American Cinematographer - July 1990 - 69

walk for the other guy

ally

presses
launches the

who actu¬
the button and
catapult, the guy

most movies don't show. I
watched him and waited till he
was about ready to punch the

button, got tensed in the seat, and
then

we were

launched!

"Man, I'm telling you,
that was a real kick! It was about
9G acceleration for a second,

a

which levelled out to about 6Gs
as we accelerated out to the end
of the ship. We covered 245 feet
in a matter of 3.2 seconds. We

pretty light at 37,000
pounds, so the graph showed we
took off at about 130 mph. If
you're heavier and need more
airspeed, you still have to cover
were

the

same

distance in the

amount of

time,

so

same

they just

throw you harder! Once we hit
the end of the deck, we were

flying and all sensation of accel¬
eration just went away. It's a real
rush.

"After takeoff," Nowell
continues, the exhilaration build¬

Opposite: Operator
McBride and
assistant Osborne
stand ground as A-6

ing in his voice, "we stayed real
low

on

the water and I

was

get¬

Intruder is cata¬

ting ready to shoot, wondering
why Frenchy, the pilot, was stay¬
ing so low, when all of a sudden
he said, 'OK, here we go!' and I
said, 'Where are we going?' and
he pulled the plane straight up in

pulted from deck.
Above: Grabbing
shots during carrier
qualifications.
Below: A-6s in tight
formation with wing
of Lear jet carrying

vertical climb to 3000 feet, rolled
the plane over on its back, then
levelled out and said, 'That's
where we just came from!' I
looked down and there was noth¬

camera.

a

ocean everywhere, and
the aircraft carrier looked the size
of a dime, which really made me

ing but

appreciate what those

guys who
flew the A-6s faced each time

they tried to land
carrier. A carrier

on an

aircraft

big when
you're standing on it, but when
you get a few thousand feet
above it, it's a little tiny target, so
imagine coming in at night and
trying to find this thing which is
just a speck of light out there! Of
course, the pilots were on instru¬
ments guiding them in, but to
seems

slam down on that carrier deck
and hope to catch one of four
wires with that hook on your
tail... it makes for a pretty wild

ride. Fortunately, I didn't have to
do it at night."
In order to shoot night
takeoffs and landings, as well as
to

capture other angles not fea¬

sible from the cockpit, Nowell
used a special A-6 Intruder cam¬

plane, which utilized special
Aerospace
spent three months designing,
testing and certifying. Tom Har¬
mon was in
charge of setting up
the camera rig, and the Navy then
era

mounts that Grauman

wired the A-6

July 1990

so

all four Photo-

Sonic

cameras could be
operated
simultaneously from within the
cockpit. Harmon, who has done
this type of work in the aircraft
industry for over 30 years, was
able to secure special Photo-Sonic
200 foot magazines that kept the
profile of each camera no higher
than its body. Thus equipped, the
A-6 camera plane could be oper¬

ated at

a

cameras

maximum of 3Gs with

in

position.

"We had one
mounted on the tail

American

Cinematographer

camera

looking

67
American Cinematographer - July 1990

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - July 1990
