Warbird Information Exchange

Since Hurricane Issac has shut everything down I decided to digitize some more of my slides. These pictures are from a period when the HMS Ark Royal made two visits to Mayport Florida in 1973 and again in 1978. These are all my pictures apart from one exception; the fly over photo is a DoD picture. I thought some of the members might be interested in this visit.





























Enjoy Bill

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The Breaks of Naval Air-Skid Marks in the Sky

Always thought the Blackburn Banana was the sexiest airplane evaaah.

We hosted those guys from HMS Ark Royal at NAS Oceana in '78 when the Ark visited Norfolk. I was in VF-171 Aces (formerly VF-101 Grim Reapers before that designation went with our F-14 Tomcat contingent and we took on a new identity for the F-4J side). Our British cousins checked us line rats out on their birds, and we checked them out on ours. Then we operated together. They later cross-decked with either USS Saratoga or USS Forrestal...can't recall 'zackly (but those photos from Mayport make me think it was Sinkin' Sara, as she was homeported there at that time). If I recall correctly, they visited the previous year too (before they had the red, white, and blue nose stripes that celebrated the Queen's Silver Jubilee, and we were still VF-101). Anywhoo, we had a dern good time working and drinkin' ("gettin' royally pissed", as they would say) with those lads. Good times at the Seahorse Club at Oceana! We zapped several of their birds righteously before they left, and later found they had left their marks in our Phantoms as well. What a hoot! http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/f- ... 892Sqn.jpg


--Tom


PS...in an earlier cross-decking with the FID (USS Forrestal: "First In Defense"...meaning that James Forrestal was the first Secretary of Defense), the MARINES Phantoms got zapped by the Brits right proper ha ha ha! http://modelingmadness.com/scott/viet/p ... /09878.htm

Oh yeah, and check out the double-extension nose gear oleo (shock strut) on that display 892 Squadron F-4K...they needed a higher angle-of-attack off the bow of the Ark due to her shorter catapult length than our boats had...US Phantoms only had single-extension nose oleos. Those things looked darn wicked double-extended like that.

Thanks Sasquatch for the information and profile of the FAA Phantom. Great stuff. Sorry, I did not reply but I got no notification from WIX. A friend John K. encouraged me to start visiting the Hangar more often.
Cheers

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The Breaks of Naval Air-Skid Marks in the Sky

Good to have you back, Bill, and many thanks for posting your very cool photos; they bring back great memories.

Best to ya...

-Tom

I was there at Mayport in 79 and got to go out to sea on her.
My step-dad was friends with the senior Dr. on the Ark Royal and
my step-sister ended up marrying one of the crew. Got some OK
photos of flight ops and still have the final deployment plaque I
was given.

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Don't touch my junk!!

I remember that time; but I did not get to visit the ship that year I was across the pond. I guess they left the Gannets ashore because when I returned the aircraft were at NAS Jax. Took a few pics and did a piece of art work but that was all I had from the last trip.

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The Breaks of Naval Air-Skid Marks in the Sky