The long-awaited sequel to 1986’s Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick, is ready to premiere on May twenty seventh, 2022. Its ultimate launch date has been the end result of many delays attributable to COVID over a multi-year span. Many avid readers of The War Zone have been eagerly anticipating what the film’s trailers preview — some superior aerial fighter footage, albeit with a Hollywood spin. It’s been an extended holdout, however one which will likely be hopefully value it. Well, we’ve been holding on to one thing particular for fairly a while of our personal — round 18 years. It is rarely seen earlier than F-14 Tomcat demonstration cockpit footage from the jet’s twilight and what higher time to launch it than now?
In reality, purists might even respect this footage greater than the precise Top Gun: Maverick movie as a result of it’s uncommon, uncooked, and uncut. This is a real look into (and outdoors) the Tomcat cockpit, with actual aircrew and actual communications. Something that’s not accessible.
We will name this the story of ‘The Lost Tomcat Tapes.’
2004 was the final yr of a full F-14 Tomcat airshow season. The Tomcat fighter wing allow us to have one ultimate efficiency at NAS Oceana in 2005, however so far as taking the jet throughout the nation to completely different areas, 2004 was it. We knew that capturing a few of our flights on video from the cockpit can be an ideal concept.
Rocco Tangredi, F-14 Tomcat Demo pilot extraordinaire, procured what we referred to as a “lipstick” or pencil digicam and attached a video package for in-cockpit taping. We shot a number of movies at completely different areas, some forward-looking, some aft trying and one even with a low cockpit view trying again up on the pilot.
These cockpit demo tapes had been video gold. Something it is best to guard and “hermetically” seal to guard ceaselessly. Recall this was 2004, previous to the invention of the GoPro and video going on to a tough drive. Instead, these had been precise videotapes, mini JVC videotapes to be actual, that required the person to painstakingly switch them from video again to a private laptop.
At the tip of the season, Rocco took the entire tapes and loaned them to one of many different Tomcat Demo Team members so they may additionally make copies. The staff member saved them for a number of months after which transitioned to a different obligation station. In the interim, Rocco tried to get the tapes again, however was instructed that the demo tapes had been thrown away by the staff member’s now ex-girlfriend.
Complete and utter disbelief! Who would throw away these tapes?!
Needless to say, it was actually powerful to listen to the tapes had been misplaced ceaselessly. But maintain that thought for some time as we focus on a few of the recollections of that ultimate yr.
Some of our stops that ultimate airshow season included Thunder Over Louisville, Ft. Lauderdale, Naval Air Station Atlanta Air Show, Chicago Air and Water Show, London Ontario Air Show, Muskegon Michigan Air Fair, NAS New Orleans, NAS Key West, NAS Jacksonville airshows and even an Air Force cease at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada.
One of one of the best F-14 airshow quotes of all time comes from that present and is discovered within the Tomcat ebook “Bye Bye Baby” compiled by Dave “Hey Joe” Parsons, George Hall, and Bob Lawson. In the ebook, Brian “Punchy” Shul, an SR-71 Blackbird pilot is quoted as saying:
“I was at the big Nellis air show and everybody was buzzing about the first public demo of the F-22. Lots of generals, in the bleachers, the whole deal. The F-22 demo was just plain lame. Hard deck of 1000 feet AGL (above ground level), weak turns, no high-speed passes. Like they’re afraid to break the thing, which they were. Who’s up next on the schedule? Why, the Tomcat of course. These guys just beat the place up. Flog this Air Force base mercilessly. The crowd goes bananas, and I’m yelling along with them. Tell me who those two lunatics were, and I’ll buy them a cocktail.”
I’m nonetheless ready on my cocktail, however Vegas was a good time and an ideal present due to all these issues that include a visit to Vegas: flying over desert mountains, plenty of lights, leisure with the casinos, after all, cocktails, and huge crowds. However, with the ability to carry out after the F-22 and “flog that base mercilessly” made it much more particular.
The Chicago Air and Water present was in all probability my favourite for a number of causes. The jets had been parked at Gary/Chicago International Airport (GYY), as a result of it was simpler to stage there than on the extra well-known and intensely crowded Chicago O’Hare. However, that made your method to town much more memorable. On takeoff, you instantly see the skyline of Chicago to the North and West, a batch of tall skyscrapers that appear to succeed in up as excessive because the jet. Right subsequent to town is the flat and huge house of Lake Michigan to the North. If you could have by no means regarded out the window on an method to Chicago, it is best to subsequent time. It is wonderful how massive Lake Michigan really expands throughout the panorama. It’s a whole lot of freshwater for positive.
While the surroundings is implausible in Chicago, a few of the primary air present issues are much more memorable. Before an plane goes into the airshow “box”, which is the FAA validated airspace designated for all maneuvers, the controllers usually put you right into a holding space. For most exhibits, that is only a level in house, however at Chicago you maintain over Soldier Field, residence of the Chicago Bears soccer staff. Turning circles whereas trying down over probably the most iconic stadiums is fairly cool. Soldier Field is simply south of Navy pier and the airshow takes place on the finish of the pier, with present heart situated additional up Lakeshore Dr. on the Lighthouse on the Hook. Show heart is the place performers place themselves to stability out their maneuvers and it’s usually a really seen location. The Lighthouse is not any exception to this rule, however the boats on Lake Michigan make it even simpler to identify.
The different actually implausible function in regards to the Chicago Air and Water Show is how many individuals are literally watching the present. On Lake Michigan, the airshow efficiency field perimeter is completely lined with a whole bunch — if not perhaps 1000’s — of boats. The Coast Guard does a tremendous job of lining everybody up and retaining them at a protected distance, however what you see from the air is an ideal rectangular form shaped by the whole lot from small dinghies to massive upscale powerboats. Then it’s a must to add everybody watching from the seashore space alongside Lakeshore Dr. which actually numbers within the tens of 1000’s. And there isn’t any concept how many individuals are searching from balconies, avenue corners, and each nook and cranny or watching the airshow on native tv. A summer time in Chicago may be among the best issues you could have ever skilled and the Chicago Air and Water Show could be a large a part of that have.
Another nice airshow that will not have had fairly the identical crowd however actually an ideal expertise was the Rhode Island National Guard (RING) Air Show at Quonset State Airport (KOQU). On Friday nights earlier than the total airshow weekend begins, lots of the airshows host a performers’ celebration. This is a chance to thank the performers for coming in, present a security transient, and provides the performers one thing to eat. Well, as luck would have it the RING Air Show goes all out and has a lobster feast. It is a very completely different feeling to stroll by means of the buffet line and have a lobster plopped down in your plate slightly than a sizzling canine or hamburger.
Sometimes it was nice to go to a smaller ‘out of the way in which’ airshow. Since the Tomcat was an enormous attraction, lots of the smaller air exhibits needed to land an F-14 to make their present weekend. Recall, this was the final yr of the Tomcat and lots of smaller exhibits knew that it was their final likelihood. London, Ontario was one present I do not forget that was a smaller present that we actually loved. The primary performers weren’t the Blue Angles or Air Force Thunderbirds however slightly the host nation’s Canadian Snow Birds together with the F-14 Tomcat. We had been the celebrities of the present and evidently made an ideal impression. Sunday’s version of the London Free Press confirmed an enormous front-page photograph of the Tomcat in full afterburner pulling away from the group.
I even have to present acknowledgment to our F-14 Demo maintainers. Those guys spent many nights on the weekend working laborious to take care of what was a troublesome jet to maintain flying in its later years. Many instances after we’d bend the jet round, they’d spend a Saturday night working to have the jet able to go for a Sunday present. Recall they had been a small group of three to 4 people with restricted instruments and in generally random airfields far-off from residence. AM1 Tangredi (no relation to Rocco) was our lead mechanic and did a implausible job main that staff. I really feel these maintainers loved watching the present greater than just about anybody else within the crowd.
One of the enjoyable issues the aircrew had been capable of do in the course of the efficiency was speaking to the group if the airshow had audio system arrange, which they usually did. At the tip of the double Immelmann, there was a chance to catch your breath together with repositioning to arrange for the high-speed cross. This was after we would ‘speak to the group,’ which usually meant the airshow boss would pipe your transmission over to the loudspeakers for everybody to listen to. Normally guys would say hi there to the group and, in the event that they knew anybody, give a shout out to these individuals. I stated hi there to my girlfriend on the time and her buddy in the course of the efficiency in Chicago. Worked out effectively for me, as she thought it was so superior that she determined to marry me a number of years later. I additionally obtained free drinks in Wrigleyville that night time. True story.
So how did these tapes resurface you ask? Well, the opposite staff member’s ex-girlfriend didn’t really throw them away, she simply stated she did. In reality, she really began courting one other Tomcat pilot a number of years later and that’s how we discovered they really weren’t misplaced. Thankfully, that Tomcat pilot, who is a superb buddy to all of us (and I imply collectively ALL of us who love the Tomcat) rescued these tapes and introduced them again to the F-14 Demo Team.
The viewer should do not forget that this was filmed in 2004, effectively earlier than High Definition grew to become the usual. Additionally, we now have left the video largely untouched. No added sound, solely inter cockpit communications (ICS) between the Pilot and RIO (Radar Intercept Officer) together with the occasional over-frequency communication with the Air Boss. This footage is about as pure as one can anticipate and if the viewer stays vigilant, a number of ICS nuggets between the pilot and RIO may be heard.
Enjoy. You’ve waited lengthy sufficient for one thing like this.
Anytime Baby!
Joe “Smokin” Ruzicka was a Radar Intercept Officer within the F-14 Tomcat and Weapon Systems Officer within the F/A-18 Hornet with over 2,000 flight hours in quick jets. Joe was additionally part of the ultimate F-14 demonstration aircrew, in addition to being a Legislative Fellow to John McCain and labored in Washington DC on vital US Navy applications on behalf of the US Navy. His prior works are a must-read. You can discover them right here, right here, and right here. You can comply with Joe on Twitter at @smokinjoe96.
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