Once RoboRoy clued me in on how to find screen shots (thanks, Robo), I sent a former roommate the following screen cap. (I'm sure readers of this forum will recognize it.)

 

 

This guy (my former roommate) was a USMC F-4 Phantom GIB, guy-in-back, who retired as the CO of the USMC reserve squadron at Andrews AFB near Washington DC. But he didn't realize this was a screen cap! When I asked if he recognzied this "vista," here's what he replied.

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Wow, great picture of RW 04 at MCAS Kaneohe (known as Marine Corps Base, Hawaii these days). 7,800 feet long. Not great but barely enough.

 

Landed about 70% of the time on that RW. It was an “uphill slope” which made it easy for the GIF. However, the remaining 30% of the time, when the wind determined landing RW 22, it was a downhill landing into the mountains. At night, it was a real bear for nuggets. We set it up so any wet RW landings were midfield MOREST (M-21 Gear) Traps. Safer that way.

 

But, the occasional hook skips at night in the clag turning against the mountains were pretty hairy.

 

The hangars on the right were the 3 F-4 squadrons. My squadron, VMFA-212 occupied the 1st hangar followed by the “girls next door, VMFA-235, then VMFA-122, etc.

 

To the left of RW 04 was the SATS Catapult runway (07?). SATS stands for Short Airfield for Tactical Support. We did lots of field cat shots from there plus traps. The Marines wanted to prove they could operate from 3rd world countries with short airfields. Dumbbbbb!

 

The program fell apart when the mighty Phantoms decided to shed tires, nosewheel struts, etc, to the whims of the J-79 powered catapults and the cat portion fizzled out. The Israelis were dumb enough to purchase the entire package of engines, shuttle tracks, holdback fittings, etc. I think they must have eventually jettisoned the load over IRAQ or some Arab country.

 

Nice picture.

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I learned (a) that Flight has pretty good graphics and ( B) runway 04 was the preferred runway. Will also have to try a trap on runway 07!

That's quite an interesting read!

Thanks for the interesting history stumpwiz, my kind of story. Thanks again for sharing.

Yes, Runway 04 is usually the active, as it points directly into the prevailing tradewinds. When the trades are disrupted, you'll often be going the other direction, aimed directly at the mountains across Kaneohe Bay. There's plenty of room to get turned around, but it doesn't always look that way.

RoboRay, you seem to have had some Kaneohe experience. So I was wondering....

 

I'm thinking about a nugget, first tour pilot, who has one of those hook-skips on a wet-runway attempt on 22, in instrument conditions at night. I'm visualizing two J-79 afterburner plumes booming over all the population between the bay and the mountains as the a/c goes around for another pass.

 

Were there restrictions on flight hours? Were there anti-noise regulations? Was there a problem with noise complaints? How did it all work out?

The field pretty much closes from 2200-0600. You can get in or out in the middle of the night, but it's not normally done without a good reason.

 

Noise-abatement is a concern. However, with all the fighters gone it's not the problem it used to be. The base is pretty much just helicopters and turboprops now, although the C-17s from Hickam do touch-and-goes a lot.

 

The old 07(?) cat/trap strip is no longer is use, returning to nature as the grass comes up through all the cracks in the pavement.

 

You use a standard left-turning pattern for 04, which keeps you over the water, away from the town as well as the old fishing-ponds between the Mo'kapu peninsula and the rest of the island, which are now a wildlife sanctuary. Watch out for water-fowl. A straight-in to 04 would put you quite low over the mountains, so don't ask. The 22 end is about 10' higher than the 04 end, with most of the slope toward the 22 end. Note that the "Low & Threatening" theme in Flight gives winds that are fairly typical of the trades.

 

You should watch out for cars crossing mid-field, heading out to Pyramid Rock beach. The tower gives them a red-light to supposedly stop them, but some people don't notice. They get arrested and lose their on-base driving privileges, but that's a different story.

 

Also keep an eye out for the Beaver on floats that's often doing touch-and-goes in the bay. It's the tour-plane which operates from the Honolulu Airport Lagoon Seaplane Base, just getting some practice in. He stays low and to the south of the lineup for 04. My wife and I did the tour around Oahu with him and I can highly recommend it to anyone visiting the island.

It's the tour-plane which operates from the Honolulu Airport Lagoon Seaplane Base

 

Is this the seaplane operator? http://www.islandseaplane.com/index.html

Is this the seaplane operator? http://www.islandsea....com/index.html

 

Yep, that's them. It's not a cheap ride, but I thought it well-worth it. Although I did get a pretty good discount. :Peace:

 

Anyway, it's a great tour, even if you've been on the island for years.

 

That plane is used in a lot of movies, too. If you see a film, TV show or commercial shot in Hawaii that features a float-plane, you've got about a 90% chance it's Pat's Beaver. Our pilot (not Pat himself) was telling us about one movie where Pat was supposed to do a low pass right over the camera crew, and whenever he asked "how low?" the director just told him "as low as you can." So, he blew by a couple of feet over their heads and (after the crew picked up the director and dusted him off) he radioed back and said "A lot higher!"

 

Here's his plane off Chinaman's Hat, in the current livery:

 

 

Well, I guess it's still current. As of a couple of years ago, anyway.

Thanks for sharing that Stumpwiz.

 

Probably my favorite beach on all of Oahu was there on the wing side of Kaneohe. There was a road (probably just south of that clump of trees on the east side of the runway...) that ran up to 04 / 22. A little gate (yellow arm and a red light) would come down when the F-4s were using the runway. Quite a sight... instead of stopping for your typical train... there you are watching this "dot" accelerate toward you. No more than 50' high as they pass with those J79s in afterburner. Absolutely thrilling.

 

Gate would come up and then you drive on back to about where that little hill is... just to the right of it (Ray... Pyramid Rock?). Fantastic place to have a couple brews and watch the sunset. IIRC there was a pretty "bad" undertow at that beach, so I never swam there. And again, iirc, was the same beach a close friend almost drowned in... he came back white as a ghost to the squadbay one day to say he had been caught in the undertow.

 

Yeah winds I'd say too most of the time out roughtly out of the NE. Very nice breeze much of the time kept the squadbay fairly cool.

 

-Rob

Yeah, Pyramid Rock is the small hill with the miniature lighthouse on top, visible on the upper-left of the screenshot. It sucks to get stuck over there when multiple planes are spread out in the pattern doing touch-and-goes. There's not enough interval to let traffic cross the runway, so it piles up. I've sat there over an hour waiting for a break, as there's no other way back around the runway.