Jacksonville FL, NAS & International 1981

[xkekeith]

The 4th post from the 1981 east coast road trip, a planned visit to VP-30 the Orion training unit and an impromptu turn up at the gate for the Florida ANG F-106's:

VP-30 a mix of various mod P-3C's and a few P-3B's
160293 'LL51' P-3C VP-30 USN by Keith Heywood, on Flickr

152760 'LL23' P-3B VP-30 USN by Keith Heywood, on Flickr

157318 'LL30' P-3C VP-30 USN by Keith Heywood, on Flickr

Other resident units:
VP_16
158915 'LF5' P-3C VP-16 USN by Keith Heywood, on Flickr

VP-5
158566 'LA4' P-3C VP-5 USN by Keith Heywood, on Flickr

VP-56
156523 'LQ9' P-3C VP-56 USN by Keith Heywood, on Flickr

VP-24
157310 'LR1' P-3C VP-24 USN by Keith Heywood, on Flickr

Florida ANG at Jacksonville Int.

Resident C-131D
42808 C-131D Florida ANG USAF by Keith Heywood, on Flickr

Unit hack:
35325 '23' T-33A Florida ANG USAF by Keith Heywood, on Flickr

F-106B
72533 '02' F-106B Florida ANG USAF by Keith Heywood, on Flickr

F-106A
90140 '07' F-106A Florida ANG USAF by Keith Heywood, on Flickr

Next stop Tyndall AFB a taster:

Interesting visitor Vermont ANG EB-57E
0-21511 EB-57E Vermont ANG by Keith Heywood, on Flickr

[F3]

Liking that EB-57E of the Green Mountain Boys + the Darts.

[alhenderson]

Lovely!! What's that window under the nose of P-3 #30 for?

Al.

[paddyboy]

Hi Keith

Yet more lovely 'frames

'57's to come

Thanks for posting

Paddyboy

[xkekeith]

The additional sensor window under the nose appears to be for cameras.

Recommend http://www.p3orion.nl/variants.html and http://www.verslo.is/baldur/p3vpu/p3vpu.htm for an overview of the various Orion flavours

A couple of extra scans show two other versions of P-3C port cockpit window variations:

158932 'LA2' P-3C VP-5 USN by Keith Heywood, on Flickr

158567 'LA6' P-3C VP-5 USN by Keith Heywood, on Flickr

[dollar99]

I do love a well turned out P-3

Both the Mad Foxes and Batmen were on TDY when I went in 1983 although one Batmen P-3C dropped in. Our guide told us some squadrons would always find an excuse for an aircraft to return for a short while when away and you always knew which ones it would be

[Punkrunner62]

Excellent set, the F-106s and the EB-57 are real classics.
Cheers.