Flight characteristics of the F-4 Phantom

[PR3D4TOR]

Making fun of Zimme83's English. Classy. How's your Swedish Vraciu?

[Vraciu]

See Rule #12

[PR3D4TOR]

See Rule #2

[Vraciu]

See Rule #4

[PR3D4TOR]

See Rule #4

[Zimme83]

See Rule #12

[1Duke1]

Good lord, it's Duke.  Dude!

- oldman

Still lurking the boards OM   Don't have the system specs anymore to run AH like I want it to, but keeping up on the changes.  Due for an upgrade soon when I can get CINCHOUSE to agree to the budget proposal

[Vraciu]

See Rule #12

[Skuzzy]

Next person who violates this thread, with a personal attack (of any kind) is going to get a 30 day suspension from the board.

[DaveBB]

This thread has run its course.  Let's just shut it down. OP.

[Puma44]

Still lurking the boards OM   Don't have the system specs anymore to run AH like I want it to, but keeping up on the changes.  Due for an upgrade soon when I can get CINCHOUSE to agree to the budget proposal

In the same boat.  My F-4 era computer was on the cutting edge in its day.  Now, it has to load shed a lot of bells and whistles to break even.  But, it can still get one good "bat turn" in once in while.

Back to F-4 flight characteristics, then there was the time we deployed eight F-4s to Cairo West from Moody AFB one hot August night.  High cruise altitude with all the stuff the mx guys could hang on the external racks, behind two KC-10s, air refueling through the tops of towering cumulus.........12.6 hours logged that night/day/early evening...........

....11 ARs before we landed.

[Rich46yo]

Funny story, when I was stationed at Incirlick in S/E Turkey back in the '70s, indeed at every base I personally was stationed at, the only fighter I ever saw myself was the F-4 Phantom. We were getting 15's and 16's into USAF but I was never at a base that had them.

During the Iran Hostage crisis I saw one of the last operational B-57 Canberra's that was set up for Intel gathering. But I never saw a different kind of fighter.

Now my kid just caught orders to the very same base, which has me concerned, but he will see a totally different USAF there then I did. He will see all kinds of war planes, including drones, because the base is ground zero for a shooting war USAF is in against terrorists.

The Phantom was the fighter of my youth and I'd spend hours on the flight line watching them fly, or many more hours protecting them while they were in their hangars. Squadrons would rotate in from all over Europe. I remember those old smokey engines on some of them. Many of the Pilots were 'nam vets, some had kills, and they knew they were just riding out their careers in an airframe that didnt have much more life left in it.

I once saw a squadron commander hit both burners right over the base and go, what looked like, straight vertical. I'll always love that airplane.

[Arlo]

The first Blue Angels show I went (as a Navy brat at Corpus Christi NAS) to was a Phantom one.

[Rino]

I'd like to hear from Rhino I believe his name was! I still have a saved story somewhere, he told about his buddy G+13 dropping fuel tanks on Vietnamese boaters during the war 

     Well technically the Phantom wasn't a true aircraft.  It was a flight demonstrator
for General Electric J-79s   Also in fairness, Major G+13 didn't actually hit the
sampan, he just got the DT close enough to make the VC jump for it.

     I was a radar mech, so I worked the pointy end of the jet more than
the flight controls.  I do remember being very impressed by the sheer
amount of moving parts on the wings during preflights when we did a
stick stir. 

     I heard some numbnut on the Hitler Channel describe the F-4 as a
long series of mistake corrections in the flight control regimen.  He
obviously did not appreciate the "Double Ugly" for the magnificent
machine it was.  Over 40 years in service..yeah what a piece of crap...
moron.  Stick to stories about Hitler's psychic's magic dog or something
more up your alley

[Rino]

Did not know that about the E.  I knew the slats, which I believe were a later-run mod, made the airplane turn better but that's good info right there.  I didn't fly it just picked the brains of a lot of guys who did.  Any errors in translation are mine, not theirs.

Most of the guys I knew flew Bs and Js with a few C and D drivers thrown in.  I think one of the Marines I knew flew the S but it was on its way out.  Knew a few of the Weasel guys (including one F driver from the GAF) but the mission was different so I never got much of the scoop on the G (converted E). 

Did you ever run into Ed Rasimus?   Cool dude.  Good writer. 

Any way, thanks for shedding some light on that machine.   Great stuff.

     We had block 35 Es from 67-8 at Moody in the 80s.  They had the leading
edge slats but no TISEO <Target Identification System Electro Optical> so I
imagine they couldn't be that late a model.

     I always loved the sound those slats made overhead, sort of an spooky
Whooo-Whooo-Whooo.

     When I went to school out at Lowery in Denver/Aurora, the only two birds
I was authorized to work were the E and G.  The F was German only, basically
a very late E also with the M-61 nosegun.  The G replaced the gun with a
special radar receiver which helped track SAMs.  Still weasel drivers had great
big ones that clanged when they walked.