Check out the Store: growling-sidewinder.creator-spring.com/ Thank you guys for watching and if you have any ideas for future videos please put them in the comment section below and they might just end up in the pipeline, thanks again, much Love.
The A-4's at Top Gun were also modified and really stripped down while the F-14's were going into those training scenarios with a payload comparable of what they would bring into combat. They were basically a poor man's F-16 at that point.
the Top Gun A-4s were the Mongoose and SuperFox.. they had more powerfull engines, striped avionics, welded shut the front slats and some stuff.. there is plenty info arrond.. pilots said that despite being subsonic they were rockets as they had a high thrust to weight ratio.. much better than standard Skyhawks
They were very much a problem for a f-14A and still in the fight with a B or D model Tomcat. Saying they were out classed in every way is unfortunately just not true in just about everyway. A lot of the instructors that flew the A-4 mongoose consider it to be there favorite plane period.
@@stevenaskew2897 the DCS version is an earlier variant of the A-4 with a less powerful engine and heavier weight due to the avionics and equipment. Hence why it doesn't share the same advantages the Top Gun A-4s enjoyed. The A-4 in DCS is an E model rated at about 38kN of thrust, compared to the 50kN rated engines of the upgraded F models used by the Top Gun program
“These fighters are smaller, faster and more manoeuvrable, just like the enemy MiGs. The clock is ticking and as of now we are keeping score.” Jester (Michael Ironside)
A reminder of the size difference between the two aircraft: the wing of the A-4 is virtually the same size as the horizontal stab of the F-14. The fact that a beast like the F-14 can successfully dogfight a scooter like the A-4 is a testament to the F-14's design.
Well ok....except that A4 was never designed as a dogfighter either, although yes it’s had a great roll rate but was always pretty underpowered and the F14 is like a generation & 1/2 more modern (& far, far more powerful )......so not really seeing the f14 as the underdog here😉
A good friend once told me that he could, using the stripped down A-4's and F-5's of the Navy Aggressor squadron, defeat ANY aircraft in a phonebooth fight. He included the Rafale, Typhoon, and various Hornets and Tomcats in that. Never mentioned F-22 and b4 the F-35, but yeah, the A-4. Cool!
The A-4 is one of the best aircraft the Navy ever employed. Very solid and versatile bird at relatively low costs. Not to mention arguably the best plane the blue angels ever flew.
Great video. I would have been curious to hear the F-14's side of the story on that second round just to understand how badly damaged was his aircraft. Please consider an A-4 Skyhaw vs T-45 Goshawk match. A 1960's front-line aircraft vs a current advanced jet trainer just to get a sense of how far training aircraft have come.
@@adey88splace Do you mean crew killed and the F-14 was more or less flying itself? Just morbid curiosity since the flight pattern after the hit was so unusual.
@@DerDrecksack87 That's probably it. It was such an odd flight path I just was curious to hear what GS's gaming opponent might have said about those few moments.
I think it would be super interesting for one video to see your throttle percentages and movement on the stick while fighting. Not sure how possible that is but as a viewer it sounds super interesting!
DCS does have an input mapper you can display on the screen, and iirc it can be put in the track replay so he doesn't have to actually fight with it blocking his view.
I could watch this fight all day, every day. My two favorite planes, from seeing the Blue Angels fly the A-4 in an airshow when I was 10 or so, and then seeing Top Gun a few years later. Thanks for the video.
I really want to see the A-4 against the F-16 now. Great Fight, you both pushed your aircraft to the absolute limits, it was very entertaining to watch.
One I think would be cool to see is a4 vs f18. The rnzaf brought the ex Australia airforce a4s. We then used to fight the Aussies in the f18 and apparently we won quite alot.
Round 1 was intense! Round 2 really showed the size of the Tomcat when you moved in for the kill. The Tomcat is a big jet. Would be interesting to see the same fight with GS driving the Big Cat...
Neither Mav nor Goose ejected that first time, but I'm glad to see the canopy fully cleared the second and they both made it. Also, nobody flat spun going out to sea. A marked improvement. :P Would love to see you do a ground attack video with the Su-25. CAS, strike mission, anything. I've only ever seen you use the Frogfoot for dogfights and would love to see it used in its intended role. Thanks for all the amazing content!
These vids are awesome, not sure if you get enough thanks from the community but thanks for what you do. You provide a detailed understanding of aircraft capabilities and your 1 hell of a pilot.
The jets got so close your could really see the size difference. It was cool. I know that the F-16 is also smaller than the usual fighter jet, but you can't really see that in a fast, usually 2 circle fight.
The A4 and F5 were America's most nimble jets back in the day. Both aircraft attempted to buck the trend towards larger, more sophisticated, and more expensive fighters. I enjoyed your demonstration of the little Skyhawk's agility. You probably could buy 3 Skyhawks for the price of a Tomcat. Rock on Professor Sidewinder. "Growlrrwrlowrlrowrl"
The downside is that the Tomcat with more powerful radar and radar guided BVR Phoenix missiles would have been able to take down those 3 Skyhawks 30 miles before they merged.
How beautiful these F-14 A liveries are. Even if I would be as good in the A4 to stay so close for so long (and I am not), I would miss to pull the Trigger just because I would admire this beautiful Bird all the time. Imagine the Dogfights with the umpcoming F-4 which has also some really beautiful liveries. This will be like dancing Parrots
Id be curious to see a bracketed playoff situation using jets that have been employed as aggressors in these training programs. An A-4 vs an F-5 comes to mind instantly.
Super curious what happeend at the end of Round 2. Was it a dead pilot? F-14 seemed more or less incapacitated after the cockpit hits. Maybe phugoid cycle was only thing keeping it in the air?
honestly i think so, one of those rounds looked like it nailed the rio so maybe the splash got them both. the aircraft was just floating like a paper airplane.
@@rmp5s I def didnt know it. Had to look it up. But I was pretty close by describing it like a paper airplane. Because it seems like it happens in them too.
Do a Skyhawk vs. unknown bandit. My Dad was a Naval Aviator and instructor in Meridian Miss. from 1978 to 1980. He flew the A7 from late 1968 to 1978. Over 2000 carrier landings in the A7 alone. Some A7 and other attack aircraft stuff would be nice. Keep up the good work I really enjoy it.
I was at the Tillamook Air Museum yesterday and there is an F-14 and A-4 parked across from each other. My 6 year old actually seemed to fill up the A-4 cockpit!
When I watched A4 Blue Angels, it was so comical seeing them inverted, tiny landing gear pointing to the sky. They looked like mosquitos--and we know what they can do.
My dad was an air traffic controller on a carrier and he also worked the deck in the 70s. He said talking to pilots coming back from the flight school, they had a senior trainer that he only used the A4, and he would chew up the Tomcats and and just about any other attack aircraft that was used.
It definitely looks like you shot the pilot with the first few rounds of that burst @7:45. The first tracers look like they go straight into the canopy. Hell of a shot!
Really nice video. They all are, but the Top Gun setting was cool. What are they using as trainers now? T-45 Goshawk? Would be awesome to see the current trainer vs an F/A-18 or F-35.
Hey GS, why not do this fight, but like Hop 31 in the original Top Gun movie: 3 A-4 vs 2 F-14. Maybe even start the fight the same way with the 2 F-14's approaching the rear of the A-4s, and they split 3 different directions.
You mentioned that this was based more on the real Top Gun than the movie, but the movie also had A-4s, so I think this is like both real life and the movie... I know you were an F-5 against an F-14 before, but I'd be interested in seeing another one of those in the future if you're so inclined.
The short F-14 vintage training video that everyone has probably seen shows how to use the vertical to defeat the aggressors, which the F-14 didn't do in this video. It would be fun to do/see a video on that against the A4.
I would really love to see the A-4 guys upgrade the Skyhawk with the P408 engine or, heaven forbid, the F404 that the Singapore A-4s were running... The thought of a Skyhawk with 50%+ more thrust would make it a very formidable fighter...
Always wondered how that came to be...the A-4 was strictly designed for ground attack, no? Obviously it had some decent fighter qualities I guess for a lightweight subsonic ground attack aircraft.
Neat dogfight. I don't know a whole lot about the A-4. I'm sure it has fox 2's, everything does. But I was wondering if it had radar guided missile capabilities too... cool little plane.
Excellent fight! On the subject of allied planes dogfighting, I think it would be interesting to see a P-51 vs Spitfire fight, haven't found anyone that's done one yet.
Watching this episode made me look up if the leading edge slats on the A-4 were operated manually, and they weren't.. "The leading edge slats were designed to drop automatically at the appropriate speed by gravity and air pressure, saving weight and space by omitting actuation motors and switches."
Check out the Store: growling-sidewinder.creator-spring.com/
Thank you guys for watching and if you have any ideas for future videos please put them in the comment section below and they might just end up in the pipeline, thanks again, much Love.
Do the Top Gun Maverick mission!!!
Lightning vs Lightning II
A-4 vs F-18/F-35. Modern day Top Gun
Can you do a P-38 vs Mosquito??
Aermacchi MB-339 in a dog fight or trying to take-out ground targets.
The A-4's at Top Gun were also modified and really stripped down while the F-14's were going into those training scenarios with a payload comparable of what they would bring into combat. They were basically a poor man's F-16 at that point.
the Top Gun A-4s were the Mongoose and SuperFox.. they had more powerfull engines, striped avionics, welded shut the front slats and some stuff.. there is plenty info arrond.. pilots said that despite being subsonic they were rockets as they had a high thrust to weight ratio.. much better than standard Skyhawks
So they were basically hot rod A-4s
And the mongoose was only meant to simulate the mig 17 and mig 19 or jets of the like
They were very much a problem for a f-14A and still in the fight with a B or D model Tomcat. Saying they were out classed in every way is unfortunately just not true in just about everyway. A lot of the instructors that flew the A-4 mongoose consider it to be there favorite plane period.
@@stevenaskew2897 the DCS version is an earlier variant of the A-4 with a less powerful engine and heavier weight due to the avionics and equipment. Hence why it doesn't share the same advantages the Top Gun A-4s enjoyed. The A-4 in DCS is an E model rated at about 38kN of thrust, compared to the 50kN rated engines of the upgraded F models used by the Top Gun program
“These fighters are smaller, faster and more manoeuvrable, just like the enemy MiGs. The clock is ticking and as of now we are keeping score.” Jester (Michael Ironside)
I read that in his voice, too. Nice!
Get your asses above the Hard deck and return to base immediately
Goose bumps
He did Sam Fisher's voice in the Splinter Cell series... didn't know he was Jester!!
Hollywood. you're looking good...I want Viper
A reminder of the size difference between the two aircraft: the wing of the A-4 is virtually the same size as the horizontal stab of the F-14. The fact that a beast like the F-14 can successfully dogfight a scooter like the A-4 is a testament to the F-14's design.
Well ok....except that A4 was never designed as a dogfighter either, although yes it’s had a great roll rate but was always pretty underpowered and the F14 is like a generation & 1/2 more modern (& far, far more powerful )......so not really seeing the f14 as the underdog here😉
@@pizzagogo6151no one said the F-14 is the underdog
Goose: Holy sh*t, it's Viper!
Mav: He's probably saying, "Holy sh*t, it's Maverick and Goose!"
Goose: Yeah, I'm sure he's saying that.
A good friend once told me that he could, using the stripped down A-4's and F-5's of the Navy Aggressor squadron, defeat ANY aircraft in a phonebooth fight. He included the Rafale, Typhoon, and various Hornets and Tomcats in that. Never mentioned F-22 and b4 the F-35, but yeah, the A-4. Cool!
The A-4 is one of the best aircraft the Navy ever employed. Very solid and versatile bird at relatively low costs. Not to mention arguably the best plane the blue angels ever flew.
"Good morning gentlemen! The temperature is 110 degrees!"
Holy shit it's Viper!
He's probably saying "Holly shit it's Maverick and Goose"
@@supercomp65yeah, I'm sure he's saying that...
I've heard on several occasions that the Top Gun F-4s were stripped down, gutted, and loaded light for those training exercises.
That would be accurate. I’ve even heard they had upgraded engines but I can’t confirm that
Great video. I would have been curious to hear the F-14's side of the story on that second round just to understand how badly damaged was his aircraft. Please consider an A-4 Skyhaw vs T-45 Goshawk match. A 1960's front-line aircraft vs a current advanced jet trainer just to get a sense of how far training aircraft have come.
It looks like they got whacked initially. Then the plane kept flying? i saw the impacts.
@@adey88splace Do you mean crew killed and the F-14 was more or less flying itself? Just morbid curiosity since the flight pattern after the hit was so unusual.
I don't know. It was a good video nonetheless. @@brucegraner5901
@@brucegraner5901 seems like it, in DCS you can hit the pilot without destroying the jet.
@@DerDrecksack87 That's probably it. It was such an odd flight path I just was curious to hear what GS's gaming opponent might have said about those few moments.
"Holy shit, we're head-to-head, I can't believe we're doing this..."
I think it would be super interesting for one video to see your throttle percentages and movement on the stick while fighting. Not sure how possible that is but as a viewer it sounds super interesting!
^^^^^^^ THIS!!!!!
I wouldn't necessarily want it in every fight but it would have been interesting in this one.
Yeah, idk if there’s a way to do it but doing one where it shows control inputs the whole time would be cool.
Would defo love a hand cam 👌
DCS does have an input mapper you can display on the screen, and iirc it can be put in the track replay so he doesn't have to actually fight with it blocking his view.
Really cool video. I think an A-4 vs. F-4 dogfight might be very interesting.
As long as the F4 is the the version with guns.
Yeah if its the c it should have a gunpod if its the e it has a nose mount
Cant wait for the gs videos with the heatblur f4 lol
Give them both Blue Angel livery
f4s faired better against T-A4's better than f14a's did
I could watch this fight all day, every day. My two favorite planes, from seeing the Blue Angels fly the A-4 in an airshow when I was 10 or so, and then seeing Top Gun a few years later. Thanks for the video.
I really want to see the A-4 against the F-16 now.
Great Fight, you both pushed your aircraft to the absolute limits, it was very entertaining to watch.
One I think would be cool to see is a4 vs f18. The rnzaf brought the ex Australia airforce a4s. We then used to fight the Aussies in the f18 and apparently we won quite alot.
Round 1 was intense! Round 2 really showed the size of the Tomcat when you moved in for the kill. The Tomcat is a big jet. Would be interesting to see the same fight with GS driving the Big Cat...
"Hollywood is doing fine, im going after Viper," smirk ❤
"God damn you, Maverick!"
Neither Mav nor Goose ejected that first time, but I'm glad to see the canopy fully cleared the second and they both made it. Also, nobody flat spun going out to sea. A marked improvement. :P
Would love to see you do a ground attack video with the Su-25. CAS, strike mission, anything. I've only ever seen you use the Frogfoot for dogfights and would love to see it used in its intended role. Thanks for all the amazing content!
I love it when you do these fights too. Maybe consider an A-4 vs F-5 fight?
These vids are awesome, not sure if you get enough thanks from the community but thanks for what you do. You provide a detailed understanding of aircraft capabilities and your 1 hell of a pilot.
Viper vs Maverick and goose. Im loving it
Goose isn't going home
The jets got so close your could really see the size difference. It was cool. I know that the F-16 is also smaller than the usual fighter jet, but you can't really see that in a fast, usually 2 circle fight.
The A4 and F5 were America's most nimble jets back in the day. Both aircraft attempted to buck the trend towards larger, more sophisticated, and more expensive fighters. I enjoyed your demonstration of the little Skyhawk's agility. You probably could buy 3 Skyhawks for the price of a Tomcat. Rock on Professor Sidewinder.
"Growlrrwrlowrlrowrl"
The downside is that the Tomcat with more powerful radar and radar guided BVR Phoenix missiles would have been able to take down those 3 Skyhawks 30 miles before they merged.
@@flipadavis Up to 6 of them, some as far as 85 miles, with sidewinders and guns to spare.
You made that look easy 😁 Like a hummingbird attacking a seagull.
Love the ‘gush’ sound at 6:09. I assume bullets entering the body cavity..?! Lol
Love the A-4 Skyhawk (Scooter) , my favourite jet.
The A4s canopy setup is very reminiscent of WWII prop planes from what it looks like
Soon as I saw the VF1 livery I hit play. Such a great paint scheme!
Amazing how much the skills of the pilot do to the outcome! Didnt expect this!!!
How beautiful these F-14 A liveries are. Even if I would be as good in the A4 to stay so close for so long (and I am not), I would miss to pull the Trigger just because I would admire this beautiful Bird all the time. Imagine the Dogfights with the umpcoming F-4 which has also some really beautiful liveries. This will be like dancing Parrots
Id be curious to see a bracketed playoff situation using jets that have been employed as aggressors in these training programs. An A-4 vs an F-5 comes to mind instantly.
Love your vids man I’ve learned so much from you and can not express how grateful I am for your content.
Love the Scooter! Awesome little bird.
It needs the VMF-214 Blacksheep markings!
Super curious what happeend at the end of Round 2. Was it a dead pilot? F-14 seemed more or less incapacitated after the cockpit hits. Maybe phugoid cycle was only thing keeping it in the air?
honestly i think so, one of those rounds looked like it nailed the rio so maybe the splash got them both. the aircraft was just floating like a paper airplane.
Thanks, I learned about the "phugoid cycle."
Give yourself a pat on the back if you too were enough of an aviation nerd to know what "phugoid cycle" means. Lol
@@rmp5s I def didnt know it. Had to look it up. But I was pretty close by describing it like a paper airplane. Because it seems like it happens in them too.
@@ferretforrent1144 Yup! That's exactly what it is.
Imagine what GS could do in a Top Gun version of the A-4
What a great video GS! Your super awesome dogfighting and energy management skills won your two victories in rounds 2 and 3 there! Nicely done!
I was on plane trader last night...
They had a couple really nice A4s for 900k- to about 3mil depending on age and spares.
A fella can dream...
Nice video! I love naval aviation, and these dogfights are awesome.
Yo GS, very nice! Hate to see the Cat defeated but, underdog fights rock. Thanks again. Have a pleasant day. Cheers
Thank you for watching. Much love.
Do a Skyhawk vs. unknown bandit. My Dad was a Naval Aviator and instructor in Meridian Miss. from 1978 to 1980. He flew the A7 from late 1968 to 1978. Over 2000 carrier landings in the A7 alone. Some A7 and other attack aircraft stuff would be nice. Keep up the good work I really enjoy it.
GS - "The only thing I can do here is bring him in closer"
Merlin - " YOU'RE GONNA DO WHAT?!?!"
I was at the Tillamook Air Museum yesterday and there is an F-14 and A-4 parked across from each other. My 6 year old actually seemed to fill up the A-4 cockpit!
Comes down to never underestimating your opponent.
I read somewhere that the Skyhawk's roll rate is 720 degrees per second. You'd have to work up your neck muscles to use all of that.
I burst into an uncontrollable nervous laugh every time you get nailed mid sentence 🤗
Round one was great. So close to each other. One of your best videos.
When I watched A4 Blue Angels, it was so comical seeing them inverted, tiny landing gear pointing to the sky. They looked like mosquitos--and we know what they can do.
I love the “squish” sound on a “killed in action”, when the pilot gets hit.
My dad was an air traffic controller on a carrier and he also worked the deck in the 70s. He said talking to pilots coming back from the flight school, they had a senior trainer that he only used the A4, and he would chew up the Tomcats and and just about any other attack aircraft that was used.
It definitely looks like you shot the pilot with the first few rounds of that burst @7:45. The first tracers look like they go straight into the canopy. Hell of a shot!
Everyday is a good day when GS uploads
Love the A-4! Keep it coming!
The Skyhawks slats have been nicely modelled
Love watching your videos. Keep up the great work.
Really nice video. They all are, but the Top Gun setting was cool. What are they using as trainers now? T-45 Goshawk? Would be awesome to see the current trainer vs an F/A-18 or F-35.
Love all the content. Keep up the great work. Also absolutely love the outro music, NEED that on my workout playlist.
Is anyone else hearing night time ambiance in the A4's cockpit??? Swear I'm here crickets LoL. Great fight GS. Thanks for the extra round
nice authenticity - love the pic on the takeoff checklist placard
The F14 casually turning into a helicopter in the second round
Hard deck rules and 500 ft bubble out of the window for best knife fight in a phone booth, love the video!
your channel is great! After a long day I can’t find any crap on UA-cam I want to watch this pops up and I’m like hell yeah!
That second fight...where there's no kill like overkill.
A-4 vs F-5 seems like it would be a neat battle for the Scooter.
Round 1: "Jester's dead! Yeehaw!"
Round 2 & 3: "Bingo, Maverick's dead. You're out of there, kid."
Very impressive fight. This tough little bird earned it's pay today.
9:08 he took away the F14s wing permission 😂
The A4's free, might be a bit easier to fly than the F16 as I'm struggling due to lack of controls.
Man I was just thinking how cool it would be if you did some A-4 videos. Thank you!!
I like the pin-up photo on the instrument panel. 😆
Well, you are definitively doing well with stick and rudder !
Jester be like: "I got yer tower flyby, Mac..." Seriously, tho, you are giving a masterclass on fighter tactics on every video. Bravo Zulu, dude!
My buddy and i do these fights on the regular, and he has gotten really good at it.
Jester/Viper vs MiG-28 pilot (A4 vs F-5). We never saw it, but it should be fun.
Hey GS, why not do this fight, but like Hop 31 in the original Top Gun movie: 3 A-4 vs 2 F-14. Maybe even start the fight the same way with the 2 F-14's approaching the rear of the A-4s, and they split 3 different directions.
Feels like the first fight would've gone differently but the a4s guns weren't up to par to tear the wing clean off
F-5 vs F-14, Some Top Gun movie memory! Get some of those Mig-28's on screen! lol
great entertainment - that's the dogfights I love to watch!
You mentioned that this was based more on the real Top Gun than the movie, but the movie also had A-4s, so I think this is like both real life and the movie... I know you were an F-5 against an F-14 before, but I'd be interested in seeing another one of those in the future if you're so inclined.
The short F-14 vintage training video that everyone has probably seen shows how to use the vertical to defeat the aggressors, which the F-14 didn't do in this video. It would be fun to do/see a video on that against the A4.
Hi also nice to see you in a A4 also can we see you doing a strike mission in the A4
I loved this video! This is why I’m a devoted subscriber.
That A4 looks absolutely amazing
I would really love to see the A-4 guys upgrade the Skyhawk with the P408 engine or, heaven forbid, the F404 that the Singapore A-4s were running...
The thought of a Skyhawk with 50%+ more thrust would make it a very formidable fighter...
Really enjoyed this one. Looked like he at least took out Jester here 7:45 but maybe both.
I got some serious Top Gun vibes on this one! Great flying!
Sir, you are simply just amazing to watch. This was another great video. Thanks!!!
Always wondered how that came to be...the A-4 was strictly designed for ground attack, no? Obviously it had some decent fighter qualities I guess for a lightweight subsonic ground attack aircraft.
Yes, and the F4, and F8 flew escort for the A4’s, in Vietnam.
I think they wanted a dissimilar jet to go against the Tomcats and Phantoms in TOPGUN mimicking the lighter, smaller and more agile migs of the time
Neat dogfight. I don't know a whole lot about the A-4. I'm sure it has fox 2's, everything does. But I was wondering if it had radar guided missile capabilities too... cool little plane.
I hope one day to see an RNZAF A-4K on this channel. I miss hearing them flying over my house, low, fast and loud.
Excellent fight! On the subject of allied planes dogfighting, I think it would be interesting to see a P-51 vs Spitfire fight, haven't found anyone that's done one yet.
GOOD JOB GROWLING YOUR DOING GREAT KEEP IT UP!!
These dogfights have been LIT🔥
These are always fun to watch, thanks.
I would have stalled the F-14 in the first few turns.
Would love to see the A4 fight the mig 15 and the sabre, as they should be similar in performance
Gotta love the sound effects on a KIA when shot in the face. 😂
5:59 You gotta LOVE those mid-sentence "Killed In Action" moments. Ha ha ha!
Watching this episode made me look up if the leading edge slats on the A-4 were operated manually, and they weren't.. "The leading edge slats were designed to drop automatically at the appropriate speed by gravity and air pressure, saving weight and space by omitting actuation motors and switches."
"The only thing I can do is try to bring him in closer."
You're gonna do WHAT?!
LOL! Got a soft spot in my heart for the A-4, though. I wonder how that basic airframe would do with a boosted engine and bigger intakes.
Along with some modern avionics and systems!
The new zealand airforce did that with the Skyhawk. Frequently scored kills against much later aircraft in exercises
"Anything can kill anything." Best quote.