Flight characteristics of the F-4 Phantom

[Rino]

Was the F4 phantom the only plane to serve both in the Navy and the USAF?

It seems like the two services do not like to adopt each other's aircrafts.

     It's all about the money,  if you don't spend it all, you don't get
more next year..   McNamara tried to force the F-111 on the Navy
and Marines, but it really wasn't suitable for cv ops.

[Vraciu]

     Well our E models still had tailhooks and folding wingtips  And as
Puma can attest it took a long time to hand Jack those wheels off
the tarmac.  One of my more nervous moments was helping my
hydraulic buddies do a gear retraction test.  The Phantom didn't
seem that tall until it started wiggling around the jacks with
the gear up...whew.

     We also didn't have the easy mode hyd for raising the tips either
Imagine 4 guys trying to lift about 400 lbs of wing with their
fingertips about 6-8 inches from the fold point.

     I really. love this thread, bringing back fond memories.

A buddy told me a story about stuffing the speed brakes under the wings of their Marine F-4Bs with toilet paper and dropping them on a Navy or Air Force parade/inspection formation as a prank.   

Another was less funny (still funny though).   Will tell that later. 

[Rino]

     Was just screwing around looking for some decent F-4E pics when I
ran across this one.  This bird is kind of unique.  Notice the triple tail
stripes and the 347 tail number?  That means this was the wing-king's
bird.  <wing commander of the 347th TFW>.  It's also painted in the
spinach paintjob so it's pre 1983 when we went to a Euro-One camo
scheme where we eliminated the white and brown shown here,

[Rino]

     Here is a 70th squadron bird with the Euro-One and a target tow at Tyndall AFB.

[Puma44]

     Here is a 70th squadron bird with the Euro-One and a target tow at Tyndall AFB.

(Image removed from quote.)

Nice photos Rhino!  I was a 70th White Knight.  I'm going to check my logbooks and see if I flew that tail#. 

Yep!  Last flew 390 19 June 1987.  Last flight in the Rhino was 22 September 1987.

[Vraciu]

I really liked the all-gray Marine low-vis scheme right before it got retired.

This one here was a short-lived one but as a kid we always thought it was pretty bad a.



Another story from a Marine Rhino buddy involves "looking cool" as discussed before.   Guys would select the gear lever up when lined up with the runway.   As the nose gear came up and the WOW decreased enough the gear would retract while still basically on the runway.   Well, one jarhead got airborne a little slower than was ideal and settled back onto the runway, skidding along on his drop tanks until the jet decided to finally fly.    Oops!

[Puma44]

Me on the left taking an Air Force photographer on an "incentive" ride.  We put the Rhino through the wringer.  He did really well and didn't spill anything on himself or my jet, in spite of looking through his camera for much of the sortie.



During my 83-84 tour with the 36th Tactical Fighter Squadron, aka "The Fantastic Flying Fiends".  This was perhaps the most amazing flying environment on the planet.   



An opportunity to pet a defector's MIG that had been flown around the various fighter bases in the ROK for examination.

[icepac]

Marines also flew skyraiders.

[Rino]

     Man those Koreans did wild shark's mouths <and hats too!>.  I was in
the 339th AMU aka the "Fighting Dragons", then was renamed to the 69th
"Licking Lizards"  to bring us in line with the 68th and the 70th.

     After we had a few birds deployed to ROK, they came back with coolest
shark's mouths, then some 23rd weenies from England AFB in La cried about it
because they were Flying Tigers from WWII.  Yeah, yeah...get off my base! 

      I'm not sure it was true, but they claimed they were the only unit in
the continental US allowed to have the shark teeth.  They look stupid on an
A-10 anyway 

     Joe Cool after school..F4 with shark teeth.


      Goofy looking fighter wannabe 


     I actually like the A-10, when they weren't giving us tude
In fact, when I got out, it used to drive me crazy listening to the Canadair
Challengers start up.  Their CF-34s sounded just like the TF-34s on the
Warthog.  Bom...Bom...Bom...Ptooooooooo o   
     

[Rino]

Marines also flew skyraiders.

     I know they hate to admit it, but technically attached to
Naval Aviation, no? 
     Know what I like best about Marine aviators?  They're very
fun to watch because they don't know what airplanes can't
do 

[Vraciu]

http://s906.photobucket.com/user/puma44/media/F-4s/MePhantomandPhtogr.jpg.html

Me on the left taking an Air Force photographer on an "incentive" ride.  We put the Rhino through the wringer.  He did really well and didn't spill anything on himself or my jet, in spite of looking through his camera for much of the sortie.

http://s906.photobucket.com/user/puma44/media/F-4s/783765C1-7B00-4EE6-9101-62BBBF7EDC11_zpsscjsvihf.jpg.html
During my 83-84 tour with the 36th Tactical Fighter Squadron, aka "The Fantastic Flying Fiends".  This was perhaps the most amazing flying environment on the planet.   

http://s906.photobucket.com/user/puma44/media/F-4s/4A66D42C-3E3F-4DFE-A236-925A7ABFDF37_zpspcmoromz.jpg.html
An opportunity to pet a defector's MIG that had been flown around the various fighter bases in the ROK for examination.

Check you out!!!    Right on!!!   

[Vraciu]

     I know they hate to admit it, but technically attached to
Naval Aviation, no? 
     Know what I like best about Marine aviators?  They're very
fun to watch because they don't know what airplanes can't
do 

My buddy who was the Viper FW guy had a great story about a Marine Hornet driver they had attached on an exchange tour to his squadron.    Somehow a canopy malfunctioned and closed on his helmet which was hanging on the sill, destroying said helmet.    The jarhead was undeterred.   He made the comment (appropriately laced with a few nonchalant F-bombs) that he could still fly if someone would just find him some duct tape so he could put on his oxygen mask.     

[Arlo]

     I know they hate to admit it, but technically attached to
Naval Aviation, no? 
     Know what I like best about Marine aviators?  They're very
fun to watch because they don't know what airplanes can't
do 

All Marine Corps aviation is part of Naval aviation. 

[Rich46yo]

All those pictures I had of F4's from my day? I lent them to a friend who was going home on leave, hundreds of them, cause he wanted to show his friends, and he ended up going AWOL. I never saw him, or them, again.

Heres a picture of when we were parked at the end of the main runway watching Rhinos, tankers, choppers, spy planes, all coming in a day or two after the embassy was over ran in Tehran in Nov. '77. Carter put us on a war footing but we never went.

[Vraciu]

Nice pics, guys.