Author Archives: Pinch

Oceana Air Show, 2006. This was the last appearance of the Tomcat at the Oceana show. The aircraft was on her last legs by now, down to only a few squadrons as she was being phased out of service. Size, … Continue reading →

I haven’t gotten really political much – or at all – on the Instapinch 2 during this reboot. That may change, depending on if I can wean myself away from that vacuous and vapid sucker-of-life-force Facebook. This particular tidbit pretty … Continue reading →

Some orange flight suit lovin’! Selfie in an F-14D during an acceptance flight during duty at the Grumman facility in Calverton. As part of equipment issue while assigned to the Defense Plant Rep Office, we were given a couple of … Continue reading →

Camelot 101, our squadron jet with CO Dan “Chopper” Chopp on the RIO cockpit rail and XO Pete “Strick” Strickland” on the pilot rail, gets loaded up on catapult 2 on JFK. At this particular point, the pilot has been … Continue reading →

Carrier-based fixed-wing aircraft (to differentiate from helicopters and other rotary-type aircraft) need a tailhook that grabs a steel wire spanning the deck to land on an aircraft carrier. Unlike a land-based field where there are 8,000 or 12,000 foot long … Continue reading →

A piece I wrote up with my thoughts on recently passed Senator and retired US Navy Captain John McCain. John McCain passed away this afternoon at his home in Arizona, surrounded by family. I never personally knew the Senator. He … Continue reading →

The Air Boss is the Almighty on an aircraft carrier, controlling just about everything aviation-related on the ship and in the immediate vicinity. This is the placard that he reads from into the flight deck/ship announcement system (called the 1MC) … Continue reading →

Tucked in tight with Camelot 106. This was no doubt on a cross-country transit to Fallon, hence the ferrying of the two orange TACTS (Tactical Air Combat Training System) pods. Also called ACMI for Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation, these are … Continue reading →

Sometimes you just put your camera up and take a snapshot, hoping something will come out. When we flew at night from the beach (NAS Oceana) it was usually to get some carrier landing practice (known as FCLP for Field … Continue reading →

Inverted flight, for anything much more than a short bit, can cause problems with a jet like this. Primarily, fuel and oil systems are made for one G or close to it flight, meaning gravity is an important contributor to … Continue reading →