The EF-18G Growler will be known as the “Grizzly” on the ball, to prevent confusion with Prowlers during CQ evolutions.
The Super Hornet has a little strobe light on the nose landing gear to distinguish it from FA-18 Charlies, and a different strobe light pattern on the tails at night.
I wonder what they’ll do for the Grizzly?
So we’re all – or nearly all -Hornets now: At least I can say I flew ‘em when they were cool.
I wonder what they’ll do for the Grizzly?
Sparklers on the wingtips.
We’re still waiting for the version with the AEW rotodome on top.
Also wondering when the COD version will surface. In all liklihood the only “Pony” brought will come on a thumbdrive. Ooops, nevermind.
Well, if your son is selected for jets then I guess you know what he’ll be flying…some derivation of a Hornet/Rhino/Griz halfbreed.
It’s funny they came up with the name “Grizzly”. The VAQ JO’s have their own name that was denied by some of our fearless leaders…..they coined the name “EA-18G Shocker” complete with patch and all. I guess the Commodore in Whidbey didn’t like the “Shocker” reference so much. And so it goes…..Grizzly it is. Silly! Lex, I still fly cool hornets, not to rub it in!
Back when I was an IS at a VAQ squadron, the other IS (a female) got her hands on one of the “Shocker” patches and showed it to me. I remember saying something like “yeah, so?”. She had to explain shocker to me. Awkward…
Didn’t you feel sheepish……nothing like being schooled from across the gender domain…..DOH
So, did you original Hornet drivers also put peanuts in your Coke?
I am given to understand that rather than a new strobe pattern/colour, that the Grizzlies will simply be covered in reflective tape in rainbow patterns. “Rainbow Brite” being the unofficial slang term for the little darlins’…..
Sorta of a post-modern “dazzle” cammo.
“So we’re all – or nearly all -Hornets now”
Can you say “single point of failure”?
Mind you, I love Hornets, but I’d be wary of putting all my eggs into one basket like that.
Well considering the A-D and the E/F/G are very different, I wouldn’t call it putting eggs in one basket. Lots of lessons learned from the Legacy Hornet were incorporated into the Superhornet. Of course some lessons weren’t(civilian ILS for instance). They don’t fly the same, they each bring different capabilities to the table. If there is a redstripe, you have some issues, but you have those issues in any community(e.g. F-15 FLE). It is what it is.
Being a Tomcat then a Rhino guy, it has been interesting to see the Hornet community change. Back when I flew Tomcats, the Hornet-guys $hit didn’t stink – there airplanes were always the most reliable, with all sorts of cool stuff (save a usable FLIR pod…), the radar amazing where the Tomcat radar struggled…
Fast forward 2-3 years later when I moved on to the Rhino… the same Hornet guys were crying about how their FA-18Cs are always breaking, the toys they had weren’t as good anymore, and they still did’t have a good FLIR pod…
Seeing buddies go from E/F to Cs can seem like a child having to give up their favorite toys (JHMCS, for one thing)…
One thing, however – at least when it was Tomcats vs Hornets, there was some continual community pride – now it is just this twisted mess of people, planes, and parts with no real identity… even more so now than ever, the Jack of all Trades, master of none.
I mean, who needs a plane that can go high, fast, and shoot from a gazillion miles away? Not us!
Rhinowso/
You can blame the bean-counters–past, pesent and future. Go talk to ACORN and see if they’ll loan you any money….they’re soon to have (technically to “be eligible for” but under Obama who are we kiddin’?) between 3-8 billion to toss around (depending on whose doing the counting.)
I take it my suggestions toname it the Hippo didn’t cut it. Rhinos and Hippos being large, relatively slow African land animal artifacts..IMO, Grizzly is more apt for something large and powerful with weapons…
Ahh, the tale of the Hornet. Legends of the Mind. Seems getting Hornets outta jet training stopped being anything special a decade ago…
Now those that can actually dogfight in a Hornet and win consistently..unlike the ho-hum 30K JDAM attack mode., yes, that may be the new “cool” Lex alludes to. Almost forgot- those capable of meeting the pucker-factor challenge and airmanship to fly the last recovery, black-a$$ night, overhead tanker mission hawking a “Trick or Treat”. Yep- that’s the new “cool”.
O’course there’s always Sully:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-06-09-hudson-cockpit-transcript_N.htm
“Cool” is a state of mind.
b2
What ever happened to “Lightning Bugs!”
Growlers, Grizleys, whatever. As soon as they deploy, the yellow shirts and boss will simply refer to them as “Queers”, just like they did for the EKA-3 and EA-6B. You just gotta get over it and go flying.
Which still-even on a bad day-beats the hell out of most day jobs. ( Says me who got to ride along on Prowler pilot training hops in Fallon……).
Wake me up when the bug can do ASW….
Lex,
I thought our careers pretty much overlapped. I must have missed it – when was the “C” cool????
Love,
Nose
As xairboss says, they will be referred to as “queers” by the deck handlers. The Prowler was a “queer A-6″ when I was a young Fly One Blueshirt aboard Independence, way back in 19 and 74.
As for passing gas, nothing could beat the KA-6D or an A-6E with a buddy store on the centerline and four drop tanks. When I was in VA-145 from 79 to 82, we carried 5 tankers and 10 bombers. Due to the jimmy influence we had one bomber in the port-forward corner of hangar bay 2 on Ranger as a parts locker. But the rest of them flew, because we busted our tails to keep them flying.
During the hostage crisis cruise in 80 and 81, these old Grumman workhorses were the very tip of the spear. We also passed over 2 million pounds of fuel to each of the fighter outfits, VF-1, The Wolfpack and VF-2, The Bounty Hunters.
The battle Group got an MUC and AIMD on Ranger got the Air Pac Black E. I was TAD to the Hydraulic and Pneumatic shop on that cruise.
BTW, I retired out of VAQ-140, The Patriots.
Just some ramblings from an almost senior citizen, Retired Airdale.
Growlers and Prowlers should never be in the same Airwing, should they?
No bother..gotta go deposit a “growler”.
b2