#F14 cockpit full#
#F14 cockpit zip#

#F14 cockpit full#

If you’ve ever seen that photo of the aviator reading the magazine, now you know the full story. The vapes on top of the wing and wingtip vortices were fascinating to see and I was glad to capture them. In addition to the Hook magazine photo, I used the rig to take a few other photos, such as this shot when I was flying with Lumpy in 1989 on a humid day above the Indian Ocean. Second, I wish I’d made my own name visible somewhere nametag, oxygen mask, something. First, I should’ve turned the other direction so the magazine front cover was more prominent, instead of the back cover. Looking at it now, there are two things I wish I’d done differently. After that, this photo appeared in several publications, websites, and collections of humorous military photos – none of which crossed my mind when I shot the photo in 1987. Not much else happened until the Navy digitized their photo collection a few years later and made it available online. Once we returned from deployment I gave the negative to the Miramar Photo Lab, which sent it in the Navy Office of Information in the Pentagon. I sent in the photo and was happy to see it published in The Hook. None of the other shots were good, mostly because as we rolled inverted the cockpit was in shadow and no details could be seen. Three weeks later when I got the pictures, I saw one keeper: I set up my equipment, got out a copy of The Hook, and shot about 10 frames as Pager did the gentle roll we’d discussed. I discussed the photo with my pilot, Pager, and he was game. Our combat air patrol (CAP) flights over the Indian Ocean provided the opportunity to get the shot, since they were often solo airspace patrols, involving no “combat” and sometimes not even any training.

The new wide angle lens and tripod rig were perfect for this shot. So I came up with the idea to take a photo of myself reading an issue of The Hook in the cockpit. I was always looking for opportunities to get more coverage for VF-2, and one of the best publications at the time was the Tailhook Association magazine, The Hook. I also used a 6-foot cable release to take photos. Once we were airborne, to use the tripod I unstrapped from my ejection seat and clamped the Vise Grip to a metal tab on the back of the pilot’s ejection seat! Believe me, I coordinated with my pilot before doing this, and I selected a tab that wasn’t movable.

#F14 cockpit zip#

The camera mount took a little thought, but eventually I took a collapsible tripod and used zip ties (cable ties) to securely attach a Vise Grip tool to one leg. The wide angle was easy, as I recall it cost around $40. I was most likely influenced by the work of other RIOs, especially “Tumor” Twomey, who created some of the best “face shots.” His work can be seen in the commemorative book, Grumman F-14 Tomcat: Bye-Bye Baby…! Some pilots also took good selfies, such as “Nick” Nickell, who published some of his along with a great article on The Drive website.Īfter looking critically at my images, I realized that I needed a wide angle lens and a way to mount the camera at a distance greater than my arm’s length. At VF-2 I tried a few more dramatic shots such as this one taken just after the cat shot: By the way, we generally called them “face shots,” which was also the slang term for forward-quarter Sidewinder missile shots. In 1987 I reported to my second F-14 squadron, VF-2, and was able to pursue photo ideas that had been percolating – including more selfies.