F-14 launch and recovery from Vulture's Row

Video of launches and recoveries from Vultures Row. Filmed about 2000 on USS Eisenhower. VF-11 and VF-143 F-14B Tomcats in CVW-7.

[@oldgoat142]

Man, what memories! I was on the Ike from '83 to '86 as part of VF-142, CVW-7. Seeing my old ship and my old jets are like seeing a treasured friend from long ago. I wouldn't trade does days for anything! Happy Veteran's Day 2021, especially you old salts like me. May your days be happy, and your smiles from good memories be with you always.

[@robertvolk5530]

What?? I was stationed on CVN69 too brother! F14d is my fave! Fuck a Raptor!

[@oldgoat142]

@@robertvolk5530 Excellent brother. I was assigned to my squadron about the time Captain Clexton was relieved by Captain Macke. The Cat is, and will always be, my favorite jet of all time.

[@sidv4615]

@@oldgoat142 what all planes were flown by the navy back then?

[@oldgoat142]

@@sidv4615 Here's a list of the aircraft that were part of Carrier Air Wing 7 in those days. F-14 Tomcats, S-3 Vikings, A-7 Corsair, A-6 Intruder, SH-3 Sea King helicopter, C-2 COD, (a propeller driven aircraft which was for light cargo/transport delivery), E-2C Hawkeye. We also had a detachment of A-2 light bombers. 80+ aircraft in total on an aircraft carrier. The Navy also flew F-18's, (but there were none on my ship at the time), A-4 Skyhawks, F-8 Crusaders, (for photo reconnaissance), F-5 Tigers, and for a brief time, the Israeli Kfir, (for air combat training). The navy was just starting to try out the F-16N for air combat training.

[@B501R]

Thank you for your service sir.

[@stealthtomcat4739]

F-14 is my favorite plane

[@kc5hgv]

The F-14 Tomcat is the most of my favorite naval aircraft.

[@andrewdecker4620]

Fun to watch, never gets old.

[@recoswell]

trying doing it dude - trust me - gets old real quick - what you can't tell from these videos is 1 how fucking hot it is on deck 2 everything is covered in grease 3 it stinks like jet fuel and liquid wrench - and enough bombs missles rockets jet fuel and nukes to blow you to hell ten times over --- yeah tons of fucking fun

[@recoswell]

try it in real life - everything gets old

[@saintnick8290]

Tomcat was a BEAST. A6 was one of the loudest planes in the Navy.

[@delten-eleven1910]

Those old turbojet engines.

[@mattboggs6304]

Yep, the A-6 was gone when I was in, but we still had the EA-6B. That thing was the loudest sound I have ever heard in my life. You didn't just hear it, you felt it. It was bone-rattling loud when you were standing right next to it at takeoff power.

[@bobbycvsixfour5258]

J52 - TurboJets were loud and smoky. F4 Phantom had J79's F14, S3, etc were TurboFans quieter, more efficient and no smoke. All aviation today is TurboFans and the TurboJets are basically gone. Helicopters are TurboShaft and super fast planes are RamJets. ENGINES are cool :-) Bobby Estey CV64 AIMD Jet Shop (77-81)

[@geemanbmw]

🫡🇺🇸👍🏼​@@bobbycvsixfour5258

[@marcosavila8215]

tx so much for not using music!! superb video

[@RevitStructureBlog]

Just love the Grumman big cats, and the F14 is my favourite of all time. Glad that we have this piece of history recorded and public. Won't be the same when pilots and RIOs are replaced by computers.

[@sg21231]

pilots replaced by computers? Not today, sir.

[@2bad610]

@@sg21231 not today, but definitely tomorrow

[@delten-eleven1910]

Just parked at the stern, those Tomcats just looked badass like no other!

[@TYLERNAVYGUY]

I spent 9 years on the Vinson on two separate tours....any time I could get up to vultures row or the fantail, I went there. Got my flight deck qual as a ships company guy and have amazing video footage while being the shadow of my G-1 shipmates. I Y A O Y A S !

[@recoswell]

flight deck quals from what i remember consisted of not getting killed :~) and having no usefull mechanical skills to speak of

[@TheJustUsLeague]

At 3:45 a tiny hornet walks by the mighty TOMCAT saying to himself "Please don't mind me, I'm just moving out of your way so I don't get eaten".

[@kirioes]

Lol * slowly rolls by * i’d say quietly too but that ain’t quiet😂 maybe compared to the tomcat but idk

[@jasbails9857]

He's actually saying "go on Grandad, you haven't got many flights left in you"

[@icculus]

The reality is, the Hornet would eat the Tomcat alive.

[@benjaminperez7328]

@@icculus Depends on the driver! Snort Snodgrass (R.I.P) and Okie Nance might beg to differ.

[@GalangID69]

😂

[@94Whiskey]

F-14.... skills required!

[@aytviewer2421]

Brings back a lot of memories, except substitute the Ike for the Roosevelt. I was on that ship from 1985 to 1990. At the time, I couldn't wait to get out of the service. Now-a-days, I find myself missing for those days and I realize I was a fool for not doing my 20!

[@dinosaurfan2409]

Makes me wish I was born a decade earlier because I may have been on a cruise that still had the F-14. What a sight it must be. I do wish they were still in operation in the US.

[@danny_boi3537]

I never got the chance, I was born 2 years after they retired Politics 🤦‍♂️

[@dinosaurfan2409]

@@danny_boi3537 Politics indeed. Frustrating. Otherwise, they may still be here flying.

[@squidusn71]

It wasn't politic at all. It was a dinosaur...old and obsolete.

[@dinosaurfan2409]

@@squidusn71 It was going to be upgraded but politics and certain military leadership interfered.

[@squidusn71]

@Fighter Plane& Dinosaur Fan somebody had to make the decision to end it. It needed to go and the navy needed a new figther.

[@benjiereeves4919]

I am just as amazed, impressed now as i was 20+ years ago when i was standing on the flight deck. GO NAVY!

[@brendtoconnell6119]

Pure and awesome footage.

[@AnyDayNow360]

I miss the Prowler. Wish I got to see a Tomcat in service.

[@stijnvandamme76]

Nothing says "Air Superiority" better then 2 Tomcats flying finger tip overhead.

[@christianoaraujo7302]

The most epic naval fighter plane of all time was even an actor in the movie "Top Gum" will forever be remembered by thousands of fans around the world.

[@delten-eleven1910]

Don't forget "The Final Countdown."

[@THE-BUNKEN-DRUM]

"Top Gum" 😆

[@johnbedell2376]

THE best jet in the world!

[@jeremycox571]

I love the F-14 hate when they retired it it’s one of the GREATEST ! Like the F-4 Phantom II , another jet that outclasses the F-18

[@screwyouyoutube5493]

Amazing, I worked for the pilots of VF-11 in 86 on the USS Forrestal, didn't know they moved to the Eisenhower...great video

[@robertfeeley6303]

Those guys love their hot rods

[@slowpoke96Z28]

thank you for sharing.

[@allgood6760]

Cool vid! 👍✈️

[@special.tomcat]

Perfect 👌👌

[@Dryootube]

mad vids thanks for sharing!

[@richardanderson5882]

Beautiful

[@user-ky2ww5bq2s]

Na minha opinião, o avião caça mais bonito já fabricado, inclusive o mesmo usado no filme top gum ases indomáveis com o ator Tom Cruise!!!.É uma pena terem tirado de circulação um caça tão lindo,pois até os dias de hoje,não tens outro igual!!!👍👍👍👏👏👏

[@bobbycv64]

@Air Tales - excellent video, our wing was NG (Pacific), I see you are AG (Atlantic). Excellent video from CVN69, and I was CV64. Actually have a funny story when I was USN, with your PILOT landing on our ship in mistake. SO FUNNY. All reply and I will post the link. YES, an F14 CVN69 landed on CV64 by mistake in Indian Ocean 1980.

[@AirTales]

I have heard of that happening to other airplanes, but I have not seen an F-14 that did that. They usually get "some love" by the ships maintainers...

[@bobbycv64]

@@AirTales I hope yt allows me to post are URL on the story, happened May 27 1980: www.cv64.us/bobby/biography/navy/constellation/wrongCarrier/wrongCarrier.html

[@jbrad2529]

My dad was a hornet pilot in CVW-7 during this time, my godfather is actually flying one of those f14s I belive

[@AirTales]

Very cool! What are their names? I might know them.

[@jajajaja2624]

F14 look so sick running down deck

[@svanimir666]

This is pornographic content if you ask me.

[@AirTales]

Hope your significant other doesn't walk in on you when you are watching it!

[@get2dachoppa249]

And you know what, sometimes it would be better if we were watching actual porn. That's something women can wrap their heads around in terms of "typical male behavior". That would of been a much shorter conversation with my ex, rather than why I'm watching "dumb airplane videos.

[@lizard869]

Uh... um.... it’s for uh... umm... research yeah...... research

[@neilsnow6162]

The perfect location to watch flight ops.

[@sgtborg1]

The deck of a modern carrier looks so plain fa18s and cods gray hounds and Seahawks. No mix no more tomcats or intruders or prowlers. It’s a shame

[@crazypilot4017]

Nice 👍

[@WalterDWormack214]

I totally KNOW that the F-14 I'm looking at, (it the one that's parked at the 'fantail of the ship, on the carrier's landing approach), is "completely secured", but the 'view' you're getting, that plane looks like, just one good 'shove', and some poor plane handler, is going to be working for the Navy, for the rest of his friggin' life! I can just hear the officer who's in overall charge of the flight deck, 'warning' the hapless plane handlers... "If ANY of these planes, 'fall' overboard, for the next THIRTY YEARS, your meals in the Navy, will consist of NOTHING but BREAD & WATER.

[@davidjames3071]

Yellow shirt ABH 3 USS independence worked Fly one this timeless remember as a teen racing my shipmate friend to spot the cat!

[@sampadilla5315]

Just like the Final Countdown movie.. CVN68

[@geemanbmw]

❤

[@realistic.optimist]

Haze grey and underway.

[@richardanderson5882]

Thanks there is a god

[@kevinmccorkle7476]

I can smell this video.....

[@bemstar7217]

somebody jammed his flaps

[@barrymccockiner6641]

The -B GE engines even look better!

[@The_Tau]

6:42 heh broken flaps, I know something about that in DCS xD

[@patrickpedro2003]

Tomcat

[@mattfgln]

@6:48 inner flaps jammed ?

[@AirTales]

Yes, that was unusual. The inner flaps are called the 'Aux Flaps", and they should have come up with the other flaps. The Aux flaps are controlled by the "Combined Side" hydraulics, so you may be seeing a failure of the Combined side hydraulics, it might have happened right when they trapped, so they didn't have time to notice or react to it yet. I don't think it was 'jammed', just no hydraulic pressure to raise them.

[@mattfgln]

@@AirTales oh that’s interesting, thanks for taking time to explain

[@JD1976]

Super hornets on that carrier also

[@AirTales]

Not at that time, this was late 90's, early 2000 timeframe

[@radwizard]

A-6, F/A-18, and a large handful of F-14s.... The USSR would have been spanked hard.

[@eliasadam2345]

The Russians always grossly overestimate what their machinery can do, their fighter jets, ships, etc. Whenever they go up against a real challenge they end up splattered in the jungle or at the bottom of the ocean.

[@TheDisabledGamersChannel]

They retired this aircraft way too early.

[@squidusn71]

No, they did not.

[@TheDisabledGamersChannel]

@@squidusn71 YES THEY DID !

[@squidusn71]

@@TheDisabledGamersChannel It was a freaking dinosaur, a relic.

[@MeBallerman]

Let's say somebody, the Russians, whomever, attacked - wouldn't they be able to launch, say 18 Tomcats, in the same time they took to launch one? I mean - that took very (very) long time. If squadrons of hostile enemy planes were spotted 300km away, they will need to launch quicker, right? This looked very inefficient to my eyes

[@AirTales]

If a threat was close by, there would be jets on alert to launch in 15 minutes or 7/5 minutes depending on the threat level. What might be making this look slow is that this may the first launch of the scheduled launch. So they would load up and fire the catapult right at launch time. Once the launch starts, they can launch an aircraft about every minute or two.

[@MeBallerman]

@@AirTales OK, thanx

[@scottwa]

@@MeBallerman also, the Tomcat has a kill zone of about 200 miles when combined with it's AWAC, the Hawkeye E2C. F-14 would target and fire and the AWAC would take over and guide it in along with providing electronic defense of the aircraft... think it was 6 f14s to an E2C. My dad passed away last year, when I was a kid he was one of the engineers at Grumman working on the avionics and black box designs. Worst part of designing the aircraft was apparently the coating needed for the black boxes. His start out of college was with Grumman and worked on the Gulfstream One... one of his last projects before Grumman got bought up by Northrup was as a contractor for Gulfstream on the Gulfstream 5. He worked on the LEM for the Apollo project, a bunch of other stuff including the X-29 forward swept wing concept... one of my favorite aircraft he was involved with. He got to design projects that went up on the Space Shuttle that tested materials on a rotating drum with thermocouplers to see how the materials reacted as they went from sunshine to dark. Science!

[@Relics_tv]

@@scottwa AWAC's cannot guide missiles. Especially for the F-14's weapon payload. They can really only give tracking data to ARH Weapons but even then the F-14's never employed. AWACS provides locational data to multiple aircraft at a time. Data through Link-4 (what the F-14's used), and Link-16 (current Data Link) is used to transmit a whole package of target information between every feet aircraft capable of receiving that information. I know that the F-14 had fighter to fighter datalink and could share different tracking and target information between multiple F-14 AUG-9 radars but @Air Tales correct me if I'm wrong, a F-14 with a fighter to fighter contact cannot guide the other missile to its target in STT or TWS. It still relies on the aircraft employing the weapon to have a radar contact TWS tracked or hard locked.

[@scottwa]

I don't think anything got close to a carrier group without their intercepts in the air long before 300km. From what my dad told me and reading Aviation Week and Space Technology from the time I could read... I was sure that the pilots on F14 aircraft could fire and forget because the Hawkeye E2C could take over from there along with providing electronic warfare cover as well. I watched the video of them running the last F14 out of fuel in prep for it's donation to the Smithsonian... Gut wrenching watching it fighting to keep running in fumes, knowing it would never run again. Also sad that the only operational examples of the F14 are the ones Grumman employees sabotaged in Orangeburg when the Shaw was overthrown and they took the hostages. Grumman employees took the flight computers.main boards and sent them back to the US for warranty repairs... And it took Iran decades to come up with a way to fly them again.