Comments on: Vintage Plane Pr0n – UK-style

By: Oldschool

Oldschool — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 13:47:48 +0000

Sorry about being late to this thread – techical query if I may be permitted: the gear retraction is very very soon after weight comes off the wheels. Are they that fast on the gear up selection, or did the Buc have auto gear retract (WOW switch senses no more Weight On Wheels, so stuff’em in the wells)? Is the max gear down speed so low that the gear HAS to come up that soon after T/O ??
Would feel strange – having to climb to pattern altitude for the approach …. or having to climb for a turn – what is the wingspan? would hate to plow a field with a wingtip.
Freakin ballsy flying! How wide is that line between gutsy and crazy …??

By: another AW1

another AW1 — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:57:10 +0000

Saw a Buc’ on approach to Jax, a couple months ago. TINS.

By: Skippy-san

Skippy-san — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 01:46:08 +0000

I had a classmate from the Fortress of Learning who did an exchange tour with the Buccaneers. Like most PEP tours, it did not help his career, but he would not have traded that time for anything in the world. He had a blast!

Lucky bastard.

By: Tom Murin

Tom Murin — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:14:01 +0000

We conducted some exercises with them back in the late 80′s around Roosevelt Roads, P.R. – they came in so low we thought they were going to hit the mast of the ship (an FFG).

By: Darryl

Darryl — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:01:35 +0000

Cool vid, man they’re low. Some of it looks like REALLY fast taxiing.

By: Jim Howard

Jim Howard — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:54:29 +0000

Shortly before the first Gulf War I was at a Green Flag where the Brits refused to fly any medium altitude missions. They didn’t have the memory our senior people had of Viet Nam.

My memory is that Buccaneer was not initially invited to participate in Desert Storm, but were rushed into theater after the Tornados, which at that time had no medium altitude capability at all, were having a really tough time.

The Buccaneers had (IIRC) Pave Spike pods and could therefore perform accurate medium altitude bombing..