Flying the Big Cat Interview | Tom “Steamer” Bau (Part 1)

Former F-14A/B pilot, Tom “Steamer” Bau, shares his early beginnings in aviation, being selected for the F-14A, what the jet was like to fly, DACT, being assigned to his first squadron VF-33, transferring to the B, all wrapped up with some cracking stories!
Enjoy
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[@fredizadro2958]

As a former Tornado pilot I really like all these interview... One of the best aviation Channel on KZbin! Really great

[@Aircrewinterview]

Cheers!

[@DCS_World_Japan]

The reason for no burner on the B and D Tomcats is actually in the NATOPS. If one engine's afterburner were to fail, the asymmetric thrust generated at such slow speed would be uncontrollable. This applied to runway takeoffs as well, not just on cat shots.

[@tituslaronius]

That's really interesting! I had no idea! :)

[@thecatdaddy1974]

Also the plane could come out of the shuttle during launch

[@mattanderson1312]

Spearfish, South Dakota?! The cradle of Naval Aviation! I’m a AF Pilot also from the Black Hills of South Dakota. Not too many of us out there. Great interview.

[@davedurave2]

What a great interview I could listen to Tom’s stories for hours 👍

[@Aircrewinterview]

Cheers. Hopefully you will enjoy part 2 this Sunday.

[@NilleFix]

Great interview!!! Love it!! Tomcats Forever!!! 😁👍

[@Aircrewinterview]

Cheers!

[@ericmiddleton8367]

Great stuff! Looking forward to the F3 stories.

[@Aircrewinterview]

It’s a good part 2 ;)

[@eatthisvr6]

My favourite jet, just look at it!!! Glorious machine

[@Aircrewinterview]

It really is.

[@SimDeck]

Great stuff. What a cool guy. Brilliant interview. I could listen to Tom all day. Thank you.

[@richieismyhero]

What a great interview. Tomcats!

[@Aircrewinterview]

Thank you!

[@_RAF_SkyRider_]

Wow, amazing and full of interesting details interview! Thanks a lot for so delicious material!

[@Aircrewinterview]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@CombatAviationist]

Great interview!

[@Aircrewinterview]

Thanks mate.

[@v8packard]

Thank you for the outstanding video

[@Aircrewinterview]

Cheers!

[@bjjace1]

I swear, this is the premier channel for aviation.

[@Aircrewinterview]

Thank you!!

[@MrCwatson3]

So, on DCS world I landed my f14B pretty fast one time, and I was definitely going too fast to stop at the end of the run way in time, and I locked up the brakes just like steamer talked about, and I did a full 360 and straightened it out perfectly. It was insane, it also slowed me down enough to stop me at the end of the runway 🤣

[@EdD-ym6le]

Great one . 70K feet Wow . That story of almost hitting the ocean could be a description of the Tomcat in " The Final Countdown " air to air scene . He needed those knots to pull up / turn the jet .

[@davidsmith8997]

70K is crazy! You've got serious problems if you eject in normal gear at that altitude. Such a shame that all the A's weren't at least converted to B's, let alone D's.

[@EdD-ym6le]

@@davidsmith8997 I'm sure there were a lot of money driven politics involved . (712 F14's + 563 F111's) x2 x 2.5 million $ per TF30 engine = 4.5 Billion in 1984 $'s . The F15 F100 engines had it's problems also but then the awesome GE F110 ( B1, F15 ,F16 ) came along .

[@davidsmith8997]

@@Abledoggie42 A fighter pilot exaggerate? Surely not! Next you're going to tell me that fisherman lie about the size of their catch. 😆 In most cases, I'm not expecting the pilots to be technical manuals for their planes. Most aren't even when they are on active duty. Great stories, cool experiences, and the odd tidbit about these awesome machines is what we're here for. If you just want specs, one can look those up on their own. I definitely enjoyed this interview. Only more DCM next time!

[@TeaVR]

Amazing stories

[@Aircrewinterview]

Cheers

[@2ZZGE100]

'Okie' said F-14A and F-14B performed very similarly below 5000 feet in dense/thick air since TF-030 engines loved a lot of air. The F-14A would go Mach 1.3+ on the deck and had to be pulled back. Funny thing is, 'Slammer' preferred A over the B and D as he flew all three. Slammers favorite thing was to take an F-14A and put a student pilot in an F-14D then completely dominating him.

[@zyoungson215]

Doesn't explain why F14b could launch from the carrier without AB while F14A always used it.

[@2ZZGE100]

@@zyoungson215 Stall margin was a big reason as zone 5 gave a much higher stall margin than mil power. There are videos of F-14A launching without afterburners with lighter loads especially in the 70s. Also, the gap got smaller with increased airspeed since the TF-30 responded to ram air effect a lot more being a bomber engine. A good example is, the F-14A would go Mach 1.3+ on the deck while the F-14 B/D were slightly slower on the deck, but at altitude the F-14 B/D had better performance.

[@davidsmith8997]

@@2ZZGE100 Yup.

[@eatthisvr6]

At high speeds the tf30 actually made more power than the ge110, the a actually had a faster top speed than the b or d

[@realMaverickBuckley]

@@eatthisvr6 Wow ! That's true I just checked. But only by mach 0.01. Still, interesting fact. But the rate of climb is chalk and cheese. The F14A is just over half the climb rate if the B/D. 30,000 pm vs 50,000 pm

[@matthayward7889]

I been reading up about the F-14 in preparation for this! :)

[@Aircrewinterview]

Enjoy, Matt!

[@matthayward7889]

11:48 DACT 👌

[@Backwardlooking]

Great Guy. 👍🏻🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[@thefrecklepuny]

20-30ft from the water! Reminds me of the scene from 'The Final Countdown' which I believe was also a correction which was kept on film. Another great interview!

[@EdD-ym6le]

I saw your comment after I posted mine . His story sounds like a pretty good description of what happened filming the movie . I watched one of these pilot interview vids that talked about that scene with " I think " some of the people involved and they said that pilot put himself in a bad situation . If I remember right there really wasn't scripted maneuvers they told the pilots these were the types of shots film wise they were looking for so make it happen so it was a bit ad hoc figure it out as you did it .

[@2ZZGE100]

Actually, you COULD NOT sweep the wings forward after Mach 0.8. The computer (CADC) disabled the capability at higher speeds or at higher altitude where the IMN is mapped to a lot slower ground speed.

[@_RAF_SkyRider_]

Of course not, because in the transonic region of speed air is so dense that wave drag became a huge factor!

[@jackharle1251]

Actually, you may want to do some research. Snort, not you, passed a long a much different set of experienced options for unusual situations. Guess I didn't see your interview on the podcast.

[@maddthomas]

I don't know if this will help but here goes, I worked as a Plan Captain as NAS Meridian, Ms. The tail codes are this, "A" is for NAS Meridian, "B" is for NAS Kingsville, Tx and "F" is for NAS Pensacola, Fl. When you showed a pic of a T-2 it had a F on the tail so it was from P-cola, you should have found a pic of a Buckeye that had a B on its tail.

[@fredizadro2958]

Once me and my wingman were intercepted by a pairs of tomcat... We were tasked to Attack Saratoga carrier on the Tirrenian see... We were 540 kts at 150 ft... The tomcat came on our wings.. They rocked their wings... They accelerated and.... Climb away!!!!

[@benconway9010]

You should of asked about the glove vanes the tomcat used have

[@briancrawford69]

How did the fireball go 20 miles?

[@Trojan0304]

Golden, Tomcat driver

[@Aircrewinterview]

Hope you enjoyed the chat.

[@jonnytwocombs198]

Wonder if there is any brits that did exchange and flew the F14

[@FireAngelOfLondon]

If there are they would be few in number. Most British military exchange pilots flew with the USAF until the period when the Royal Navy had no carriers. In order to keep a pool of carrier-qualified pilots until the new carriers were ready the Royal Navy put a lot of exchange pilots into the US Navy for a while, but by that time the Tomcats were gone and they flew the F-18 or the F-35B. It would be great to see an interview if there are any though.

[@tomhull4387]

Quite a few did. They went to vf-101. Stu Black was one of them. There are photographs out there of the vf101 jets with RAF pilots and navs names on the canopy rails.

[@Aircrewinterview]

Yeah there were a few but not as common as going to USAF or NATO jets.

[@jonnytwocombs198]

@@Aircrewinterview would love to hear their perspectives on flying the tomcat and landing on an aircraft carrier. That would be awesome

[@Aircrewinterview]

@@jonnytwocombs198 I have tried a couple of people, but it never happened for whatever reason. I shall continue to peruse it.

[@MilitantOldLady]

I don't get it...the F14 can TACAN auto land, why do they keep talking as if it's impossible?

[@davew2833]

DCS programmers needs to watch this and fix the dang Phoenix missiles!!!!! They are useless in DCS right now

[@realMaverickBuckley]

21:36. - What did he hit? It skips for me. I git 'Burger King Burger' .

[@ajchenmph]

From what I can tell in the leadup, he didn't hit anything -- the engine burned through the control rods for the horizontal stabilizer(s).

[@KJV0812]

If you died tonight, would you be in heaven or hell? Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" John 3:16-18 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."1 Corinthians 15:1-4, "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Will you call upon the Lord to save you? Simply saved through realizing you are a sinner needing a savior, believing what God did on the cross and the power that's in his saving blood that covers all our sin if we simply believe; of which we are saved.

[@gerald4133]

Bring back The Cat 😺 with Upgrades!🇺🇸