Yep, the “stick monkeys” have an easier time employing the jet 
, at least until it’s time to return to the boat. That’s when the pilots really earn their keep.
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Reminds me of that USAF F-4 pilot’s book (might have been Ed Rasimus’ Palace Cobra) where he visits a carrier to train the USN guys to use LGBs, and he describes being intrigued by how all the Navy pilots, having flown long missions and having seen combat, talked A LOT about their landings mostly. 
That’s really something a pilot comes in handy for!
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Reading Dan Hampton’s Viper Pilot for the second time now, and it’s really interesting how he first lambastes WSOs early in his career, but then does a 180 after working with the F-4G weasels in GW1.
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Agreed. I’m not a pilot but I get the sense I learn more about what goes on concerning aerodynamic flight in the Tomcat; get to use my feet [more].
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Very true. Wish ‘Jester’ was a bit more polished; probably why I only fly the Turkey when I just want use my feet.
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That book rocked. War for the heck of it. Loved the bit about the LGB’s.
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Don’t recall what book it was ('Nam-era, probably on the Thud as a Weasel) but I always think about a quote within, when the ‘Bear’ jumped in and said to the front-seater, “Driver, take me to work”.
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It’s not just the language.
Their artificial horizon works backwards from western ones, never been able to make my brain default to that.
Some of the other symbology and switchology just works in a way that goes against the grain decades of flying western planes have ingrained into me.
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Same here… Not impossible just quite the effort.
For me at least.
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For a single person? Yes. Very much. Chester brings a different dynamic, one more “system” to manage; so not only do you have to fly and fight, you have to tell him what to do and how to do it. I’d feel differently with a human in the RIO seat. From the front seat, you don’t get access to all the information that the RIO seat does, so you have to develop a lot of sixth sense skills just to survive. For example, Chester doesn’t do a good job at IFF, so you have to look at the TID and keep the tactical picture in mind when searching for targets and locking them up. When you do lock, you have to tell him to lock a target out of a number of unknown contacts with the limited picture in place. Then you have to be prepared for him to lose the target a lot because he’s not good beyond the basics at operating the radar.
Using it as a striker requires you to use a mod to get LANTIRN controls up front and it takes a lot of practice to get everything just right. Bug boys complain about not having enough TGP symbology on the HUD; the Turkey ain’t got none. Now throw yourself into a threatening environment and try to juggle attacking a target while defending against fighters and air defenses – and you’re doing two jobs as a single pilot!
Now throw in the other stuff: there’s no fly-by-wire, so it takes a gentle hand on the stick; it’s an aircraft of its era, so no fancy HUD and you have to rely on scanning the dash; air-ground is extremely limited, so air-air is its almost exclusive forte; take away the AIM-54s and it only has very, very, very shoddy AIM-7 and AIM-9s; the INS is very sensitive and takes 8-12 minutes to spin up by default; and probably most significant, it requires a dedication to rudder pedals to get the most out of it.
This doesn’t make the Turkey bad, but I do think prospective buyers should be fully aware of what they’re getting into with the aircraft. It can be fun and rewarding, but a huge part of that is all the trouble and missteps learning how to fly and fight with it.
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I absolutely agree that if you want to fight in it you are in for a step learning curve and some work.
The best view I have seen of the Tomcat was me sitting behind one in a F-16 a few months back still with 6 missiles on one of the Airquake servers.
Does this Chester guy act like EODAS and have 360 degree warning capability because he did a very good job of spotting me…sadly he still had to eject.
My previous 400 attempts at firing missiles had lead me to conclude I needed to be at least 1 metre away to get one to hit…however I still had to finish the job with good old iron cross.
It does? Well that may explain a few things… 
That’s what killed Buddy Holly .
It’s actually a western design. A Sperry patent.
That, and the situation where the pilot needed to use the artificial horizon.
https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/sperry-f3-attitude-indicator/
Eastern design, western design, all made in Taiwan!
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