A interesting (former) A-7 pilot interview

When he was in VA-22 on Enterprise, I was in VA-94, the other A-7 squadron in CAG-11. Don't remember the name though, but I didn't know any of the pilots in VA-22 anyway.
 
Brings back memories, though I flew A-4s and then A-6s.

One note about CarQuals on LEX. She had a wooden deck, but steel plating had been laid over it in the landing area and the catapult areas. Nonskid covered the wood and the steel, but non-skid constantly would break loose from wooded areas. All the 27C converted ESSEX had the same problem. The Flight Deck crew (V1-Division) was constantly having to touch up areas during in port times.

The 27Cs weren't just small in size - they used a 4 deg vice 3 deg glideslope and had a target 10 ft hook to ramp vice a 15 ft hook to ramp clearance with a centered ball. Arresting gear runout was about 200 ft vice 300 ft on big carriers. It always amazed me that A-3 tankers operated from 27Cs in Vietnam.

I did TraCom and RAG CarQuals on Lex in the T-2A, TF-9J, A-4E and A-6E. Day and night in the A-4 and A-6. My shoulders still feel like they have been pulled out of their sockets from the experience.
 
Mike71 said:
Brings back memories, though I flew A-4s and then A-6s.

One note about CarQuals on LEX. She had a wooden deck, but steel plating had been laid over it in the landing area and the catapult areas. Nonskid covered the wood and the steel, but non-skid constantly would break loose from wooded areas. All the 27C converted ESSEX had the same problem. The Flight Deck crew (V1-Division) was constantly having to touch up areas during in port times.

The 27Cs weren't just small in size - they used a 4 deg vice 3 deg glideslope and had a target 10 ft hook to ramp vice a 15 ft hook to ramp clearance with a centered ball. Arresting gear runout was about 200 ft vice 300 ft on big carriers. It always amazed me that A-3 tankers operated from 27Cs in Vietnam.

I did TraCom and RAG CarQuals on Lex in the T-2A, TF-9J, A-4E and A-6E. Day and night in the A-4 and A-6. My shoulders still feel like they have been pulled out of their sockets from the experience.
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Interesting about the glide slope, hook to deck clearance, and runout length. What about the Midways? They're a little bigger than the 27Cs, and a little smaller than the big carriers. I wonder what the runout distance was on those. My one and only trap was in a US-3 Viking, on Midway.

He commented about the FLIR pods. Back then only one of the two A-7 squadrons in the CAG got them. We, as avionics techs, were happy VA-22 got those things and not us. Those old giant FLIR pods needed a lot of maintenance!
 
Here's a pic of a VA-22 A-7 with the gig giant FLIR pod, on Enterprise, 1983 (ish):

va22_flir.jpg
 
PRB said:
Interesting about the glide slope, hook to deck clearance, and runout length. What about the Midways? They're a little bigger than the 27Cs, and a little smaller than the big carriers. I wonder what the runout distance was on those. My one and only trap was in a US-3 Viking, on Midway ----
Click to expand...
The MIDWAYS were a mixed bag as they were modernized over time. Although they were all built as straight decks and converted to angle decks, only MIDWAY received a massive conversion that allowed operating F-14s and E-2s. The 1966-1970 conversions was slow and expensive so the remaining 2 received cheap refits limiting their usefulness.

I do not have data on these ships but I do know CV-41 did have cats and gear similar to NIMITZ and assume runout and glideslope data was similar. The CORAL SEA AND ROOSEVELT were likely less but better than a 27C.

All the CV-41s had low freeboard, low hanger deck height, were not great sea keepers and suffered from "wet deck" syndrome.
 
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