Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
#1854799
When I flew in for an Air Cadet Camp week, I parked at VAS (empty, being Saturday) at the East end, to meet up with Camp staff colleagues and SATCO at the Mess for lunch. I gathered the Cadets, who on a previous Camp had been in tents on the grass near the Mess, were now in portacabins on a former V-bomber dispersal. I asked SATCO where I should park for the week, and was told to move to that dispersal. I had a 2-mile taxi .. :?

[this also meant that Cadets had to be driven 2 miles in a fleet of leased minibuses to and from the Airmen's Mess and other activities several times a day. Station relied on Camps bringing enough staff who had military driving permits - F700s ? - for minibuses, Station's MT Section drivers and vehicles not being available. Fortunately, ours did; I gathered that in other Camp weeks this was fraught until Cadet staff without F700s could take their minibus tests at MT Section on the Monday morning]
#1854837
Rob P wrote:@PaulSS

Come on then, what's a power bounce?

Rob P


It’s a bounce that you don’t really want. In the old Harriers they didn’t have a weight on wheels switch to help reduce the power during a vertical landing. This meant you had to slam the throttle closed as soon as anything touched the ground to make sure the machine stayed on the ground. If you were a bit slow (as students could be) then you touched the ground with power coming off but not quickly enough; so not enough thrust to stay up and too much to stay down. Result = bounce with power on and possible drift away from the vertical on the way down again, which could result in bending/snapping the outriggers etc. Later models with FADEC took off some power for you when you touched to reduce the chances of power bouncing.

As a student all the vertical stuff was filmed and any good cuts made the Harrier Horror Movie. My bounce and subsequent arrival with a bending (but ultimately undamaged) outrigger was my leap into ‘stardom’ :oops:

More of a touch and not go, than a T&G :D
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#1854962
PaulSS wrote:Yep, it had its moments.....especially for those early guys who didn't have the luxury of a two-seater to make some of the mistakes in first, before being thrown into the deep end.



In those early days, had all RAF Harrier OCU entrants already had FJ tours and a rotary familiarisation ?

I heard (from a USAF Exchange pilot on the GR5 ie AV-8B course at Wittering after Hawk Weapons course at Valley) that in early USMC (as in USAF) AV-8A era, first type choice after FJ training was given to graduating students in the order of their placement in their Instructors' assessments, and they then went straight to the OCU for the type. Because AV-8A had a reputation for being difficult and dangerous, it was every student's last choice, so those going to AV-8A training were in general first tourists who had scored less well in training, leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy of mishaps, some fatal.

[Incidentally, that USAF pilot had done his Primary on T-67s, which he'd loved. He was excoriating about the Congress-driven decisions both to ground it and then to scrap all the airframes, preventing their resale]
#1855072
It's certainly true that the USMC used to give the top scorers in training their choice of aircraft. In my era the choice was the F18, because it's sexy, goes fast and is a great machine.

Unfortunately, a monkey could fly an F18 and it doesn't need the cream of the classes to fly it. This is a GOOD thing because flying the aircraft should be 0.5% of the flight; the majority being employing the aircraft in its role as a fighter/bomber i.e. operating it. The Harrier, on the other hand, has so many foibles that the monkey needs to be a LOT more capable and not the dross at the back of the class.

I did an exchange tour with the USMC and was a guest of General Blott one evening (it being a cross-country land-away with his son....also a Harrier driver and also a Harry). The good General asked me why I thought the USMC had had so many recent incidents in the Harrier and I pontificated on my theory above; pointing out that the RAF/RN only took single-seat recommended pilots for their Harrier program and they didn't get that by being second. The General promised to look into it and I became very unpopular with the classes that graduated afterwards because the good guys were off to the AV8B :D

To be honest, that AV8B II+ was/is a fantastic toy and has many of the gizmos that an F18 has anyway. True, it can't go supersonic (it really, really can't......I tried and it's just too draggy) but, then again, an F18 can only hover once and then can't be re-used :mrgreen:
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