TOMCAT Pilot Talks About His Exchange Tour Flying the Tornado F3 with the RAF | Interview Clips 

Thanks for sharing your experience 👍👍

@@MrRathel I was remiss in mentioning the Victor. It was E P I C!

the Victors really were the most underrated of the V bombers

Re the language point. Agreed

The cannons on the F3 are 27mm.

Like mess rugby in full mess dress.

I had a U2 fly over my house a good few years ago . . . I think it was the day ex PM Boris Johnson hid in a fridge . I wonder if they photographed it 😁

Yes, there's nothing quite so upper-class British as getting riotously drunk in very formal clothing.

My dear late dad served in the RAF and later for the MOD as a civilian, not as pilot but worked on Radar then radio systems. He told me how hard they partied in Germany drinking, getting into scraps (fights) with American servicemen......to meet him you never would imagine him pissed and fighting as a young man!😂

See if you can find accounts of the Buccaneers on Red Flag exercises. Makes interesting reading. ;-)

The same is true of pretty much all aircraft - they reach their best at the end of their lives.

You making up your own missiles there? F3 had Skyfkash and Sidewinder. I was present in the Falklands when the F3 re-rolled to AMRAAM.

If he didn't answer the radio every time with "Hello there." he was doing it all wrong.

My cousin flew Gr4 converted to Typhoons...

No it wasn't, that was purely for their TV documentary

I was Army we used the Scottish Highlands to winter train in I'm cold war warrior so Buccaneer's were still the map of the earth flying plane TO ASK for I sat on the top of an ice sheet 600 ft up having a smoke when a Buccaneer came flying round the entrance to the Valley some distance "bellow me" as he actually looked up and we exchanged a wave "Bomber Boys" on a different level to "43"

😂😂 Or Obi-Kedoki.

cool i helped setup the first RAF Tornado squadron at RAF Bruggen (17F Black Hand ) Germany, phased out the Jag and bought in the Tornado. The good old days back in 1984.

@@Optikification I was on 14 at the same time :)

What civvy jet did you fly?

@@CarlosHernandez-cp8qd Hi. B757, B767 and A320/321.

The funny thing is that I think we can all understand flying civilian planes after the military would be boring... at the same time, flying cargo planes for fed ex is still cool to those of us commenting on vids like this ;)

I spent my early years growing up in the Welsh valleys, the South rather than near the Mach Loop and whilst the Mach Loop is the most routine and photogenic spot the RAF and Navy would go screaming through every valley at night or in the day and even bad weather. Used to love watching the Jaguars, Harriers, Tornados, Hawks and just about every Helicopter, Chinooks included.

Absolutely correct mate, and with a name like that, no one can argue.😁👌

Turbo union rb199

You wouldn't be a relative of Frank Whittle would you?

Didn't Oral say the engines were turbojets not fans? Must have been a slip of the tongue. The RB199 is definitely a turbofan.

Which is why it actually needed to be a bit further out than the North Sea. ;-)

It was also superb at low level - where it could out-accelerate the F15. It was when it got above 15000' it became a bit less...'responsive' but for what it was intended to do (as you say: dealing with the Soviet LRAF) it was fine.

@@ianprice9563 Wasn't that superb they lost quite a few aircraft in the first gulf war.

@@georget5874 That was Tornado GR variants flying low level bombing runs on Iraqi airfields in Gulf War 1.

@@georget5874 They lost five which considering the dangerous low level missions they were asked to fly isn't "quite a few".

You can sleep good knowing that is the sound of freedom.

Officially jealous....

@Hammer 001 Fortunately for me, the millitary dont send jets over too often, but I do get to see all kinds of cool stuff at very low altitude. If I walk up a hill I can watch Aircraft pass below. Search for Cad West for some great videos.

Opens the bedroom window..."Oi - I'm on the night shift!!!" :)

That's amazing. You could make a killing on AirBnB if you have a spare room. Mach Loop is certainly on my list once the kids are older. I'm not too far, live in Dublin.

@Brian Coley Looked at an interview with an ex pilot here on YT Autosweep was apparently fitted from factory on the ADV, then deactivated after delivery ! It doesn't get more British than that I guess ;-)

And the auto sweep functions were not used as a matter of training. There are interviews over on aircrewinterviews channel about this very subject with ADV and GR4 pilots. They could extract more performance from the aircaft if they did it all manually. Leaving it to the auto system reduced performance and made the pilots lazier fliers.

@@iatsd The main reason they didn't use the Autosweep in the Tornado was to reduce the maintenance for the plane. It wasn't about performance because you could get better performance with an auto system than without. That would be one less thing the pilot would have to worry about so he could concentrate more on flying. The problem with autosweep in most swingwing designs comes down to how powerful the motors are that sweep the wings in the first place. The motors on the F-111, B-1, Tornado (all versions), the Su-24, and MiG-23/-27 were not powerful enough to sweep the wings under G-load so an autosweep for a "dogfighter" with those motors was generally useless. That's the reason they DIDN'T use most swing wing designs as dogfighters and why the MiG-23 was a mediocre fighter. The Soviets kept the MiG-21 in production for another decade because they realized the -23 was not a dogfighter. Only the F-14 mounted motors powerful to sweep the wings under G-load and those didn't sweep as quickly under G (up to 2/3 as quickly as sweep at 1 G), either, but they STILL swept the wings even when turning to at least the design G-limit (7.5 G's; they reduced to 6.5 G's to extend framelife another 1200 hrs without major airframe rebuilds). Of course, because it had fully-functional autosweep, there was more maintenance associated with the Tomcat as well. The problem with a variable sweep swing is all that stuff that's under constant tension and gets abraided (electrical lines, the canvas bags that inflate to keep the wing glove plates tight) and telescoping parts (fuel lines). You can have a nice big wing that's more economical at cruise and altitude and sweeps back to reduce drag for acceleration and higher speed but you pay a penalty in maintenance (and plane weight; I'd say the variable sweep system was the main reason the F-14 was at 12,000 lbs heavier than the F-15). The canvas bags on both the F-14 and Tornado had to be replaced regularly. The electrical lines were a source of headaches because they were located in areas that were not easier to get to and not everything could be inspected and replaced without sending the plane to a land-based depot. I think some F-14 A-models weren't completely fixed for various electrical issues (radios and other crap that wasn't reliable) until they were rebuilt into B- and D-models. Not even today can they make variable sweep much less complicated than the 1960s and 1970s; they'd still encounter the same technical issues with parts wear and the locations of power/electrical lines. Even the D-model, the most reliable F-14 in service because of the GE F110 engines and digital avionics, had an average maintenance of 50man hours on the ground in the shop for every 1 hr spent in flight. The maintenance is why the F-14 was decommissioned, not the technology or performance.

@@AvengerII Go watch aircrew interviews and the episodes he's done with Tornado crews.

@@iatsd And your point is?!? I don't get it. You sound defensive for some reason I can't comprehend.

Ah Avionics. The RAF primary ground trade. 😉

getting pissed is our national passtime lol

I live near RAF Shawbury! Getting pissed is a British past time!

Growler might be misconstrued as cunnilingus in australia

@@vaudevillian7 lol

I loved the Lynx. It was our usual lift in the Province. Puma and Chinook were basically flying buses, boring as hell. RAF pilots were less likely to come down if the fog was in... which, being Ireland, it often was. But if the Lynx was your ride, you were less likely to be walking. Story was if it was a Navy Lynx, you were guaranteed a ride home; never had that privilege myself. But I was still pretty chuffed with Army pilots. One time we were picked up by a couple of AAC Lynx flown by female pilots in South Armagh. That was a thrill. My mate had the headset on, and he claimed that their conversation went something like: 'I betcha can't do this...' ' betcha I can...' It was a roller coaster the whole way home.

That is a lot of hours flying, and plenty of time to understand the full performance envelope of the aircraft.

Yes low-bypass turbofans

Triple spool Turbofans at that, although the intermediate stage was not instrumented for speed. As he is a fish head and an American we will let him off just this once!

@Hammer 001 , actually, no, it wasn’t . The original harrier had no radar, only the sea harrier had it and that was delivered with it. Do some research ....incidentally I spent time working with tornados ( F2 /3) at coningsby in 1990..

@Hammer 001 blue circle was a tornado term, not harrier. Also the pilot misnamed the radar, it was AI-24 Foxhunter, not Foxhound.

@Hammer 001 , the original harrier ( 1969 ) had NO radar. The 70s sea harrier, had blue FOX, blue VIXEN came with the FA2....you either didn’t work on them, or you’ve gone senile .

@@wirdy1 , don’t worry, he knows not of what he speaks.like about a billion dreamers on RU-vid .

@Hammer 001 , I’m not sure where you are going with this....you thought the first harriers had radar....wrong....the thought the first one was blue vixen ...wrong.....you thought the term “ blue circle fighter “ applied to harrier.....only ever heard it applied to Tornado, and it has a wiki link as such, it’s common knowledge . Google tornado F2 and you will see.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo-Union_RB199

Mistake probably caused by the relatively low bypass ratio for a turbofan, although it is high in comparison to other military engines.

that's right, it even has a much higher bypass ratio than most american engines.

It'd be 'down south' from Leuchars, though.

And beat the shit out of them!

@@stewartmoore1551 Hawk is underated.

Ive found NSN’s for parts on Google because our Stackers wouldn’t give us it.

@@notmenotme614 I was UK Repair manager for Legacy Crypto Units, and in particular for US Crypto Google was my friend, not only the NSN but technical details as well.

I we don't know where our guys are, how would the enemy?

@@stephencrompton4352 Information so secret, even we don’t know what it is...

correct,RB199 turbofan engines

Mark 104s to be exact,

I initially said that the Tornado F3 had Auto Wing Sweep. That is correct, but from what I have subsequently heard and read only RSAF F3's had Auto Wing Sweep.

I did wonder how it managed mach 2.2 if the 199-104/5 engines were so crap.

@@realMaverickBuckley Tornado was pretty low drag with the wings at maximum sweep.

@Brian Coley A low bypass ratio is anything up to 2:1. RB199 is 1.1:1 which makes it a low bypass ratio.

@Brian Coley Either way, it's not a turbojet as stated in the video.

@@realMaverickBuckley It wasn't a crap engine, it was just designed for low altitude. The F3 could hit well over 800knots down low.

Mach Loop by any chance?

@@owenevans83 Don't think so, was so long ago. Early 80's :)

Jules is a Sqn Ldr now; I have worked with her for the last 3 years; great girl!

I think what he's getting at is that is also the role the Tomcat was designed for, but it also had outstanding maneuverability and pilot aids. I am but a mere plebeian looking from the outside tho so just my interpretation

@@alphaprawns Agreed - it was to do the same job for the fleet as the Tornado was for the UK mainland.

@Hoa Tattis Correct - but Happy hours took place every Friday - formal Mess Dinners maybe once every month.

@Hoa Tattis I think over here Happy Hour was more of an Officers' Mess tradition and would often go on until 2a.m. on a Saturday morning - so more like a Happy 9 Hours!

The F3 was also veeerrrryyyyyy fast at sea level - ask Charlie Chan!

Wonder if this was on early aircraft. 🤔 none of the F3s I worked on had auto wingsweep/manoeuvre. And the only jack that affected the wingsweep lever was the wingsweep balk device which stopped 67° being selected with 2250l tanks fitted.

@@crookesy1979, You’re correct, my mistake, the jack was the wing sweep baulk for the 2250ltr. tanks, the wing sweep lever was moved by the mechanical linkage between the H.L.W.S.C.U. and the lever itself, the AWMDS system was fitted to the ADV version of the Tornado but only the RSAF ever certified it for use, the R.A.F. stuck to using manual operation only, maybe that was just as well since it was always a pain trying to diagnose the problem when it failed to operate in flight.

@@mrjockt the RSAF IDS uses auto manoeuvre and it is always causing issues and a ballache to diagnose a fault. I'm so glad the RAF didn't use it.

So The Americans cant Say, Tomato, Garage, Aluminium and Now Tornado.

@@DiceStrike Technically, "aluminum" is more correct, as it would follow the naming convention for the elements, but for some reason in the UK we inserted a prosthetic "i", which changed the pronunciation

The GR4 was meant to be even better at low and ultra low level than the legendary Buccaneer. Chatting with aircrew in the gulf and they loved it

Correct. The GR4 was, at the time, the best strike aircraft in the world - that includes the F-111 and the big Russian Tupolevs.

Needs must?

To make it worse the original version of the F3 did not even have radar. It had a concret weight to simulate the radars weight. It was jokingly called the blue circle radar. After a popular cement company.

All true. Remember the original name was MRCA for Multi Role Combat Aircraft. The brits wanted ground attack and air defence variants. The Germans wanted ground attack and naval variants and the Italians wanted something to look cool in. Just joking- they wanted ground attack only. Therefore most wanted high speed low level capabilities hence turbojet engines and air frame with high wing loading. I would like to see a F14 fly at close to mach1 at 200ft under hands off autopilot control. There was also a joke in the early days about the american made TI terrain following radar - before it was working properly sometimes the pilots would follow a railway giving it the nickname train-following radar. Also some wag said MRCA stands for Must Refurbish Canberra Again.

True you can turn an air superiority jet (like an F15 or F4 Phantom) into a decent strike aircraft but you cant really turn a low level strike aircraft into a real top of the line air to air platform. The F3 could work in some scenarios but it was always a compromise.

@@madisntit6547 I was the Captain...not the wingman.

When a platform is optimized for a role like the Tornado was, for low level attack, there is nothing you can do to make it a great air superiority fighter. Different designs with different sets of equations.

I guess pilots just need to know where the 'go faster' lever is and leave the boring technical details to the ground crew. :D

Yep, I can still remember the name of the wingsweep actuator... the 'Hull-whisk-you' as it was called. HLWSCU--high lift wind sweep control unit. Still not quite as good as an F3 'Dinky-doo', or DINCDU, Dual Inertial Nav Control & Display Unit :).

@@wirdy1 that brings back memories i was avionics on 25 sqn back in the day

As a joke the RAF once asked a Nimitz class if they'd like a low pass flyover. The RAF took out their Buccaneers.

@@MostlyPennyCat accelerate down the runway, raise the undercarriage, and descend to cruising altitude

@@MostlyPennyCat I recall reading a comment from the USN flight deck crew about them looking DOWN on a pair of Buccaneers as they flew past...

@@tacfoley4443 I remember reading that too! Never could find it again. 😩

I once read that a Buccaneer pilot when asked on his return from a low level training bomb mission in america if he had remained low at all times, responded that he unfortunately had to climb to 30 ft over the desert plateau in order to avoid leaving dust trials!!

Shifty Fix

True. And if I recall correctly, the Tornado is still the fastest plane in the world at sea level. And also has thrust reversers....

cos you rubbed with strangers.

Let me do some cross branch guestimation here: there is a formulaic pattern to promotion in the Navy/AF and it doesn't include spending 3 years flying someone else's plane. In the Army if you pass on a command opportunity, spend to long on staff at a particular level, or get invited to hang out at war college longer and write papers it often irrevocably damages your career. Does it make sense? It's selecting for certain qualities rather than others. You can disagree that what they are selecting for is incorrect, but that's the method they are using. After decade or two there is a move to change this within each branch and not much happens.

I think it was added on later variants?

Tornado F3 definitely didn't have auto manoeuvre unless it was on the very earliest aircraft. Some export aircraft did though.

@@crookesy1979 I thought they had it but it was left inop?

@@petertwiss4215 funnily enough I was talking about this to a colleague tonight. He said the very early F3s had it but inoperative, then later ones it was removed completely. I didn't start working on them till '97 so gone by then. Learn something new every day

I think he's flown only the OCU jets which lacked a lot of the bells and whistles. He's also misremembering the wing sweep angles and the turbofan engines. They would all have had SPILS, though. Tornado an absolute dog without it (and something of a dog with it. The F3 was not... great.)