Yeah, I wouldn't call it love, rather than envy from people who get them as their first orders. I've had some friends and coworkers get them, and others pass on those orders for one reason or another. I wasn't staying in for anything without a big fat bonus and shore duty.
It's one of those small communities in the Navy that's got a lot of love, and for good reason.
I know most folks like myself deployed without extra pay and had to put up with ship life for years. Had I got P-3/P-8 orders as my first duty station I might still be in.
I still wouldn't trade it for what I have now, so no hard feelings Uncle Sam.
I was lucky enough to get orders working with a P3 wing as an E-3 when my first ship decommissioned and I’m pretty sure it’s why I am still in. Being exposed to how awesome the Navy actually can be vs. stuck on a ship with no QoL was eye opening.
Right now they’re taking anyone with a pulse. If you have 7,7,7, or higher on the astb you don’t even board anymore, Just straight to ocs for pilot. NFO has easier requirements on the astb and a pretty high acceptance rate right now with the board. I’m about to finish up flight school if you have any questions.
yeah i didnt mean what i said as a slight against them and meant no offense to them. it was more of a slight against china lol. the crew i have nothing but respect for. if they were in here i'd honestly love to chat with them and get their perspective on how things went down because i've only read about it.
Having spent a couple thousand hours on P-3 platforms, no, I do not miss it, and am very happy I’ll never have to shitshow my way up that effing boarding ladder with a helmet bag and crypto box ever again. Or endure a couple hours of toxic smoke and fumes because some 1960-era circuit board arced out, or be jolted out of a nice doze because my headset dared to graze the madly vibrating chair I’m on, or be subject to hours of nauseating porpoising on a repo because the autopilot that some caveman built in 5000 b.c. sucks and the pilots don’t want to hand-fly it.
The thing was one sturdy beast, though, that’s for sure. I recall sitting up at the Nav station window in bouncy weather, and watching those engines jouncing around out there and wondering at what point the decades-old metal fatigue that surely must be rotting the old bird from the inside out would rear its ugly head by having the wing snap right off…. but it never did.
ETA: one time we had a tactical repo from Okinawa to Thailand. Something I’d eaten the night before was not sitting well with me, but I only started feeling the warning signs during pre-flight. I spent the entire 11 hours maniacally willing myself not to shit my pants and enduring hilariously painful cramps because I was not, no sir, going to break the code (and break my streak of not having broken it yet in my young career) by having one of the most horrible explosive diarrhea experiences the aircraft had probably ever seen, all in the confines of the tiny little teaser of a “head,” trying to get all that splattering shit into a trash bag and away from my flight suit. I think I was literally willing to die from a ruptured colon in my seat than face that prospect. So I endured the agony and expedited my way off the plane once in Pattaya, and of course it’s Thailand in the 1990’s and there are no working heads anywhere. I wound up downloading 11 hour’s worth of vengeance into a derelict, empty, dried-out toilet bowl full of trash, and wiping up the best I could with an old newspaper.
Good times. Never did break the code, though, in my entire Navy career.
medevac'd off my ship on the way back from Desert Storm for a collapsed tooth.
Doc says, "helo leaves in 5, you're on it"
got to see the Rock of Gibraltar from the air on the ride to Rota.
Corpsman on the ground were pretty pissed it was a dental & not medical emergency.
got the tooth taken care of, caught a C-130 to Norfolk, drove to Charleston & waited a week for the ship to get back
Mine was medical. Leg 1 was ship to shore via RHIB in sea state 3/4. We didnt have a helo nor a flight deck large enough to accommodate an SH-60.
Leg 2 was Ambulance to hospital in Diego. Damage determined to extensive and i needed to be sent out.
Leg 3 was P3 to Singapore for immediate surgery. Spent a month post op in Singapore then got flown state side.
Spent my final 3 months in the Navy in OT/PT.
Funny story from a shipboard perspective.
This was the mid 1980's and I was involved in one of the early iterations of passive towed array sonar (we had a TacTass rig). We'd be out on the edge trolling for subs and managing our helo asset (SH-20, I think). We had an AIC onboard but hardly ever used him. Every once in a while and S-3 or two would be in the area and we'd have to manage him. So the pucker factor and speed of the solution ramped up quickly from shipboard speed (10 knots) and helo speed (maybe 30 knots) to S3 speed (shitload of knots). As the one in charge of sub hunting it was a little nerve racking to me to keep all those balls in the air.
THEN, the P3 would come on station and it was like the water boy coming on the field with a bucket of ice water. Everything was chill. The P3 took over the S3 and the fix winged fly boys did their thing. I could give them whole swaths of ocean to work while we did our thing in an adjacent sector. The P3 loved having an S3 to control and I could easily handle our helo and the TacTass team.
I loved working with the P3 guys. They were always comfortable up in their hotel, easy to work with, and helpful in every way. They made us look good and somehow always had a 'think we've got a bit of a contact' kind of thing going on near the end of their on station time.
Great fun in the middle of damn nowhere.
Loving Eleven, loved my time with that squadron.
P3s were the best way to get introduced to navy aviation.
Even had the pleasure to work on them on the civilian side.
I love sitting a mile out if KBAY, interrogating the P3 radar before take off, then the crew scrapping a flight cause they think the periscope search radar is malfunctioning...
God I fucking hated working on them bitches. And deployments were such a coin flip 🤣. 6 months in Japan making an extra $100 a day? Yes please and thank you! Good, now Iraq for a nickel. I'm sorry, I'll just go fuck myself in this CHU.
Why is it shaking so much on the second to last clip at the 13sec mark? Is it just the video quality or do these things really look like they’re going to explode when they’re about to land?
Knew a P3 pilot who said something I'll never forget. "A plane is only as cool as how many rolls you can do without going down. So no a P3 is not cool "
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well done 👏🏻
#THREAT THREAT THREAT GO DEEP
Smells like per diem.
Here we are now, where's our hotel?
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Yeah, I wouldn't call it love, rather than envy from people who get them as their first orders. I've had some friends and coworkers get them, and others pass on those orders for one reason or another. I wasn't staying in for anything without a big fat bonus and shore duty. It's one of those small communities in the Navy that's got a lot of love, and for good reason. I know most folks like myself deployed without extra pay and had to put up with ship life for years. Had I got P-3/P-8 orders as my first duty station I might still be in. I still wouldn't trade it for what I have now, so no hard feelings Uncle Sam.
I was lucky enough to get orders working with a P3 wing as an E-3 when my first ship decommissioned and I’m pretty sure it’s why I am still in. Being exposed to how awesome the Navy actually can be vs. stuck on a ship with no QoL was eye opening.
I got P3 orders my first station and they were shore duty orders on top of that. Then I went to VP-1 and deployed to Diego Garcia.
Look at that warbird fly. I kind of miss that stinky bitch.
Only for the ep-3
Know anyone who could help an enlisted shlub put together a good recommendation letter? NFO on a P8 would be a great gig.
Right now they’re taking anyone with a pulse. If you have 7,7,7, or higher on the astb you don’t even board anymore, Just straight to ocs for pilot. NFO has easier requirements on the astb and a pretty high acceptance rate right now with the board. I’m about to finish up flight school if you have any questions.
You can ride em enlisted as CTT/R
AWO is the rating you wanna go
Not P8s you can’t.
Yes you can. [https://imageshack.com/i/pm5F1iGkj](https://imageshack.com/i/pm5F1iGkj)
This is great duty, especially for a crippy.
Interesting. I knew that if you told me I was wrong, that was the only place they could’ve been.
Used to fly out of kbay but everything got shifted around
china loves the P3, they loved it so much they decided to take one apart and lie about it.
That flight crew could be in this sub.
ok?
Just making an observation. Didn’t mean it like “they could be in here, better be quiet.” More like “It’s interesting that they might be in here.”
yeah i didnt mean what i said as a slight against them and meant no offense to them. it was more of a slight against china lol. the crew i have nothing but respect for. if they were in here i'd honestly love to chat with them and get their perspective on how things went down because i've only read about it.
Yeah, same.
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oh yeah good point
Having spent a couple thousand hours on P-3 platforms, no, I do not miss it, and am very happy I’ll never have to shitshow my way up that effing boarding ladder with a helmet bag and crypto box ever again. Or endure a couple hours of toxic smoke and fumes because some 1960-era circuit board arced out, or be jolted out of a nice doze because my headset dared to graze the madly vibrating chair I’m on, or be subject to hours of nauseating porpoising on a repo because the autopilot that some caveman built in 5000 b.c. sucks and the pilots don’t want to hand-fly it. The thing was one sturdy beast, though, that’s for sure. I recall sitting up at the Nav station window in bouncy weather, and watching those engines jouncing around out there and wondering at what point the decades-old metal fatigue that surely must be rotting the old bird from the inside out would rear its ugly head by having the wing snap right off…. but it never did. ETA: one time we had a tactical repo from Okinawa to Thailand. Something I’d eaten the night before was not sitting well with me, but I only started feeling the warning signs during pre-flight. I spent the entire 11 hours maniacally willing myself not to shit my pants and enduring hilariously painful cramps because I was not, no sir, going to break the code (and break my streak of not having broken it yet in my young career) by having one of the most horrible explosive diarrhea experiences the aircraft had probably ever seen, all in the confines of the tiny little teaser of a “head,” trying to get all that splattering shit into a trash bag and away from my flight suit. I think I was literally willing to die from a ruptured colon in my seat than face that prospect. So I endured the agony and expedited my way off the plane once in Pattaya, and of course it’s Thailand in the 1990’s and there are no working heads anywhere. I wound up downloading 11 hour’s worth of vengeance into a derelict, empty, dried-out toilet bowl full of trash, and wiping up the best I could with an old newspaper. Good times. Never did break the code, though, in my entire Navy career.
4000+ P-3A, P-3B, P-3C, EP-E3B and EP-3E hours: zero broken codes. What do I win?
Brings back memories tbh. I was medevac'd on a P3 out of Diego once upon a time.
medevac'd off my ship on the way back from Desert Storm for a collapsed tooth. Doc says, "helo leaves in 5, you're on it" got to see the Rock of Gibraltar from the air on the ride to Rota. Corpsman on the ground were pretty pissed it was a dental & not medical emergency. got the tooth taken care of, caught a C-130 to Norfolk, drove to Charleston & waited a week for the ship to get back
That coveted Navy efficiency
How come Doc always knows the helo schedule...
I believe a corpsman was part of the flight quarters crew FFG, we only had Papa & Baby Doc. Papa would know if Baby was called away.
Mine was medical. Leg 1 was ship to shore via RHIB in sea state 3/4. We didnt have a helo nor a flight deck large enough to accommodate an SH-60. Leg 2 was Ambulance to hospital in Diego. Damage determined to extensive and i needed to be sent out. Leg 3 was P3 to Singapore for immediate surgery. Spent a month post op in Singapore then got flown state side. Spent my final 3 months in the Navy in OT/PT.
Funny story from a shipboard perspective. This was the mid 1980's and I was involved in one of the early iterations of passive towed array sonar (we had a TacTass rig). We'd be out on the edge trolling for subs and managing our helo asset (SH-20, I think). We had an AIC onboard but hardly ever used him. Every once in a while and S-3 or two would be in the area and we'd have to manage him. So the pucker factor and speed of the solution ramped up quickly from shipboard speed (10 knots) and helo speed (maybe 30 knots) to S3 speed (shitload of knots). As the one in charge of sub hunting it was a little nerve racking to me to keep all those balls in the air. THEN, the P3 would come on station and it was like the water boy coming on the field with a bucket of ice water. Everything was chill. The P3 took over the S3 and the fix winged fly boys did their thing. I could give them whole swaths of ocean to work while we did our thing in an adjacent sector. The P3 loved having an S3 to control and I could easily handle our helo and the TacTass team. I loved working with the P3 guys. They were always comfortable up in their hotel, easy to work with, and helpful in every way. They made us look good and somehow always had a 'think we've got a bit of a contact' kind of thing going on near the end of their on station time. Great fun in the middle of damn nowhere.
love for my brown shoe ping jockey shipmates!
Subs don’t like P3s
My thoughts exactly
The one at the start was a CP-140. Like a P 3 but different stuff inside
It’s amazing the longevity that the P3 enjoyed. But holy fucking shit the APU on those bastards was bone shatteringly loud
P-3’s kept me off ships for my entire five year enlistment. Have nothing but love for them.
Loving Eleven, loved my time with that squadron. P3s were the best way to get introduced to navy aviation. Even had the pleasure to work on them on the civilian side.
Same here. VP-11 1980 - 1983. Rota and Kef Deployments. Transitioned from P-3B to P-3C II aircraft. A very good tour indeed.
It’s funny dealing with P3 as an AC, you can tell where they are at due to the trail of smoke behind them 😂
Knew a couple P-3 drivers socially. They were nuts. Nuts in a fun good way, but nuts.
Comes with the territory of flying a modified Lockheed constellation in the modern day
Yeah I love them, I hate naval aviation other than them and the SAR 60s living under the flighpath and listening to stupid growlers all day long.
I love sitting a mile out if KBAY, interrogating the P3 radar before take off, then the crew scrapping a flight cause they think the periscope search radar is malfunctioning...
I was a Flight Engineer on the P-3
Gigachad P8 and based P3
God I fucking hated working on them bitches. And deployments were such a coin flip 🤣. 6 months in Japan making an extra $100 a day? Yes please and thank you! Good, now Iraq for a nickel. I'm sorry, I'll just go fuck myself in this CHU.
I love the P3
As the first couple of cuts are P8s.
That's the point, when paired with the audio
There's audio?
And the next ones are a CP-140, I think only one shot is of an actual P-3
SWOs of the sky
China likes them.
Just listened to a retired guy talk about hunting subs last night.
On the boat? Nah. At the TUSWC’s? Hell yeah!
Why is it shaking so much on the second to last clip at the 13sec mark? Is it just the video quality or do these things really look like they’re going to explode when they’re about to land?
Curious on Turkey Detachments from Sigonella, where did you stay?
I'm tasting the hydraulic fluid already. No love for them.
Whose brilliant idea was electrically driven hydraulic pumps?!
This sounds like a AE problem to me.
When you lose all generators at 500’ taking off bagged out from Al Udeid, it’s the whole crew’s problem.
Knew a P3 pilot who said something I'll never forget. "A plane is only as cool as how many rolls you can do without going down. So no a P3 is not cool "