Pacific Formation

I took this photo from the wingman somewhere west of NAS Miramar, a US Navy Air Station near San Diego: I was lucky enough to get a trip in a Tomcat while spending a week at Miramar.  The experience was wonderful, although takeoff performance was underwhelming (compared to our lovely new F16s, based at MacDill AFB).  The other slight snag was that each engine surged (stalled) during manoeuvring at different times, not long after we had started "turning and burning" in the air-to-air training session.  The first engine lit again OK, but the second wouldn't, so we had to return early to Miramar on one engine.

And before the flight, when I was given the requisite flying clothing for the trip I was foolish enough to ask the safety equipment personnel why it was brand new.  The reply, tongue in cheek I suspect, was that the last lot of of kit had been in an accident.  This was a couple of years after Top Gun, the film, in which Goose died in a flat spin . . .