical.
I got turn qualified. It was that and/or being a tow driver ashore, and I was too clumsy to be a good driver, so I learned to operate the engines.
When we went to sea again, I was designated a "White Shirt" (You know what these shirts are, the is for people who might not) and I very much liked that job. It had responsibility, and you had to think on your feet and make decisions.
One of our planes had oil coming out of the belly, so I took off the wraparound panel (probably 30-60 Dzus fasteners, the kind that take a quarter turn to undo) so there were a lot. I took off the panel, and could see oil leaking at a decent rate from a fitting.
I figured it would take me just a couple of minutes to determine if the leak could be stopped...cut the safety wire, tighten the fitting, if it stopped, I could re-wire it, check the oil level, put the panel back on, and be good to go.
I started working, focusing on the work at hand (my head and upper torso inside the plane) when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked down to see a pair of khaki trousers being buffeted by the wind. It was a Chief Aviation Bosun’s mate, and he was one of the senior people on the flight deck.
I stood up and put my ear next to his mouth, and he yelled “CAN THE PLANE TAKE OFF?”
I yelled back “YES. I NEED TO FINISH SAFETY WIRING THIS FITTING AND PUTTING THE PANEL BACK ON...JUST ANOTHER TWO OR THREE MINUTES.”
He yelled “OK. LET ME KNOW WHEN IT IS GOOD TO GO. THE CAPTAIN NEEDS TO FINISH LAUNCHING SO HE CAN CHANGE COURSE.”
I didn’t give it another thought, got right back in, finished the job, and the plane taxied to the catapult, took off, and I went below.
It was only later that I thought of it: That entire carrier task force, the escorts, billions of dollars of equipment and probably 10,000 men were waiting for me to finish my job so they could change course and begin the next phase of operations.
All waiting on me, an average 20 year old guy.
What really struck me as I thought of it was...this is commonplace. We do this all the time. We load the young people in our military up with awesome responsibilities, and we expect them to perform. And they largely do almost ALL the time. When they don’t, people can get maimed or killed.
Then, on my last deployment, I was specially chosen and assigned to work with the Jet Engine manufacturer, Detroit Diesel Allison-Rolls Royce who made the TF-41 engine found in the A-7E model.
They were piloting a special project in conjunction with another A-7 squadron on the West coast. Before we went to sea, they rotated our birds through an AIMD somewhere down near Jacksonville, FL.
They were trying to determine if they could predict when the engine would fail on a single engine aircraft like our A-7s. I believe this stuff is all standard on all planes now, but back they, they had nothing. So they were trying to determine if there was any possibility for predictive information.
They installed a special wiring harness to get measurements from sensors they put all over and in the engines.
Various temperatures (such as EGT) vibration, RPM, throttle position, angle of attack, airspeed, altitude and such. We had a special indicator rack with "flags" on it, and a "tape" that could write the data from all the sensors and record it all for a single flight. The "tape" was a heavy metal cube maybe four inches on a side with a female connector on the bottom.
I had a bandolier made up that could carry eight tapes at a time, and it was my job to go to each plane when it landed, remove the tape, replace it with a new one, record in a log book exactly which flags on the panel may have been tripped, and reset them.
As I recall, we didn't have to notify anyone if any flags were tripped, but we did if certain flags were tripped.
I would take the tapes to a special office, and they had a guy from Detroit Diesel Allison-Rolls Royce who ran the program.
They had a Digital Equipment (DEC) PDP-11, and I could read these tapes into memory. I ran plotting programs, manually configuring Y-Axis ranges for specially shown parameters, and having the computer plot them against time on an X-Axis, so you could print them out on a huge plotting printer we had, and you could see the sensor flight profile for that sortie for that plane.
It really laid the groundwork for what I did later in life, but I really enjoyed it. If you are interested (you might find it interesting) you can read more here:
You've added lot color, detail, and excitement to the flight deck scenes in the Top Gun movies.
You certainly have enough material to write a special interest book. Aviation fans and bird-farm sailors would love to read this. Many publishing options are available.
I was surprised to find good pics of the Clansmen A7 on the web.
I also found a great site for pics of the USS John F. Kennedy, CVN-67.
I had to determine the fuel in the plane, how many fuel tanks were on it and how full they were, add up all the ordinance, total everything, and show that value on a small grease board to the pilot. The pilot would give you a thumbs up. I never made a mistake in this job, so I don’t know what they would have done if I got the weight wrong!
Funny, I don’t remember who I gave that number to. They needed it to calibrate the strength of the steam catapult so they wouldn’t rip the nose gear off, or do a cold cat shot into the ocean.
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First, I congratulate you on having a fantastic memory and a talent for writing! I’ve been reading this thread you started for a couple of hours! I finished active duty in 1962, and it is amazing to me how much detail I remember from that time as an 18-20 y/o. Those were the years I became a man, learned how to be responsible and a leader.
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Next, I want to respond regarding your comments above about the aircraft weight before launch.
I joined the USNR at 17, so drilled one weekend a month in a VP squadron at NAS Dallas. After graduation from HS and becoming 18, I was on active duty. Made high scores on battery tests and was offered any Navy school...but that would have required me to extend my active enlistment (which was only 2 years). Of course, as a new 18 y/o E-2 Airman App. with no real boot camp or other Navy training beyond correspondence courses, I just wanted to stick to the contract and then go home. I said no and was assigned to fill a billet as a Yeoman on CVA-42 (FDR), V-2 Division.
Joined ship in Brooklyn ship yard and was officed with Div. Chief and Cdr. Chief was Sr. CPO on ship and also Chief MAA. Ship went to sea 3 months later and times became much busier for us in Catapults.
During carrier quals near GITMO, I worked on flight deck during air operations. Started out running the boom to retrieve the bridal after each launch and throw it into the catwalk and diving in before the next launch. ...Quite scary at first to run hard down that boom that was only about 3-4 feet wide, 60 ft. above water with only small safety nets. I eventually worked at other Cat flight deck tasks during the trials (hooking up the bridal and holdback bar), but I also watched the deck edge operator carefully.
When trials/quals were completed, I was no longer required to work the flight deck unless we were short-handed. I spent time during flight operations with headphones on and standing by the cat console to watch the operator (E-5). After a few days he let me (E-3) operate the console while he watched. ***here’s where I finally get to addressing your comment at the top***
Over the headphone, the deck edge guy would start talking as soon as an aircraft was launched. ***He would tell be the next aircraft type and gross weight. I used my knee to begin filling the accumulator in the hangar bay with steam. I then looked at a chart on my console to see the total steam pressure needed for that weight.*** As the deck edge man sent progressive info on prep of next plane for launch, I would use a crank to move catapult to launch position, with final crank coming after the Cat Officer bent to a knee and pointed to the bow. I would then repeat building up the steam for next launch.
Forgot to mention That I was with VFA-127 in Fallon as a contractor. Top Gun split into VFA-126 “Aggressors” and VFA-127 “Adversary”. 127 was made up of contractors when it was moved to NAS Fallon. I was avionics at that time but cross trained in Hyd contamination, Fuel Contamination and Tire/Wheel maintenance. Spent five years with the Adversary’s before taking a Plane Captain job with CINATRA. Loved the work at NAS, but Fallon sucked at the time for a single guy. Majority of the available women were married!