"Phormer Phighter Phlyer" wrote in message
news:1110810045.afc3a678a85e1ce9804eb0ea4e81e850@t eranews...
John wrote:
John

The T-2 was/is a pig?? Really? Did you hate that much? Please share
why. It is sometime difficult to read anything about an aircraft's
handling characteristics that doesn't seem to be written by the
manufacturer's marketing staff.

Thanks and blue skies.

JP


Well, flying around in the trunk with a bunch of cones can take the fun
outta flying the 'Combay Buckeye' but at VF-126 we had 4 of these, did
the F-14 stalls and falls flight and I quite enjoyed it. BUT just a flight
over the hill, some really cool ups, downs, and flop arounds and fly back,
with the IP in the front and ONLY day, VFR. VERY honest jet, very easy to
fly as soon as ya got it out of the line. Really 'complicated' electrical
system.

All true. Certainly intermediate strike training wasn't particularly
rewarding cockpit time. It was an excellent aircraft for its mission ... an
introduction to jet aircraft characteristics. Very forgiving. A lot of
power (relatively speaking) and exceptional response (both in spool up and
in airframe reaction) to it. Controls were sloppy feeling. Range wasn't
great. It wasn't as rewarding to fly as many other aircraft I've
experience.

As to the tip tank question, the tanks were designed to be interchangeable.
The core components could be flopped around (putting the filler caps topside
and vents, bleed air etc where they needed to be) and the light connected as
appropriate for the wing ... I wonder if there were any cases of wiring the
lights incorrectly (a classic opportunity for Murphy to spin a wrench)?

As an interesting aside, there was one other airframe component that was
swappable from left to right. The horizontal stabs were symmetrical and
could be swapped. Of course the elevator had to installed properly.

R / John