Eyes in the sky over North Vietnam: RA-5C Vigilante

Flight Journal, Aug 2002 by Powell, Robert

Usually, the Vigilante flies into the break, quickly and alone. Occasionally, on a whim, Vigi and E-2 Hummer pilots will arrange to come in together, the Vigi on the left wing to break first. The Hummer is nose-down with its turboprops screaming at redline airspeed, while the Vigi has the flaps partially down and its nose high to try to stay slow and under control while in tight formation.

Downwind, I lower the flaps to a full 50 degrees, lower the gear and have my RAN check by TV what the indicators show. Bull quips, "We have three 'up' and locked." A lever on the right side of the cockpit lowers the heavy, A-frame tailhook. As the flaps come down, so do the leading-edge slats, and the cockpit air conditioning cuts out as engine bleed-air is diverted over the wing. As the airspeed slows toward 155 knots, the angle-of-attack indexer on the glare shield lights up. I engage the auto throttles with a switch and check the auto-throttle operation by pulling back on the stick; the throttles move forward. If you push the stick forward, the throttles move back. There may have been lots of fuel to bum flying around, but at a maximum trap weight of 50,000 pounds, there's only enough for four "looks" at the deck-not a time to screw up with the entire ship watching and waiting for me to trap.

Across the wake, I pick up the meatball. The wings are level when the plane is on the landing centerline. I start the landing scan I first learned in Pensacola: meatball, lineup, angle of attack, meatball, lineup, angle of attack. In the Vigi, I fly the ball with tiny tweaks of the stick to keep it dead center-gentle touches with fingers and thumb. The auto throttles keep the speed correct. Their jerky movements are reassuring. Nevertheless, my left hand rests on the throttles all the time-- just in case. Any lineup problem has to be solved early. A turn to line up an RA-5C means the spoilers come up, and their drag will pull the nose down if not anticipated. Close in, my scan changes as angle of attack becomes less important; then, the lineup drops out. For the last seconds, it is all meatball, meatball, meatball. Touchdown has to be in a perfect attitude, or there is the risk of a shattered nosewheel or of the tailhook slamming up into the fuselage. On a good trap at Vigi approach speeds, I am thrown forward hard against my straps (woe to those who forget to lock their harnesses). I have to struggle to bring the throttles to idle, raise the flaps, press the button on the stick for nosewheel steering, switch hands to raise the tailhook, switch hands to advance the power, switch hands again to fold the wings and taxi out of the landing area.

Taxiing the Vigilante is unique because the nosewheel is eight feet behind me. This takes some getting used to, even in normal turns, and on the ship, there are situations that require the nosewheel to be run up to the edge of the deck with the pilot watching the director over his shoulder and the RAN looking at water in the viewfinder. To the relief of Vigilante crews, this was eventually forbidden at night and discouraged in daylight.