Vietnam veteran A4C Skyhawk Bu no 148587 main panel question

[Reach22]

Hi

Over last 6 years have put together a main panel of an A4C, now reasonably complete, but am still looking for an accelerometer {which no one seems to have anywhere!}

My question is this:   does anyone know if the radar altimeter I have fitted is correct for this aircraft variant?

I should say that this particular A4C was later converted to an A4L, which complicates things!

I know the Australian and NZ versions used my radar altimeter but did the USN?

[Reach22]

Sorry I should have clarified :  my radar altimeter is "square" shape which interferes slightly with the take off check placard. Should it be round rather than square, or did the USN not worry about such things !!

[Reach22]

Photo in flight over the USS Independence, late '60s

[Reach22]

[mohawkALSE]

Dont have an answer to your question but that is an exceptional display you have put together.  Is there electrical power to the gun sight?  That base with the history as well as the control grip is great.  Very good job making up this display to preserve this piece of history!

[Reach22]

Hi mohawkALSE

Currently the gunsight is illuminated using a small LED torch, but it would be nice to have a better system.

Thanks for your kind comments.  The main problem with building an A4 panel is that many of the indicators needed are pretty much unique to that aircraft, b being produced by DAC Douglas Aircraft Co, back in the day.

So all the hole fillers that you need are rare , and particularly accelerometers , which is really dificult to understand because every A4 had one, sometimes 2 !

EVERYTHING was reduced in size to save weight and space, including instrumentation, and you cannot use standard USAF ,  NATO or even USN gauges because they are simply too large and won't fit in the panel !

 

[hink441]

That is a wonderful job on that display. 
 

On your RAD ALT indicator you have installed, what is the maximum altitude that is displayable?

 

Most Navy Tactical aircraft used a 5000’ Radar Altimeter system.

 

It looks like it might be a 5000’ but I just can’t see it well. 
 

Chris 

[hink441]

I’m really interested in your display and how you managed to get all those indicators!!
 

When you first started how complete was the dash??

 

I bet it was really hard to find some of those instruments!!

 

Chris

[Reach22]

Hi Chris

thanks for your kind comments.

As is often the case i guess, the bits come from all over the place.  The main panel came with 4 or 5 usable instruments from Turkey, the armament panel turned up in New Zealand after I went to the trouble of having one custom made by a company called Flight Engineering, who did a superb job. It was then obviously made redundant and replaced by the original which you see here.  Some instruments actually turned up in the UK. I found drawings online and studied cockpit photos extensively to work out what went where.

The panel is about 95 percent original A4, a friend of mine manufactured a small light panel and again Flight Engineering machined a NATO standard accelerometer to make it fit , but it's the only "repro" dial on the panel, and needs replacing .

I also became a member of the excellent Skyhawk Association and discovered a lot of the history of this particular airframe.

Remarkably I had email contact with the pilot in VA195 Dambusters who test flew this A4 off the Ticonderoga in April '67 the day after it was repaired following damage sustained over North Vietnam, and he sent me a photocopy of his logbook page detailing that flight!

But progress is generally slow because of the scarcity of parts still available, but as with all these projects I have some really neat swaps available

Hope that gives you a better idea

[Reach22]

BTW Chris, you're correct, it is a 5000' radar altimeter 

[Reach22]

Hi (again!)

I have acquired a few small items that go quite well with the main panel display, including an account of the air war from the North Vietnamese perspective, published in Hanoi in 1967.

The A4 group photo again shows 148587 on board a carrier.

[Reach22]

The more accounts I read about the courage and tenacity of the Navy pilots on Yankee Station, the more important I think it is to preserve the history of that period.

I have come to the conclusion that the carrier pilots were the most innovative and resourceful , and carried out their missions with characteristic determination and skill that set them apart : .true professionals in every sense of the word

[phantomfixer]

wicked cool panel..

 

I think the rdr altimeter is good for the L model. So it depends on what period/model you want the panel to be.. a good place holder until you find the earlier rdr altimeter

 

the conversion to the L was 1969-1972 from what I've read online...

[Reach22]

Hi

Yes, I think you could be right there.  The drawings show the round radar altimeter Im looking for.

 

[adda91]

Hello, 

 

I am beginning to build the instrument panel of a a4 c skyhawk.

The panel Come from buaer 145073 a 4 skyhawk which was sold to the Singapour air force around 1980. 

I have five instruments and gauges ( not seen in thé photo).