F-14 Tomcat display pilot – IAT Boscombe Down 1992

…….having now watched the video, the display is nowhere near as energetic as videos of ‘Snort’s’ displays, so pretty sure it wasn’t him…..

The shows flown by the dedicated demo teams, or demo pilots for a major airshow such as Paris or Farnborough would indeed usually be more practiced and energetic. The US Navy had for some time a dedicated East Coast and West Coast demo team for most fighters, including the F-14. These teams would do the majority of demonstations at major US airshows, but by 1992 it would be highly doubtfull to send a demo team for a lower tier show in the UK. This was likely a courtesy demo by a seasoned pilot from VF-74 that happened to be in the theatre (on perhaps the SARATOGA as mentioned above) at the time. Fleet pilots don’t have the time to plan, build and practice an airshow routine.

I just remember it being especially loud!

Thanks for taking the time to look into this DC… having now watched the video, the display is nowhere near as energetic as videos of ‘Snort’s’ displays, so pretty sure it wasn’t him.
Hard to believe this was > 23 years ago now… where has the time gone?
Cheers
Nick

I’ve looked back at my pictures but can’t read the name on the canopy rail, but it’s not Dale Snodgrass. The F-14B that flew at Boscombe in 1992 (possibly BuNo 162925) was from VF-74, and at the time Dale Snodgrass was Commanding Officer of VF-33.

Here is a video of the 1992 airshow performance, but there is an edit in the film just as the narrator is introducing the pilot, so at first listen it sounds like:

“The aircraft is flown by Commander Chuck Martoga on the Sixth Fleet, Mediterranean, United States Navy Europe.”

But when you listen and look closely, there is an edit in the film that clips off the pilot’s last name, and then clips off the beginning of the word “Saratoga”, which is the carrier VF-74 was on from May to November of 1992. So I don’t know the pilot’s last name yet, but it certainly wasn’t “Snort”.

Here is the video, go to 1:42:20 for the relevant part.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99uGKcEDYBE