There is the old VAH-5 "Skywarrior" story of the 3/crewman who forgot to
bring a spare drag chute on an RON (c. 1961.) They landed at their
destination in the rain so he took the chute, dried it out as best he
could, and repacked it before leaving the next day. Needless to say, on
landing back at NAS Sanford, FL, the next day, when the pilot pulled the
switch for the drag chute it fell out of its rear compartment and
bounced all the way down runway 9 (10,000' available for landing.) This
was written up on a naval aviation board years ago and I think is in one
of the A3D/A-3 monographs. I do remember that the tower got a good laugh
seeing the rather large package bouncing down the runway on the long
tether. Temps at 40k were not unknown to us, we used to make "cross
country navigational" hops to NAS Brunswick, ME, radio our order in to
ops, then a local lobster truck would bring the lobster packs to the
flight line. We'd load them on the bomb bay rack, climb to 40k or so,
they'd be blast frozen on arrival back at Sanford.
To keep on the subject, the A-3 was probably the only jet in which the
crew used the same 'ladder' to exit the a/c in an emergency as to enter it!
Joel McEachen VAH-5

R. Scott wrote:
Fun increased geometrically if it was rainy, snowy or cold.

Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)

As a CrewChief/EWOP in EA-3Bs I used to complain about packing and
loading the Chute especially in the Hot Refuel pits. But after reading
you two gents adventures I feel better.

Rick
FMR USN A/C