[MilAir] MilAir Digest, [FloridaPlanespotting] CG 1721 back with US Coast Guard

[Tom Clarke]

HI Allan,

Nice to see "Waterbug 157" (when she flew with VX-20 at Pax River) 
again.  I have lots of time in her when she had the rotodome and the 
E-2D radar prototype in the cargo compartment.  I spent many hours, 
mostly at night, collecting radar data up and down the East coast.

That rotodome gave it some interesting handling qualities.  The first 
time I stalled it, the left wing dropped with right aileron inputs!  OK! 
Got that data point! The USAF IP said that it was a normal result during 
a stall.  It had adverse yaw and it also got a little squirrely (highly 
scientific flight test description!) landing in a crosswind too.

Sea Story:  We typically launched late evening and returned just after 
the field opened at 0700. One night a couple hours into the mission, the 
whole radar system and instrumentation went down.  We headed back to Pax 
and requested a "pilot's discretion" landing since the field was 
closed.  Sorry not permitted, said ops, you must hold until field opens. 
I said I would hold overhead while he gets the ODO on the radio so I 
could have a chat.  About an hour into the hold, the ODO said "Land a 
pilot's discretion" and then went back home. Darn the bad luck if our 
holding just happened to fly over the Admirals quarters!  The next day 
we were notified that the field closed landing restriction had been 
lifted for our test program. Hmmmm? Wonder why?

Fun times!
Tom/Pax River, MD
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