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TA-4J Skyhawk Work-In-Progress

Dino Cattaneo

Dino Cattaneo

Charter Member
Just some WIP screenshots of my next project - TA-4J Skyhawk

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Especially trainer versions of single seater jetfighters are so rare - this is such a great job, Dino! Looking forward to this project.
 
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Certainly a must have for me ! I remember I went TDY( AFRES ) to Roosevelt Roads NAS , PR in the early 90's . I saw one parked on the tarmac . I would loved to have taken a ride in it . Really looking forward to it . Thanks Dino !

Rich
 
I worked on them at Pax River, with the Naval Air Test Pilot School Maintenance Division. 73-76. Pulled a lot of those ejection seats/canopies and fixed airconditioning systems. Great aircraft, and a LOT of fun to ride backseat in!!!!

NC

I am REALLY looking forward to this one, Dino!
 
Navy Chief
I worked on them at Pax River, with the Naval Air Test Pilot School Maintenance Division. 73-76. Pulled a lot of those ejection seats/canopies and fixed airconditioning systems.​
Click to expand...
And I worked on a bunch of them at MCAS Yuma. VMFAT-102 birds. I worked on their radar system, such as it wasn't, and the VTAS unit from under one of the seats. I don't know which. The line apes pulled them out. The VTAS was easy to diagnose. It was the white wire. The trick was figuring out which one or three of the few thousand white wires they packed into the bottom of the unit. :biggrin-new:
They were wrapped onto posts no soldered, and teensy, tiny, thin, wires, they were too. A real adventure to work on. Thank goodness we had an electric "gun" to do the wrapping for us! And that I still had good eyesight. In both eyes! :pirate:

But what I REALLY appreciate about the TA-4 was that I first saw my soon-to-be second wife on the nose forward of the windscreen. They had brought one back that had been in '102 before they decomissioned it, and sent them all over to Davis-Monthan. It needed to be de-cocooned and cleaned up so they could repaint it, and put it up on display at the front gate of the base. They got the A&P students at the local college branch on base to do the de-cocooning, and cleanup work. My wife, soon-to-be, anyway, was taking the class, and her father, a retired Senior Chief, was the instructor.
Anyway, she was assigned to clean the cocooning off the the nose area, and to get to it, she had to straddle the nose, facing aft. I must have driven one of the tugs we had at VMFAT-401, who I worked for at the time, past that A-4 a dozen times that day, admiring the "view" she gave us.
I didn't even realize that she was the girl I wound up married to until she mentioned the jerk that kept driving past when she was working on the bird. After we were married. I looked at her, and told her it was me, and she told me she was the girl on the nose. Neither of us had known it was the other until that minute...
We still laugh about it every time we talk about it. :loyal:

Sad thing was, when he class started on the cleanup, they realized there were a few left-overs from active duty still on-board it. The seat was still fully armed and ready to use, with the pins in, yes, but it should have been pulled entirely before it even left the base for the boneyard. The LOX converter, about 1/2 full was still in it, and they had shoved the two launch racks from the wings up the tailpipe, still with the pyrotechnics installed. All this was to have been dealt with by 102 before they sent the planes to the bone-yard. When the base CO was notified by my wife's father, he threw a fit. He spent a few hours on the phone, tracking down 102's CO, XO, SgtMaj, and any one else he could find. And yelling at them.
Understandable. Those items could easily have killed one of the students working on it for him. Deadly stuff. :pop4:
We lost an employee of 401 to a seat arming accident, so we knew how deadly the seat alone was. EVERYONE knew about LOX converters, too. Luckily, as soon as a student saw the seat was still installed, he immediately got everyone well way from the plane.

Really looking forward to adding these to my hangar. Maybe I'll park one out in front of the correct hangar at MCAS Yuma. Just for the memories.
Thanks Dino!
Pat☺
 
Another must have from Dino for sure!

Thanks to all of you that share your experiences on SOH of working on and flying the real deal in the military. I very much enjoy reading all of them.
Thank you for service gentlemen, cheers!
 
The ejection seat in the Skyhawks was a proven performer, and easy to work on. I can't remember if the canopy had to be removed to pull the A-4 seat, but the TA-4 canopy was removed to pull those seats. The ESCAPAC seats were lightweight; not backbreakers, like the Martin Baker seats in the F-8, F-11, F-4, F-14, etc...



http://www.ejectionsite.com/escapacfr.htm

NC
 
Navy Chief said:
The ejection seat in the Skyhawks was a proven performer, and easy to work on. I can't remember if the canopy had to be removed to pull the A-4 seat, but the TA-4 canopy was removed to pull those seats. The ESCAPAC seats were lightweight; not backbreakers, like the Martin Baker seats in the F-8, F-11, F-4, F-14, etc...



http://www.ejectionsite.com/escapacfr.htm

NC
Click to expand...
However heavy they might have been, seeing one still fully armed up and ready to go in a "mothballed" A-4 was a bit of a shock!
Thankfully, the man that opened the canopy for the first time, and my soon-to-be Father-in-Law, knew what they were seeing, and knew the incredible danger it put them all in. Thankfully, VMFA-513 was assigned to assist as needed, and they sent their entire seat shop over to deal with the situation. Same with the LOX converter, and the launch rails. They were properly dealt with by qualified, active duty personnel, not some civvie people with no experience in these fields, 1/2 way through their A&P certs.
I just hate to think what could have happened if a civilian A&P student had gone to hop into the cockpit, and leaned on the face-curtain handles...

Anywho, back to the thread. I apologize for taking off at an odd tangent, there, all!
Trigonometrically yours
Pat☺
:pirate:
 
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PBR and liveries testing...
 

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Looking great! The Virtavia A4 was always one of my fav's but its getting a bit long in the tooth, this is looking like its going to be a very worthy replacement and a must have.
 
Something about the "clown" jet colors of the TA-4, but that VA-127 camo is an instant fav. These were still around when I started my USN career in Pcola.
 
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