F-16 Fighter Jets Had Sony Umatic VCR’s inside! Retired USAF Pilot Jeff Shares Cool Memories!

Retired USAF Fighter Pilot Brings in His Umatic 3/4” Cockpit Video Tape to be Digitized! Very Cool! #usaf #f16fighterjet #miltary #f16fightingfalcon #desertstorm

[@ashleesue]

I crewed F-16's and installed and removed those AVTR tapes for the pilots hundreds of times over my crew chief days, sometimes they'd forget to turn the camera off and would have to restart the jet and sometimes the AVTR ate the tape and you'd have to call the shop that fixed them to come out and removed it to get the tape. In the beginning he showed the pic of himself. He was in front of a Hahn AB Germany jet (block 25) F-16C. I bet I know a few of those pilots as I paused the video but it's been so long since then. Germany was an awesome assignment and being a crew chief wasn't a bad job either, I just wish I could've gotten a ride.

[@gotmemories]

Wow thanks for sharing your story! I took a screen shot and shared it with Jeff!

[@stevevash4772]

That’s a real Top Gun pilot! Thank you for your service sir!

[@gotmemories]

👍

[@Dyaxxis]

Without getting into excess details, I actually worked on vision systems like these. For COTS BoMs of that era, the UMatic system was the choice of several defense contract engineering departments. For well known reasons, I'd be very surprised to see if such a system would ever be employed in modern vision systems (especially military).

[@gotmemories]

Thanks for sharing! Yes, today, fraction is size and weight, the old decks weight up to 100lbs.

[@Dyaxxis]

@@gotmemories I thank you as well for this special video. Following what you mentioned with reduced size and weight, even more engineering is performed to ensure stable and/or improved flight performance.

[@philipthomas352]

👍👍

[@EmeraldCoastDigitizing]

Super cool! I had something similar com through the other day! Not umatic but really cool!

[@gotmemories]

👍