Holy crap, no kidding, very small world...!!
Yeah, the seats were GRU-7s. Damn, do you remember BuNo 149475? We had to send to depot level for some uncorrectable rudder shimmy and they fixed it, but also sent back the TripleA slugs they found in the vertical stab. Part of the problem I think?! I think alot of the "Playboy" tails in pictures on the internet have BuNo. 156985. Also, speaking of that, I have one of the last actual patches handed out from Q-2 that has the official Playboy bunny before we had to change it in '93 to the Panthers to appease the political gods of PC. Back when PC was getting commonplace, sad day for America.
Oh hell ya, what old Corps Marine doesnt know about "kick the tires, light the fires" COL Reiten?! The ONLY pilot I ever knew that took a one-generator EA-6A on a "FMC checkflight" (if you wanna call it that) from Yuma BACK to NAS Whidbey. Also, on that list, I know Burgin (MAJ at the time), Monarch, Rann, Gramps (LtCol Dunn, I think?), Slyman. Haha, gonna have to get out my Iwakuni UDP cruisebook from '91 and kick loose some old unused brain cells. Plus, you mentioned the "86 America cruise", two seat mechs, my ol' boss Don Armstrong and Jerermy Schmidt were on that cruise.
No worries about the multi, even tho it woulda been great to have ya. Hopefully someday you can join in, as its alot of fun w/the kids, some of us semi-older farts, and even a few winged aviators toiling in our midst.
For my questions to you, please Personal Message me with your answers and your personal email, so I can send you the files and you can download them at your discretion, since your speed is really slow.
1. What Operating System do you have? (I need to know to help you)
2. Ill get you the Sludge Hornet (what are your system specs, determines if your system can take the FX version of the Sludge Hornet, or just the BASIC version)
3. The FSX Carrier pattern is finicky. Usually for the 180, I call out the Abeam, then wait 6 secs, and start a 30 AoB turn, and at the 90 using JRs new realistic Hornet HUD, I get the ICLS Needles just after I make the 90 call and Im usually right on G/S (4.0) around 550-580 AGL and 1.3-1.4 on the TCN. Not something I can change in FSX, so I just go with it. I cant change the wakes either, so I just go with that too.
4. I have a hybridized FSX KC-135, and inside it, there is a "traffic.bgl" folder/files that you stick in the scenery that gives you a few AI Traffic plans. The one I use goes from KSAN to KSFO, 16k, 220kts at 2000Z.
Later
Sludge