SOH Team Project - Grumman Tracker, Trader, Tracer

AVQ-1 aerial serchlight controller. The joy stick was stowed elsewhere in the aircraft during T/O and landing. The unit mounts to the co-jo's window sill with a butterfly dzus fastener, right about where your fist would be sitting strapped in, arm to your side down and vertical, forearm at 90deg. On this unit, the mounting bracket has been flipped 180deg, opposit normal for the S-2. the box with the grip is pivoted, about 5deg up, 30 deg down, controlling elevation, the grip twists about its axis on the box, about 25deg side to side, about the same range of motion at the searchlight. The switch on the back of the unit is down to off, up to start. That cranks up the power supply. The button on top armed the drive servos so you could point the light, and the trigger switch fired the light. This was so the light could be slaved onto target before illuminating. Some of the installs- notably the -5 Neptune had a targeting radar carried under the searchlight that allowed the light to be slaved to the nose turret for gunlaying purposes. Effective range against a schnorkel sized target, under ideal conditions was about a mile and a quarter. Sub skippers on Ex were known to become rather agitated about having their night vision fried when the periscopes were illuminated- some XO's swore you could see the shadow of the Skippers brain on the back of his skull when it happened. Ground operations were limited to a few seconds; with out cooling airflow the plexiglass fairing melted, causing much highly creative invective from the plane captain.
The 2 boxes are the left and right wing stores selector, rocket intervalometer, master arm, bay doors control and heat control, and jetison. These were in the center console on either side on the Bay control box, forming a visual schematic of the airplane. I never could find that box. It had the station selectors for the torp bay. I think they were pulled at de-milling because some of them would have been wired for the PAL box for the Nuclear depth bomb.
Hope that helps some.
 
Great stuff Lazurus! Thank you for taking the time for the pictures and explanation.

Can you explain the guns at the bottom of the bay door control box.

"Death Ray" has peeked my curiosity. :)
 
The control box marked Death Ray, Guns etc looks like a joke gadget I got given to fit in my car. The various buttons produced sound effects, it was intended as a release for frustrations caused by the antics of other drivers on the road.
 
Bugger. That was not supposed to be in there. I'm going to have to ask that any one who saw this remove and eat their hard drive straight away. National security, you know!

Just what Harry said. Back in the day every time I'd see some kind of cheepo gag box like that I'd snap up a few and velcro 'em in to the cockpit someplace out of the way. A stress reliever for the guys. The bird dog and Securite Civil guys really liked 'em because they were fitted with a whelan siren/loudhailer and could broadcast sound effects in flight- zooooommm-ratta-tatta-tatta-boom-shut up Beavis! comming from the airplane as it ripped past. Good clean fun untill the wheels up stairs caught wind of it
:icon_lol:
 
lazarus said:
Bugger. That was not supposed to be in there. I'm going to have to ask that any one who saw this remove and eat their hard drive straight away. National security, you know!

Just what Harry said. Back in the day every time I'd see some kind of cheepo gag box like that I'd snap up a few and velcro 'em in to the cockpit someplace out of the way. A stress reliever for the guys. The bird dog and Securite Civil guys really liked 'em because they were fitted with a whelan siren/loudhailer and could broadcast sound effects in flight- zooooommm-ratta-tatta-tatta-boom-shut up Beavis! comming from the airplane as it ripped past. Good clean fun untill the wheels up stairs caught wind of it
:icon_lol:
Click to expand...

lazarus - Okay, I as you requested, I ate BOTH of my hard drives. I thought about it for a few minutes and then went ahead and ate the rest of my computer, too. A couple of questions: 1. Now how do I run FS9? and 2. Do you ave any TUMS?
 
andersel said:
lazarus - Okay, I as you requested, I ate BOTH of my hard drives. I thought about it for a few minutes and then went ahead and ate the rest of my computer, too. A couple of questions: 1. Now how do I run FS9? and 2. Do you ave any TUMS?
Click to expand...
I know where the boot disc goes in. You won't like it.....:icon_eek:

Oh, man. you made coffee come out my nose!
 
Thanks for the update on the paint kit. It seems everything is coming together about the same time. We appreciate your efforts. :applause:
 
Interesting how the fuselage is bulged behind the cockpit windows to fair in with the window, as opposed to the earlier style.

T
 
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