Monday, November 16, 2020

Smoke 'em if ya got 'em!

 So....There I was....Sitting in my office yesterday trying to come up with something to write about for the Monday posting.  Write about the current political sitch?  Nah, smarter people than I are doing a better job at it than I could.  Besides, it upsets my stomach and makes me want to puke.  BP?  I don't EVEN want to think about it.  Nope, nope, nope.

Well, what about that time driving back to Del Rio from Lubbock, south of San Angelo on that ranch road in the dead of winter on a very dark night in your trusty "Spirit of America" 1976 Vega?  You remember when you thought to yourself "Self, I wonder if there's Black Ice on the road."   Then shifted ever so slightly in your seat to get more comfortable.  Which coincidentally caused an ever so slight twitch in your hand on the steering wheel, which caused you and the car to look like a ballerina doing pirouettes down the road and into the field.  

Learned a lot in that few seconds about not doing the stupid things that your brain sometimes comes up with dincha?

OK, how about an update on ongoing projects?

Work on the Murphy bed for my office/spare bedroom is going slow but steady.  


Mattress Box is almost complete

Two lessons learned so far in this project.  1) It is not possible to cut a 8' sheet of plywood in half lengthwise in a 15' wide workshop on a table saw. 2) It is not possible to accurately cut an 8' sheet of very expensive plywood in half with a circular saw and a rip cut jig.  What I SHOULD have done was use one of the other sheets as the guide for the saw.  I was only off by 1/4", but that caused the pocket hole screws (some of them) to poke through the edge.  I tell you the next time I build a murphy bed, I won't make that mistake again.

How about talking about Mrs J's project?  That went well, didn't it?

Yes, refinishing the two coffee tables we bought when we got married turned out quite well.

Mrs J did learn a small lesson about the term "lightly sand" on the veneer.  But we'll put that to the back, behind the lamp.

Second table turned out perfect.

 Well, juvat, I'm fast running out of suggested posting topics.  What about that comment posted by your good friend you've never met (GFYNM?) about smoky F-4's?

You mean this one by STxAR? "When I was a kid, those Phantoms ran on coal, you could see the dark trail behind them for a ways... I miss seeing those in the air..."

You may have something there.

Yes, it's a Greek Recce Phantom, but look at the smoke!
Source

 

So....There I was*

Deployed to the Philippines and Clark Air Base for Cope Thunder.  Cope Thunder is Pacific Command's version of the much larger Red Flag exercises held at Nellis in Las Vegas.  I'm a brand new 1LT and operational F-4D Aircraft Commander.  (That's the title, and while technically true that any decisions made while airborne were mine to make, it was made very clear to me that the more experienced Weapons Officer in the back seat had a say in the decision.  In other words, if I made a good decision, it was on his advice.  If it was bad...I was on my own.)

In any case, the air to air F-4E squadron from Clark would be playing on our side protecting us from the bad guy aircraft.  The PACAF aggressor squadron in their F-5's would be playing the bad guys.  The plan was pretty standard, low level ingress (minimum altitude was 500' above the ground, rigorously followed, never violated, rule! While we did have a radar altimeter, looking inside the cockpit going fast down low is not wise. So...we "estimated" our altitude) air speed would be 480 initially, then 540 on the final ingress.  (That translates to 8 and 9 NM per Minute which might be a reason I get frustrated easily in traffic.)  My responsibilities include flying the aircraft (extreme importance), not hitting the ground (unbelievably extreme importance), not hitting any other aircraft (unbelievably extreme importance), hitting the target (important. Hey! It's a training mission not the real thing), maintaining visual on my flight lead (very important and highly embarrassing in failure), not allowing the bad guys to roll in behind him (also very important and highly embarrassing in failure).

So, I'm a tad busy.  As is everyone else involved in the mission.

We fly a couple of hundred miles out in the South China Sea and rendezvous with our tankers.  I haven't done this all that often so am not very proficient at it yet. Fuel in the F-4 is stored in the fuselage so as you take on fuel, your center of gravity changes, so you're constantly making little flight control inputs while you're flying about 15 feet below a very large jet.  I've been told by WSO's (whose job at this point is to monitor our position by looking up at the boom) that we're close enough to see if the boomer's got a mustache. 

So, when you're not yet good at refueling, Everybody is nervous and watching you.  No pressure.

As an aside, I didn't get "good" at refueling until about 3 years later when we deployed from Moody AFB GA to Taegu AB ROK.  Three hops, Moody to Hickam AB HI.  Hickam  to Kadena AB JA, Kadena to Taegu.  7 refuelings on the first hop in 10.1 hours flying time (plenty of divert bases until we went feet wet so 2 were feet dry the last 5 were over water).  I have no clue how many refuelings we did between Hickam and Kadena.  There were no divert bases we could reach between Wake Island and Kadena, so we were refueling about every 10 minutes or so.  10.9 hours.  Kadena to Taegu?  Piece of Cake 1.7 hours.  I was very comfortable refueling after that.

Stay on Target, juvat!

Back on Target, Aye!

So we take on gas and I don't scare anyone, including myself, too badly and we start our inbound leg.  We drop down to 500' above the water and hold 480.  My lead sends me out to tactical formation, about 6000' line abreast.  We're driving in and I hear the air to air guys talking about the Red Air heading our way.  

Yes, it's an E model not a D, but this was chosen for the speed.
Source


 

No way, they're gonna get me, not this low and this fast!

RRRRIIIIIGGGGHHHHTTTT!

We go feet dry on the other side of the mountain range from Clark and are working our way through canyons and ridge lines,  all of a sudden I hear my lead call for me to "Break Right".  Even as green as I was, I knew that was a bad thing.  Our inter-cockpit responsibilities change for the moment.  I am now pulling as hard as I can on the stick in almost 90o of bank, but I'm looking forward to make sure we don't hit anything hard.

Like Mother Earth.  Hitting her has a probability of kill of almost 100%.  My Kunsan Squadron Commander at the time of this mission hit a hill coming off the target on this same range about 5 years after this mission and managed to land the Jet and still make LtGen.  He's the only one I know of that has reduced Mother Earth's PK.

So, I'm reacting to anything my WSO tells me to do.  He's looking over the shoulder trying to, first see the bandit, then tell me what to do to prevent becoming "movie stars".  Yes, they do take gun camera film and make movies out of them.  Being the star of one, while treated as a learning experience, is something to be avoided.  

If one has a fighter pilot personality.

So, "Flick", my back seater, is talking to me about where the bad guy is.  He's saying he's closing for guns and that I should be prepared to "jink" when he tells me to.  I'm thinking "How the heck do I jink at maybe 500' above the ground, in mountain canyons."   ("Jink" being the term for random, violent movement of the aircraft so as not to allow the guy behind you to settle in for a gun shot. It's not comfortable, nor fun.)

Shoulda thunk about that possibility in the calm, cool, comfort of the squadron, dummy.

So Flick yells "Jink". I unload the airplane.  (I stop pulling G which stops the turn.) Since the bad guy is pulling hard to get the correct lead on me for a gunshot (He has to point the plane ahead of me to where I'll be when the bullets arrive) I almost immediately drop below his nose and he loses sight.  I also accelerate like a bat outta you know where, because G causes drag, at zero g there's very little drag so those big engines do what their supposed to do.

Accelerate past the speed of sound.  500' above the ground. Over land.

Oh, and by the way, I've lost sight of all the rest of the flight.

We head home. Alone.

To say the debrief was long, would be a major understatement.

But I learned a lot.  When I talked to the Aggressor pilot about how he'd seen us, he told me he'd seen me from about 20 miles in.  He could see my smoke trail. He hadn't seen the others in the flight until much closer.  

Source

 

He then asked why I didn't use "Tactical burner".  I asked him what Tactical Burner was. Well... Tactical burner is one engine at fairly low throttle setting and the other one in full afterburner.  At military power, which is what 480K requires, the engine can't consume all the hydrocarbons in the fuel, so the smoke trail is very prominent.  At lower rpm, there's still a smoke trail, but it's much less distinct. In AB, there's no problem consuming hydrocarbons, in fact you'll run out of all your hydrocarbons in a very short time if you're not careful.  Hence the split throttle technique.

Lot of expanding hot gas pushing that jet!
Source

 

As they say, that's why you train.  Learn something new every day. 

And GFYNM STxAR, that's why I wasn't a big fan of smoke trails.

BTW, Sarge, while researching this story, I found a flyable F-4 for sale.  Now, granted, it's a Navy model, so not a "real" F-4, but...How about we go halves on it. Shouldn't cost more than a couple million each. Then you can fix the radar, and I'll fly you down to Maryland and back. 

In Style!

Just sayin'.

*SJC (it's in the Acronym Locker)

50 comments:

  1. I lived most of my life in the Tampa bay area. I remember the smokey, howling F-4 Phantoms flying over my home. Where ever I was I'd run out to watch them go over,quite a thrill.Later it was the F-16,cool but not as much fun. Somewhere around 1998 someone was flying privately owned (obviously) F104's around,think there was at least two different ones.Talk about noisy. Thanks for all your stories,really appreciate them.Allan

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    1. Yeah, I kinda think of the F-4 as Rocky Balboa. Big, hulky, not too smart, but can take a beating. The F-16? Jackie Chan, small, doesn't look like much, but can kick your but in an instant. The Eagle? Gotta be Sean Connery (RIP) Sophisticated, Tough, Suave, Smart and can kill you in so very many ways. The Zipper (F-104)? Usain Bolt. Can go really, really fast, looks good, can't do anything else.
      Now, if someone wants to buy me one of them, my opinion would undoubtedly change.

      Thanks.

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    2. Juvat....And THAT comment right there is why I read the comments!

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    3. https://youtu.be/u6K4iSxET6g

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    4. Glad you liked it. That vid was pretty good. The Zipper had the same engine as the F-4 the J-79. That last scene in the video very clearly shows the smoke trail I was talking about.

      Thanks.

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  2. My Dad was a Marine fighter pilot that was flying F-4's back in the 60's. Never realized that he was the "typical" Marine fighter pilot until I saw the movie "The Great Santini" and thought "When did they make a biographical film about my life".

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    1. My Dad was Air Force, but a Fighter Pilot. I too saw a lot of him and me in that book. Great Depression, WWII, Korea, Vietnam might have had an impact on their formative years.

      Thanks

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  3. See, you caught my drift, even if you were in tactical burner. Flying in style. There is something cool about a 74 Fury, dumping gas through a carburetor and burning rich. I guess it's the smell. Steam engines wouldn't look right without a black and white smoke trail... And that magnificent F-4 has to be able to "pour on the coal" to be cool. Travelling in style at the front end of a smokey rocket. Man.... And throwing a sonic boom while breaking contact.... HOW COOL IS THAT!?!??!?!

    Well, I'm glad you broke right, so you'd be left. I was wondering what the -D's role was, so I went looking. Didn't find anything. Did it have a specific role, like the -G was a wild weasel?

    Those projects look really nice. You do good work, lead.

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    1. The F-4D was kind of an F-4C.5. It came out mid-Vietnam and I think most of the improvements were to the Radar and avionics. The C model and the Aim-7 didn't play nice with each other. The D was an attempt to fix the problems. It helped but didn't solve all the issues. The E model came out towards the end of the war. The biggest difference there was its nickname "The one with the gun". With the avionics issues in the C and D, missiles were not reliable, so the wings started mounting external guns for reliable weapons. However, carrying it externally, meant that station couldn't carry bombs, so the weapons load for the real mission was reduced.
      It all burns down to trade offs (as it always does).
      Sonic Booms are cool, however, we were over land and not in controlled airspace, so I probably irritated a few Filipinos. Mea Culpa!

      Thanks

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    2. "Sonic Booms are cool, however, we were over land and not in controlled airspace, so I probably irritated a few Filipinos."

      Irritated? Doubt it. Curious about the origin of the boom? Most definitely. When I was a child I would often see and hear F-4s out of Clark pass at low level over my grandparents' farm in Tarlac. Seemed to me like they were almost at treetop level. It was very exciting to see and hear them!

      - Victor

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    3. Yeah, I know. But that was back then when the still remembered WWII. This was when the communists murdered those enlisted guys. I don't think I made any friends, and, as I said it was a long, very long, debrief. All of my mistakes and other sins were discussed at all levels starting with the mass debrief and ending with a little one on one with my squadron commander.

      But I flew my second Cope Thunder mission the next morning. Suffice it to say that, although I was still behind the airplane, at least I was in the same hemisphere as it on that mission.

      As to treetop level, I'd have to say, based on my ability to eyeball 500', yes...yes they were! ;-)

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    4. That nose on pic reminds me of a picnic outside of Comfort, TX. 2 Texas ANG Phantoms laid mosquito repellent all over us. IT WAS WONDERFUL! The sound and smell of freedom!

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    5. I've flown that low level route! Granted it was in a T-37, but it's still in use and we get buzzed by T-38s every once in a while here on Rancho Juvat. That means they missed the turn point. It's the bridge over the Pedernales about a mile and a half south.
      Next turn point is Luckenbach, Then a turn south towards Comfort which I think is either the exit point or the turn point just before the exit point.

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    6. You sir, are a Rock Star. At least as far as I'm concerned.

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    7. Nah, you gotta have hair to be a rock star! Just an old fart with bad knees, neck and back and a few war stories.

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  4. In my home town the Air National Guard had the F-4C beginning in 1976 (prior they had Scorpions, Daggers and then Voodoos) since the wing mission was then changed to recon until the early 80's when it switched back to air defense and they got F-4Ds which they kept until early 1990 when the F16s came in. Growing up as a kid it was quite a thrill to see the F-102s and F-101s during the yearly open house and then seeing the Phantoms up close.

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    1. When Dad was an IP at Webb, the Wing would graduate a Pilot class about once a month. The Air Force would fly in just about one of every type airplane in the inventory. My best friend, Mike, and I would walk down to the parking ramp as soon as we could and stay as late as we could looking at the jets and talking to the pilots. Unfortunately, his eyes went bad, so no flying for him. Mine held out long enough that the Air Force had spent too much money to ground me, they just bought me glasses. But, you're right, there was a big thrill in seeing all of them up close.
      Still remember walking down the hill to the ramp from our house on base and looking down at an F-100 making a low pass over the base. I think he'd be shot on sight if he did that in this day and age, but I loved it.

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  5. The F-4 Phantom II.

    This post made my Monday!

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    1. Thanks, Boss! Glad you made it home ok.

      OBW, About that F-4 for sale?

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    2. Guess who would say "no, no way"?

      It is tempting, I mean what with all the money we make from blogging...

      🤣

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    3. There's always your book advance...

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    4. He didn't bring that up as he's decided to buy a small bizjet for the commute to and from Maryland. Realistically, he needs to buy a Gulfstream, which is a little overkill for a 400 mile journey, but he DOES have family out west and it would work well for that!

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    5. You KNOW you want one! I promise I won't roll it inverted and fly at zero G!

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    6. That right there makes me worry!

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  6. First thing that came to my mind when you described "Tactical burner" was trying to manipulate split throttles at 500 feet and the speed of heat. Distracting much?

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    1. Not really once you got used to it, you only needed to add power in turns, so you'd just push up the one not in burner then pull it back when you rolled out. I usually used the left engine as that throttle had the mike button as well as the speed brake switch (not that I ever needed speed brakes when I needed tactical burner, mind you). There was a bit of induced yaw however so you did have to use rudder to counteract that. And, as any civilian pilot remembers from flight training, you really wanted to avoid a high speed stall, because Stall + Yaw = Spin and a spin at low altitude ... well let's just say...is not a good thing.

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  7. Well, if STaRX is still looking for smoke trails, there's always the B-52s flying around, well, until they finally re-engine them with something that won't burn wood or ooal.

    As to the plywood thingy, they make these really nice panel saw guides that you clamp on for use with a hand saw. Beats, from what I've seen, having to set up outfeed tables and such for the table saw (that's things behind the saw to catch the long wood, for those who don't speak woodshop.)

    And too close to the ground going fast? Yeah, great place to have pilot-induced oscillations, not!

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    1. Yeah, that guide is on my wish list, although they're expensive. I think I can make one pretty cheap from a couple of pieces of 1/4" ply. And, to me, cheap, but functional, is good. I'd used the Kreg Rip Cut jig before and it worked pretty well, but accuracy was not critical in that project. It is for this one.

      Solar powered B-52s? What a great idea!

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    2. You can get a chunk of aluminum screen room frame and do the same thing. The chunks aren't totally precise, but you can look and find a very straight section.

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    3. I think I'm going to make a jig out of hardboard. A bit of gluing and screwing and some careful (yeah right, me careful) cutting and I should have a jig that fits my circular saw precisely

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    4. We needed to do some door work, and Grizzly had their track saw combo pack on sale.
      The tool doesn't get used a whole bunch, but it is the right tool for the job.

      I made one of those two piece glue up guides for shorter cuts, but you do lose a lot of the depth of cut.

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    5. Yeah, that's what I thought, I'm thinking about 1/4 inch hardboard on the bottom and a 1/2 or 3/4 for the saw to run against. I'll have to keep an eye out for that kind of deal. I'm unlikely to convince my wife that the garage would make an excellent workshop and having yer car out in the weather isn't helping. So something to rip a board to rough shape that's usable on the tailgate of my truck would be nice.

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    6. Time for a lean to on the new abode....

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    7. Yeah, just got the contractor set up for the "Petio". We'll see what the next project is. My current shop has been great, but I have definitely outgrown it.

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    8. (Don McCollor)...at a GFAFB airshow, I watched a B52 takeoff. An authoritative swelling roar, and advancing down the runway was a huge billowing black smoke cloud with an aircraft tail sticking out of it....

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    9. B-52's would occasionally deploy to or stop at Kadena, I remember being the Supervisor of Flying one day when one took off. Just as you described it. Kadena's got some really long runways, but I was reaching for the crash phone when the Tower Control NCOIC said, to hold on Sir, this is normal He'll rotate at the 1K remaining marker. He did. She chuckled and said she had also started to reach for the phone on her first B-52 launch.

      The two most popular guys in my Pilot Training class were the two that volunteered for B-52. Both got their first choice of aircraft and voila' all the BUFFs were taken.

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    10. (Don McCollor)...must have been impressive in the bad old days when the B52s did minimum-interval take offs at 15 second intervals. One starting to roll, one halfway down the runway, and one lifting at the end. All loaded with nuclear weapons. (actually, a B52 does not "rotate" like other aircraft but lifts with nose down. Strange to see)...

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    11. I was at Barksdale (Shreveport LA) for a conference when they did one of those Min interval takeoffs. I asked one of the BUFF guys what the GO/NOGO speed was during that maneuver. He said "Brake Release". I'm not positive he was kidding.

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  8. Redneck pro tip. Even tighter space around my table saw.

    If you don't have a guide you can rely on to get a true enough edge. I'll cut close to the line with a guide and a circular saw. Makes it more manageable. Then take it to the line on the table saw.

    Sometimes, depending on the edge conditions and finish... I've been known to let it overhang the piece it's being attached to and then I've cut and routed to that edge with a flush cut bit

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    1. I hadn't thought about the flush trim bit, but that might work. Thanks.

      As to "get close, then finish", the only place I had room to do the initial cuts was in the garage at the new house. My shop and saw would have required a reload and return. Times two as it would be too large to final assemble in the shop either. But, as they say, hindsight is 20/20.

      I suspect I'm going to have to use trim to hide the mistakes...Wait...I mean add ambiance! Yeah, that's what I mean.

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    2. (Don McCollor)...a solution might have been cut partway through, stop, clamp everything down, and move the table saw...

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    3. That seems like a plausible idea wrought with the potential for creating a lot of kindling for the fire pit.

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  9. Funny, the Navy guys I knew that flew Phantoms said just pushing up to zone 1 AB killed the smoke trail and that was their preferred method. Like the tables! They look good!!!

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    1. Thanks, That's essentially what we did, but both in min burner would have gotten us through the mach also. I did like flying with the Navy and Marines on my second round of Cope Thunder's in the Eagle. We had the aggressor squadron get grounded for one (fleet wide air frame problem I think). In any case, there was no Red Air available, so the Marine Harrier Squadron Commander volunteered to be Red Air for the exercise. That was an interesting exercise. Maybe next week. Thanks....

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  10. Never heard of flying a jet with split throttles like that before. I was guessing that both engines were close enough to the centerline that the thrust difference wouldn't yaw the airplane too badly, and then I saw your answer to Flugelman.

    Sweet Little Wife had a bout of furniture refinishing this last Summer. Her first table took four tries (and several packs of sandpaper!) to get it "right", but her second one came out great the first time.

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    1. Nor had I, obviously. The yaw wasn't too bad, but it was noticeable. Never got into a spin in the F-4, but I do remember the boldface. The last step said if it wasn't recovered by 10000'AGL, Eject. The sink rate was THAT Bad. If spun at low altitude,well...I'm glad I never had that opportunity. Guys I knew that had ejected from the F-4 were glad they had and wish they hadn't had to, but they also said don't wait to get out once you make the decision.

      Even with the little glitch, the first one is my favorite. I love the figuring of the wood.

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  11. While living in a rental house in Buda, Texas, my landlord was a former F-4 recon pilot. He told me of the time he lost an F-4 after departing Bergstrom AFB. Said he got above the clouds, instrument panel lights went crazy (paraphrasing him) and he got a call from his wingman saying he was trailing flames. He and the backseater punched out, good parachutes, landed safely, and the USAF kindly flew out a helicopter to retrieve them. He told me he was more scared of going back to face his commander than he was worried about how he could have been killed. Said his commander was actually glad to see him alive and no ass-chewing; rather a "well done" in staying alive and pointing the plane into an uninhabited area. I heard the story in '91 when he was a Lt Col so it had to have been 10 or 15 years previous.
    It's always fun to sit around and listen to a bunch of pilots swap stories...

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    1. Good thing that was quite a while ago. It would be hard to miss a house nowadays. Had a late nite flight to Florida about a year ago (AKA before the corona hit the fan). It was solid lights from Austin to Houston, no significant dark spots. Glad your friend made it.

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