Tomcat RIO – A Topgun Instructor on the F-14 Tomcat and the Heroic Naval Aviators Who Flew It

Tomcat RIO
208 pages Pages
ISBN 1510748229

You’re in the cockpit of the legendary F-14 Tomcat fighter, blazing along at twice the speed of sound seven miles above the ocean and the carrier that hurled you off its deck. You’re practicing dogfighting with “aggressors,” guys on your side flying F-16s. You’re patrolling the tense skies above Iraq, and with the push of a button you can launch the 100-mile Phoenix missile that can blow a foe to scrap before you even see him. You are an expert in fighter tactics and aircraft carrier operations, and it all leads to your command of an F-14 fighter squadron of more than 300 people.

Sounds like a week’s worth of daydreams, but it’s all real-life in the career of Dave “Bio” Baranek, and he shares it with you in the exciting, superbly crafted new book, TOMCAT RIO. Dave – callsign “Bio” – pulled his readers into the exciting world of the F-14 and the Navy’s TOPGUN program with his popular books TOPGUN DAYS and BEFORE TOPGUN DAYS. Now he’s back with the rest of the story, as he reaches the top level of expertise and proves it, not just in graded competitions but also where it counts, where you shoot at them and they shoot at you.

TOMCAT RIO is printed on larger paper, which means the photos are almost twice as large, by area, as the photos in the previous books in the series.

Dave Baranek

About Dave Baranek (Melbourne, Florida Author)

Dave Baranek

Dave Baranek loved airplanes as a boy and set his sights on flying Navy fighters. He attended Georgia Tech and participated in ROTC.

He wasn’t able to be a pilot because his eyesight wasn’t 20/20, so he became a radar intercept officer (RIO), operating the weapons system in the Navy's F-14 Tomcat fighter. After his first F-14 squadron he was selected as an instructor at the elite Navy Fighter Weapons School, better known as Topgun. While serving as an instructor in 1985 he helped make the film "Top Gun."

Dave enjoyed a successful 20-year career in the Navy, including command of an F-14 Tomcat fighter squadron. He retired from the Navy in 1999, and works as a defense contractor. Since retiring he has written three exciting memoirs.

He is married and lives in Satellite Beach, Florida. His website is www.TopgunBio.com.

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