Almost Jettisoned this F-4....

[Nefarious]

Puma, are you a member of the F-4 Phantom group on Facebook?

Lots of great pictures and discussions shared every day.

Thank you for sharing here though!

[Puma44]

Puma, are you a member of the F-4 Phantom group on Facebook?

Lots of great pictures and discussions shared every day.

Thank you for sharing here though!

Yes, of several F-4 groups.  Glad to do virtual “hand flying” with you all.

[Nefarious]

Yes, of several F-4 groups.  Glad to do virtual “hand flying” with you all.

Awesome..there's some great photos being posted right now of Korat F-4Es in the group I'm referring too. There's a few guys who post lengthy history's of certain F-4s, always a great read.

[Oldman731]

OM - you have one of those airplane parachutes for your SR20?

No no no no.  I fly an SR20.  I don't own an SR20.  Used to own a Saratoga (or part of one, at least), but maintenance costs became a significant source of marital discord.  Now I'm back to flying rentals.

That said, Ciaphas' story, in particular, is a grim reminder of the value of slavishly adhering to checklists, which is easy to forget.

- oldman

[Vraciu]

No no no no.  I fly an SR20.  I don't own an SR20.  Used to own a Saratoga (or part of one, at least), but maintenance costs became a significant source of marital discord.  Now I'm back to flying rentals.

That said, Ciaphas' story, in particular, is a grim reminder of the value of slavishly adhering to checklists, which is easy to forget.

- oldman

Which is why I am a huge proponent of running flows then verifying them with the checklist, particularly single-pilot.   It gives you two chances to catch an error.

[Mister Fork]

Which is why I am a huge proponent of running flows then verifying them with the checklist, particularly single-pilot.   It gives you two chances to catch an error.

Speaking of checklists, aren;t most checklists today are on ipads or other electronic tablets?

OM - you didn't answer about flying up to Cowtown....

[Vraciu]

Speaking of checklists, aren;t most checklists today are on ipads or other electronic tablets?

OM - you didn't answer about flying up to Cowtown....

When I flew Falcons we used an electronic checklist on the MFD.   For my money putting one on an iPad would be getting too cute by half.  I wouldn't like it for many reasons.   Generally speaking we still use a laminated paper checklist throughout most of the industry. 

[800nate800]

I showed up to one of my Aviation classes back in high school with a ASA E6B and i got asked what it was...... my instructor laughed.

[Vraciu]

I showed up to one of my Aviation classes back in high school with a ASA E6B and i got asked what it was...... my instructor laughed.

My first instructor,  Marine Phantom guy, always reminded us that the batteries on a paper E6B never wear out.   

Years later when I was an instructor electronic E6Bs were all the rage.  The guy who did my PPL checkride was still a DPE.   He was known to "fail" the batteries on a ride.   All my students knew the old fashioned way so we played a joke on Darth Vader.   We collected a dozen electronic E6Bs and stuffed them in the flight bag of my candidate.  When the batteries "failed" my student reached back and grabbed another electronic E6B.   When that was immediately "failed" he grabbed another.   After he had hauled up the fourth or fifth one Darth said, "All right smart ass, no more electronics."

We had a good laugh over that one. 

[Puma44]

Diligent use of a checklist, whether electronic, laminated or good old fashioned paper, is the best method of preventing a bad day.

[Ciaphas]

Diligent use of a checklist, whether electronic, laminated or good old fashioned paper, is the best method of preventing a bad day.

Agreed


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[streakeagle]

You flew the F-106 and the F-4... awesome! I was born at MacDill AFB in Tampa, FL in 1968. I grew up with F-4s and UH-1s flying over my head almost every day. I watched F-16s replace F-4s starting in 1979. I had wanted to be an F-4 pilot, but realized the F-15 would be the equivalent by the time I graduated high school (1986). My vision went south in 7th grade and was below back-seater standards by 10th grade. I would have done anything to fly fighters. The best I have done is Cessnas and Pipers. Thank goodness for modern PC combat flight sims: most of the fun of the real thing (minus the g-forces and force feedback) and none of the scary life-threatening/life-ending problems... hit reset, try again!

I had geared up to go the USAF Academy, but with my vision status, I never applied. Instead I briefly went to West Point, but resigned after 3 months, a couple of weeks after the first semester started when I realized the stress was just too much for me without the carrot of being a pilot dangling in front of me. I ended up being a submarine sonar tech for 8 years instead. Not quite equivalent to zooming around at Mach 1+, but still quite the adventure.

[Vraciu]

You flew the F-106 and the F-4... awesome! I was born at MacDill AFB in Tampa, FL in 1968. I grew up with F-4s and UH-1s flying over my head almost every day. I watched F-16s replace F-4s starting in 1979. I had wanted to be an F-4 pilot, but realized the F-15 would be the equivalent by the time I graduated high school (1986). My vision went south in 7th grade and was below back-seater standards by 10th grade. I would have done anything to fly fighters. The best I have done is Cessnas and Pipers. Thank goodness for modern PC combat flight sims: most of the fun of the real thing (minus the g-forces and force feedback) and none of the scary life-threatening/life-ending problems... hit reset, try again!

I had geared up to go the USAF Academy, but with my vision status, I never applied. Instead I briefly went to West Point, but resigned after 3 months, a couple of weeks after the first semester started when I realized the stress was just too much for me without the carrot of being a pilot dangling in front of me. I ended up being a submarine sonar tech for 8 years instead. Not quite equivalent to zooming around at Mach 1+, but still quite the adventure.

Same here, except my vision went south in 8th grade (on my birthday—ugh).   I went to USCGA having always dreamed of flying F-15s.   Falcons seems to be a good enough replacement.  When I got laughed at putting pilot on my dream sheet I asked to leave.    Might have been a mistake, but I have 10,000 hours burning kerosene that says it wasn’t a total loss. 

Your story resonates with me on every level.   It still hurts sometimes.   

[Puma44]

You flew the F-106 and the F-4... awesome! I was born at MacDill AFB in Tampa, FL in 1968. I grew up with F-4s and UH-1s flying over my head almost every day. I watched F-16s replace F-4s starting in 1979. I had wanted to be an F-4 pilot, but realized the F-15 would be the equivalent by the time I graduated high school (1986). My vision went south in 7th grade and was below back-seater standards by 10th grade. I would have done anything to fly fighters. The best I have done is Cessnas and Pipers. Thank goodness for modern PC combat flight sims: most of the fun of the real thing (minus the g-forces and force feedback) and none of the scary life-threatening/life-ending problems... hit reset, try again!

I had geared up to go the USAF Academy, but with my vision status, I never applied. Instead I briefly went to West Point, but resigned after 3 months, a couple of weeks after the first semester started when I realized the stress was just too much for me without the carrot of being a pilot dangling in front of me. I ended up being a submarine sonar tech for 8 years instead. Not quite equivalent to zooming around at Mach 1+, but still quite the adventure.

Those of us with that flying itch have to scratch it however we can. 

It’s amazing how far the eyesight issue has changed.  When I started USAF pilot training, it was made very clear that if any eye scarring from surgery was detected on an annual flight physical, immediate permanent grounding would occur.

Now, routine eye surgery is approved to achieve 20/20 vision.  A family friend had surgery during college, achieved 20/20 uncorrected vision, went to USAF pilot training, graduated, and is now in C-17 training school.

Before retiring from the USAF, I worked some of the staffing to approve a small select number of Weapons System Officers to wear soft contacts on an experimental basis.  My how things have changed.

[Ciaphas]

The height requirements for the ACES II Ejection seat were needed as the seat actuator raises the one piece seat. In my opinion it was a design flaw that limited the AF fighter (F-16, F-15, F-117, A-10, F-22) and bomber (B1, B2) pilot numbers.

The B-52's seat was a fixed seat as well but with the mission it has, height requirements can be and are often wavered because the seat has two main directions of travel (up, down, forward and back).

The MB seats I work on (MB MK 16 ESUP (T-38) and the MB MK 16 (T-6 Texan II) have a fantastic seat that allows for a wide range of height requirements as the seat bucket travels up and down on two catapult beams while the head rest remains at a fixed position in the cockpit regardless of seat bucket position.

oh and the MB Mk series is super maintenance friendly where the ACES system was poorly designed with regards to MX upkeep.


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