Subject: Walk-Arounds
From: "David W Aungst" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 19:40:36 EDT

Hi Steve,

I've been remiss in getting back to you on your last e-mail.  Your three 
seat F-15E is ... well ... "interesting".  I look forward to seeing it 
completed.

Your information is correct.  I build primarily modern jets.  Many of my 
models are displayed on HyperScale (www.HyperScale.com).  I've been sending 
material to Brett on HyperScale for over 18 months, now.

The Tomcat Walk-Around a couple days back was wonderful!  Definitely could 
use captions, though, so I have typed them up (below).  Before I get to the 
captions, there are two corrupted JPG files in the F-14 posting - 
"Mvc-016s.jpg" and "Mvc-040s.jpg" - picture numbers 25 and 49.  Both of 
these only show partial pictures in my browser when I click on the thumbnail 
picture.

Also, did you misplace the captions I wrote for the F-4F walk-around?  I 
have not seen them getting added to the F-4F walk-around page yet.  I can 
re-send them if you need.

The F-14 Captions ====================================

1.  Left side of the nose.  Visible are the Television Sensor Unit (TVSU) 
camera under the nose and the 20mm cannon opening on the side of the nose.

2.  Close-up of the TVSU camera.  This sensor is equivalent to the Target 
Identification System Electro-Optic (TISEO) sensor on the F-4E Phantom.  The 
fairing under the camera is the ARN-100 antenna.  The red item is the 
forward anti-collision light.

3.  Close-up of the cannon port and the three intakes that assist in the 
venting of gun gases from the cannon bay.

4.  Close-up of the cannon port.

5.  The nose landing gear, slightly left of head-on.  Note the landing light 
and the three approach lights on the upper strut.

6.  The nose landing gear, slightly left of head-on.  Note the landing light 
and the three approach lights on the upper strut.

7.  The nose landing gear viewed from the left rear quarter.  Note the 
extension of the oleo and torque linkage.  This oleo is the portion of the 
strut that compresses for the F-14 to hook up to a catapult for launching 
off of the carrier.

8.  The nose landing gear viewed from the right front quarter.  Note the 
angles the wheel well doors are hanging at.

9.  Close-up of the wheel well doors, right side.  Forward on the aircraft 
is to the right of the picture.  Pay particular attention to the angle of 
the smaller rear door.

10.  The upper nose landing gear, viewed from the right rear quarter.  Note 
the wiring harnesses and the attachment point for the retraction strut.

11.  Broader view of the previous picture, showing most of the retraction 
strut.  Again, note the angles on the wheel well doors.  The trough in the 
lower fuselage (that fills most of the upper portion of the picture) is the 
front end of the right, forward Sparrow missile well.

12.  Nose wheel well.  The picture is looking forward and slightly left on 
the aircraft to view the left front corner of the wheel well.

13.  Overview of the nose landing gear, viewed from the right side.  The 
small braces that attach to the torque links are the mechanical linkage to 
lower the catapult arm when the nose strut compresses.

14.  Overview of the nose landing gear, viewed from the right rear quarter.

15.  Nose wheel well.  The picture is looking forward and slightly left on 
the aircraft to view the left front corner and front wall of the wheel well.

16.  Nose wheel well.  The picture is looking rearward and slightly left on 
the aircraft to view the left rear corner of the wheel well and the upper 
landing gear strut.  Note the multitude of wires and plumbing that live in 
the rear portion of the wheel well.

17.  Nose wheel well.  The picture is looking rearward and slightly right on 
the aircraft to view the right rear corner of the wheel well and the upper 
landing gear strut.  Note the retraction linkage attached to the door.  As 
the landing gear strut retracts into the wheel well, it is caught in a clamp 
(at the top of the door linkage) that pulls the doors closed.  There are no 
hydraulics attached to the nose wheel well doors.

18.  Nose wheel well.  The picture is looking rearward and slightly left on 
the aircraft to view the left side of the wheel well.  Note the left side 
door retraction linkage.

19.  Same as previous picture.

20.  Close-up of the right engine intake bleed air ramp.

21.  Overall view of the right engine intake.  Note the color lines where 
the gray camouflage gives way to the white duct color.  Note also the 
dirtiness of the rear portion of the ducting.

22.  ECM blisters on the right wing glove area.  These are part of the 
ALQ-126 fit for the aircraft.  These blisters were introduced on the block 
110 F-14A airframes and are present on all subsequent aircraft.

23.  Right main wheel well area, viewed from the front.  Note the "spaghetti 
factory" of wires and plumbing running all over the side walls.

24.  Right main wheel well, looking in from the front right to see the space 
above the engine air intake where the main wheel retracts into.

25.  The right main wheel.  Note the spoke pattern.  This pattern has 
changed over the F-14 block numbers and years.  Some model kits give 
alternate wheels to provide the correct spokes, others do not.

26.  Right main landing gear, viewed from the right rear quarter.

27.  Right main landing gear, viewed from behind.  Note the interlock strut 
that engages the side of the fuselage to help support the main strut.

28.  Right wing glove weapons pylon, viewed from inside and behind.  Note 
the lower portion is a Lantrin adapter pylon (without the Lantrin pod).  The 
Phoenix and Sparrow missiles each have different adapters from this (and 
each other) for use on the wing glove pylons.

29.  Right main landing gear strut, viewed from the front.  Note all the 
placards on the main strut.  A lot of detail can be added to the strut in 
model kits by simply adding these placards.  Note also (again) the multitude 
of wires plumbing running all about.

30.  Right main wheel well, looking in from the rear right to see the front 
wall.  Note the retraction oleo on the small forward wheel well door.  Both 
forward wheel well doors on the main wheel wells are hydraulically 
activated, unlike the mechanical linkages on the nose wheel well doors.

31.  Right main wheel well, looking up from the rear inside to see the outer 
wall and the hinge of the outer wheel well door.  Note the retraction oleo 
in the front corner of the well.

32.  Right rear fuselage.  The dark portion at the top is the inflatable 
bladder that seals the fuselage against the swing wing as the wing moves in 
and out.  Note the wing is in the over-sweep setting and that the horizontal 
tail touches the wing when it sags back.

33.  A little fuzzy, but another shot of the right rear fuselage.  The brown 
discoloration is produced by an oil vent that typically causes some amount 
of staining on the rear fuselage.  This is one of the largest stains I have 
ever seen, extending all the way onto the ventral strake.

34.  Right wing leading edge.  Note, again, how the horizontal tail actually 
touches the wing when the wing is in over-sweep.

35.  Topside of the right horizontal tail.

36.  Outside of the right vertical tail.

37.  Detail of the right side fairing that fairs the fuselage into the 
engine exhaust.  The hole is (I believe) a control lock point for the 
horizontal tail, although I have never seen one locked.

38.  Left engine exhaust.  Note that the irises are fully closed.

39.  Underside of the "beaver tail", showing the attachment point of the 
arresting hook.  Note the hook is not barber-pole striped.  Note, also, the 
zinc chromate interiors of the flare/chaff dispenser mounting holes.  
Finally, note that the left lower speed brake appears to have recently 
replaced and is a different, more blue, color than the rest of the 
underside.

40.  Back end of the "beaver tail".  The red hole is the fuel dump point.  
The beige item is the rear ALQ-126 antenna, paired to the ones on the wing 
glove area.  This antenna, like the forward ones, was introduced with block 
110 F-14As and all subsequent aircraft.  Also visible is the hook portion of 
the arresting hook.

41.  Right engine exhaust.  Note the irises are fully open.  When this 
particular aircraft parked, the left engine shut down first.  With power 
still available to the aircraft systems form the right engine, the irises 
had chance to close on the left engine (note the earlier picture).  When 
this engine shut down, there was no power available to close these irises, 
hence they remained open.  One engine open and the other closed is the 
typical parked stance of the F-14A Tomcat.  The irises on the GE engines of 
the F-14B and F-14D are attached so that gravity can pull them open after 
shutdown, so typical stance for the F-14B and F-14D is both engines open.

42.  Right engine exhaust.

43.  Inside of the left rear fuselage.  While hard to make out in this 
picture, note the same oil stain here that is present on the right outside 
fuselage.

44.  Inside of the right rear fuselage.

45.  Overview of the left rear airframe.  Note the left rudder was recently 
replaced.  The corrosion protection people have not had chance to paint the 
checkers onto it, yet.

46.  Overview of the left rear fuselage.

47.  Overview of the left middle fuselage.

48.  Close-up of the left swing wing pivot point.  The painted lines 
indicate preset wing sweeps to alert the ground crews of the wing's sweep 
angle.  The left-most line marks the setting for a fully swept in flight 
wing (not over-swept).  The middle line marks a standard mid-sweep setting 
where the outboard wing flaps can safely be lowered.  The right-most line 
marks the fully unwept angle where the inboard auxiliary wing flaps can 
safely be lowered.

49.  Left wing glove area.  Note the ALQ-126 antennas, mirrored to the right 
side and paired to the single antenna on the "beaver tail".

50.  Left forward fuselage overview.

====================================================

Hope this all helps.  Keep up the great work.

DWA
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