F-18F Question

[Groundpounder]

Anyone know what the strobe looking light on the nose gear of this F-18F is for? Its right below the LSO lights.

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k290/soflaav8r/IMG_0056.jpg

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k290/soflaav8r/IMG_0055.jpg

 

[LearLove]

maybe its for their disco parties after they shower off together and play volleyball.

 

[HarryShadow]

maybe its for their disco parties after they shower off together and play volleyball.

That's funny sh*t!!!!

 

[sandman2122]

Careful guys, that is an inappropriate question due to the obvious classified information that could be revealed on a public website about the Navy's disco lights.

You'll go to a Federal Detention Facility if you continue to question various lights, paint schemes or insignia on our military aircraft. Don't go any further with this thread.

Disco lives!

 

[HarryShadow]

Careful guys, that is an inappropriate question due to the obvious classified information that could be revealed on a public website about the Navy's disco lights.

You'll go to a Federal Detention Facility if you continue to question various lights, paint schemes or insignia on our military aircraft. Don't go any further with this thread.

Disco lives!

And so it begins again...

 

[SIG600]

It's called a Day-ID light. It's so paddles can tell the difference between a Chuck and a Rhino. And their called AOA indexers, not "LSO lights." I had to go through serveral Rhino buddies to find that one out, I was curious too. Only figured it out after one broke out the big book and looked it up.

 

[rhinodriver]

$15 light saves $62 million aircraft!

Day recoveries at the boat are normally done without and radio talk from the ship or aircraft. When they designed the Super Hornet they sort of forgot that it looks a whole lot like the legacy Hornet and both are going to be operating around the ship at the same time. It is actually quite difficult to tell the difference from the LSO platform when they are airborne even though the Rhino is significantly (33%) bigger.

The arresting gear needs to be set to a particular aircraft model weight in order to stop and not do damage to the aircraft if it is set too high or risk having the wire break and potentially lose the jet and crew if it is set too low. If I remember right (it been a few years since I was on the platform) the Hornet weight is 36K and the Rhino is 41K. So they installed the day ID light to save the day. At night the strobes blink at different intervals than from the Hornet.

The disco theory is really just a cover story for the laser beams they can shoot from the nose gear... Oh jeez... there I went and said something I wasn't supposed to.

 

[Gorilla]

Rhino!!?? WTF, that's an F-4, a Man's airplane, not an F-18 honeybee. Get a unique nickname, squids!

 

[DaveGriffin]

The disco theory is really just a cover story for the laser beams they can shoot from the nose gear... Oh jeez... there I went and said something I wasn't supposed to.

It is actually the Navy's latest 4 gen Sniper Pod combined with an energy particle beam, which is pretty cool since it greatly reduces the weight of ordnance carried. No more loud noises to alert the survivng bad guys that they are in deep sh*t.

Now that's Navy CAS. MAGNUM!! has been missing out on all the fun.

 

[SIG600]

Rhino!!?? WTF, that's an F-4, a Man's airplane, not an F-18 honeybee. Get a unique nickname, squids!

phhssssssssshhhhhhhh.... the Hornet and Superhornet are everything the Phantom WHISHES it could be. (Plus the Super IS a big grey animal).

Oh.. and remember that the F-4 was a Navy jet the AF was ALLOWED to fly. So of COURSE it's a man's airplane.

 

[ExAF]

Nope!

Sorry...there's only 1 Rhino and that's the good old Double Ugly. You might be able to get away with calling the big Hornet the Rhino II or Rhino Deuce, but there is and always will only be 1 Rhino...The might F-4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SIG600]

You know the Superhornet is bigger AND heavier than the F-4. So technically the Super is a BIGGER dumb grey animal. Elephant is to hard to say in a ball call though.

 

[rhinodriver]

A little call sign history...

but there is and always will only be 1 Rhino...The might F-4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When operating at the ship and you have to "call the ball" at 3/4 mile the radio call goes something like... "204 Rhino ball, 7.5". The first part is your side number, next is aircraft type, finally fuel state. Obviously the aircraft type "Hornet" was taken already by the legacy Hornet. The reason that the ball call is so important is for arresting gear weight settings as explained in my last post.

And so began the quandry, what are we going to call this new airplane when we call the ball? We can't call it hornet... They fooled around a bit with different call signs and originally settled on "Super". But alas... calling the ball "204 Super ball, 7.5" just sounded too gay. LSO's from other aircraft communities began to make fun of us. So one of the Admirals finally grew a sack and said that the F-18E/F will be the Rhino. Not the Rhino 2 or Rhino deuce but the big grey animal.

The point is that it is OFFICIALLY the Rhino and not something we made up to piss off former F-4 drivers.

 

[jetblast18]

Hey Rhinodriver,

A question came up on another aviation website regarding the canted pylons on the Rhino. The poster overheard someone mentioning that the computer modeling used was erroneous so the four degree canting of the pylons was unnecessary. Have you heard anything about it? Also, how do you like flying the Rhino? It's one of my personal favorites, I don't care how slow people claim it is!

 

[Gorilla]

And so began the quandry, what are we going to call this new airplane when we call the ball? We can't call it hornet...

Hmm... Maybe

"204 fuzzy-kitty, ball, 7.5"
or
"204 happy-fun, ball, 7.5"
better yet
"204, I'm-low-on-energy-gonna-go-nose-position, ball, 7.5"

Just kidding! Your admiral should have come up with something original. Names like the Rhino, Thud, Sandy, Scooter, many others, are immortal. That's one reason I gag at the Lightning II moniker of the F-22. There is only ONE Lightning, and that's the P-38.