F4 final flight

[oldbike54]

oh, my bad...I thought it was a two-place F4 and its designation was RC-4 or something similiar...

 F4 C and E's  , all of the Phantoms flown by the USAF were 2 placers , mostly I think the Navy and Marines flew single seaters .

 Dusty

[twowings]

Guess I'm still stuck in the Desert Storm era....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FujKSEJLuY0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Weasel

[Lannis]

oh, my bad...I thought it was a two-place F4 and its designation was RC-4 or something similiar...

The first Vietnam "Wild Weasels" were USAF F-100s.   Because of their mission, the Wild Weasels were usually one "series" behind the front-line fighters, since they didn't go head to head with MiGs, unless they couldn't get away.

They were associated with the acronym "YGTBSM" based on the typical response when a new WW was told what his mission was.   Ranks right up there with "Combat Glider Pilot" in that regard ...

Lannis

[ITSec]

My uncle worked on some of the very first F-4s that the Marine Corps got, during deployments in the early 60s. I seem to recall he was with the Gray Ghosts, VMFA-531 - he told the family he was based at Okinawa, but that may have been to avoid talking about where he actually was. When he left the Corps and returned home to St Louis, he was a Reserves rep to McDonnell-Douglas and got me some tarmac time where most don't get to go. Cool stuff when you're a kid.

The airport in St Louis saw a lot of very loud departures and arrivals all through that decade...

[LowRyter]

Does that mean the Wild Weasel is gone, too??  What a cool airplane...

Wild Weasel mission is now F16C and A10.   Someday F35.

Missions,  not platforms. 

[Ncdan]

img bb
From my brother's Asian vacation in Da Nang . In '69, I was  10 and cruzin the hood on my groovy Schwinn Sting Ray 5 speed!

i bought a new orange crate in 68 and stopped ridding it in 69 when I got my license. Wow talking about memory lane!

[charlie b]

Find the story about how Wild Weasel's started.  It is really cool and makes you wonder about those guys who started it all.  About as crazy as medevac pilots who flew into the hot LZ's, or the Jolly Green crews.

[Mr Revhead]

John R, is that what the NZ Airforce fly?
I remember the passing if the Vampire & disbanding of their Harvard aerobatic team, that was really something.

Update, I think it was the Skyhawk

The RNZAF disbanded it's attack wing some time ago. The Skyhawk was our last combat aircraft.
Those A4s are now working back in the states as dissimilar aggressor air craft run by a private contractor

Edit: These guys http://www.drakenintl.com/douglas-a-4k-skyhawk

[rocker59]

F4 C and E's  , all of the Phantoms flown by the USAF were 2 placers , mostly I think the Navy and Marines flew single seaters .

 Dusty

I'm pretty sure they were all 2-place birds. 

The first aces of the Vietnam war were in an F4J,  Randy "Duke" Cunningham and William P. Driscoll.

[jdgretz]

I always loved the look and sound of the F-4.  In school, aerodynamics was taught using the F-4 as it had just about everything "wrong" you could do to one air frame and still have it work.

I picked up a downed F-4 driver on the beach off Phu Cat in 1970 (a-pilot to a .51 through the roof of his mouth and the b-pilot elected to eject just before feet-wet) and was rewarded with a couple of hours in the back seat of one.  What a thrill!  Flight was out of Da Nang - Gunfighters.

First time I heard the line "If I say "Eject!" and you say "What?" you'll be talking to yourself"

jdg

[Lannis]

Wild Weasel ops provoked the SAM  , (mainly SA 2 sites), to power up their radar so that they could launch a HARM which followed the fire control radar to the site and destroyed it.

Hazardous duty for sure but effective.

edit: Started out using F-105 thuds then the F-4C and G, now done mainly with F-16.

Here's a pretty good documentary video on the F-100 Wild Weasel program .....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUW9_RWqsWk

Lannis

[Two Checks]

Got to see a bunch of them while a kid. I live just west of McDonnell Aircraft.
The F-4 was developed from the F-3 Demon.
The Navy started using them 12/30/60.

[oldbike54]

 Don't know about the USAF Phantoms from an earlier generation having two sets of controls , by my time the second seat was occupied by the weapons system officer (Wizzo) , often referred to as the GIB . Of course I only saw Phantoms in the weeds , so don't know all that much about them 

 Dusty

[AMGeneral]

I don't miss those B1-b's! Loudest f'n thing ever! Was in truck during summer, windows down, going east on Kellogg out of Wichita. Made it to about the turnpike junction and one launched over head! Son of a! But there was the other time I was going south on us183? towards Coldwater ks, middle of nowhere, and something fast and loud buzzed me full power, never saw it. Think I left two sets of skid marks on that one!

Had no idea the F4 was even in use anywhere. Always seemed like they were takeing off, landing and flying at one speed.

[Daniel Kalal]

...something fast and loud buzzed me....

I was riding my Cal2 through the Smokey Hills when it sounded and felt like every bearing in the engine had come apart.  Just as I was pulling over to stop a very low B1 flew over my head from behind...  Sheesh, what a racket.

[LowRyter]

I don't miss those B1-b's! Loudest f'n thing ever! Was in truck during summer, windows down, going east on Kellogg out of Wichita. Made it to about the turnpike junction and one launched over head! Son of a! But there was the other time I was going south on us183? towards Coldwater ks, middle of nowhere, and something fast and loud buzzed me full power, never saw it. Think I left two sets of skid marks on that one!

Had no idea the F4 was even in use anywhere. Always seemed like they were takeing off, landing and flying at one speed.

They do the programmed depot maintenance on the B1 at my retired workplace (Tinker AFB) along with B52, E3 and KC135.  Those B1 are the loudest things ever.

F15 and F4 weren't too quiet either.

[Gliderjohn]

Buzzing of civilians seemed pretty common up through about the mid 80s or so. I have been buzzed hard twice, both times by F-4s. Dave Kasitz (Late KS Rep) and I were fishing at a fairly remote farm pond when a F-4 sneaked up on us from behind. Low enough that we could easily make out markings on the crews' helmets. Second time was in the mid 70s when I was going down a rural dirt road close to my parents in a 65 El Cameno. Kind of like what Daniel describes as I first thought something was going horribly wrong with the vehicle then the F-4 came over me from the rear and did about a 70 degree pull up complete with victory roll for taking me out I guess.
Here is a B-1 doing a dusk take off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hctWrJBFNok
GliderJohn

[Arizona Wayne]

I don't miss those B1-b's! Loudest f'n thing ever! Was in truck during summer, windows down, going east on Kellogg out of Wichita. Made it to about the turnpike junction and one launched over head! Son of a! But there was the other time I was going south on us183? towards Coldwater ks, middle of nowhere, and something fast and loud buzzed me full power, never saw it. Think I left two sets of skid marks on that one!

Had no idea the F4 was even in use anywhere. Always seemed like they were tak :shocked:ing off, landing and flying at one speed.

That reminds me of a Guzzi story...........the wife & I are doing 65 mph on 395 due north in Calif. on our CX100 when all of a sudden a low flying jet fighter w/after burner on just above us straight up the hiway thunders past (My bike jumps 2' to the right) and a 2nd jet is chasing him a second later !! WTF     Scared the be jeebus out of me.  Never saw them coming.  Think they were out of China Lake Naval Air Base.

Another time we're pulling a 16' RV with our Dodge PU and right in front of us just above the ground was a B-52 banked over hard left, full throttle in Nevada on another desert hiway.  I thought it was going to crash right in front of us 'cause those bombers were never made to fly like that, but I know the pilot was doing it on purpose in a low altitude flying maneuver? 

[oldbike54]

 Phantoms weren't all that loud if the blowers were off .

 Dusty

[Lannis]

Another time we're pulling a 16' RV with our Dodge PU and right in front of us just above the ground was a B52 banked over hard left, full throttle in Nevada on another desert hiway.  I thought it was going to crash right in front of us 'cause those bombers were never made to fly like that, but I know the pilot was doing it on purpose in a low altitude flying maneuver? 

You might have run across Col. "Bud" Holland skylarking in a B-52.    He has since become a lesson in how the USAF or any other organization should NOT enable and manage a pilot with a "hot dog" ego (see "Darker Shades of Blue") after he crashed a B-52 at an airshow doing exactly the maneuver you described, killing himself and 3 other people on the plane ...

Lannis

[kirby1923]

Don't know about the USAF Phantoms from an earlier generation having two sets of controls , by my time the second seat was occupied by the weapons system officer (Wizzo) , often referred to as the GIB . Of course I only saw Phantoms in the weeds , so don't know all that much about them 

 Dusty

All the AF F-4's had dual controls while the Navy's did not.

Near the end of the VN caper the AF started putting Navigators/weapons officers in the rear that were not aviators...true. but the controls were there.

trivia..no?

:-)

[rocker59]

Pilots still buzz "ground targets".  I've told this story here before, but a dozen years ago I was out on a gravel road on the Quota when I started hearing a very low frequency rumble.

I started looking down at the bike, trying to figure out the source when the volume went WAY up, and then I realized the noise that was coming from behind was also coming from above.  When I looked up, it was a B2 Stealth bomber at a few hundred feet AGL passing over me heading east along the east/west road which I was travelling east on. 

Scared the crap out of me for a second, then I let out a big "Woo! Hoo!" as it disappeared out of sight.

Well, there was an air show going on at the local airport, and after its south to north fly-by, the B1 turned east and flew along that road I was travelling on.  Those pilots didn't have to be flying along that road, as there is lots of empty forest here.  I'm sure they did it for fun...

[Arizona Wayne]

Pilots still buzz "ground targets".  I've told this story here before, but a dozen years ago I was out on a gravel road on the Quota when I started hearing a very low frequency rumble.

I started looking down at the bike, trying to figure out the source when the volume went WAY up, and then I realized the noise that was coming from behind was also coming from above.  When I looked up, it was a B2 Stealth bomber at a few hundred feet AGL passing over me heading east along the east/west road which I was travelling east on. 

Scared the crap out of me for a second, then I let out a big "Woo! Hoo!" as it disappeared out of sight.

Well, there was an air show going on at the local airport, and after its south to north fly-by, the B1 turned east and flew along that road I was travelling on.  Those pilots didn't have to be flying along that road, as there is lots of empty forest here.  I'm sure they did it for fun...

Oh yeah, they do it for their fun, but not ours.  In fact the time we got buzzed on TV that night @ the motel someone had called the Base & complained of getting buzzed, but of course the Base claimed it never happened.  Their pilots wouldn't do that. 

[Lannis]

Pilots still buzz "ground targets".  I've told this story here before, but a dozen years ago I was out on a gravel road on the Quota when I started hearing a very low frequency rumble.

I started looking down at the bike, trying to figure out the source when the volume went WAY up, and then I realized the noise that was coming from behind was also coming from above.  When I looked up, it was a B2 Stealth bomber at a few hundred feet AGL passing over me heading east along the east/west road which I was travelling east on. 

F-16s from Langley used to overfly my home on their way to the USAF "Apple Orchard Mountain" or "Thunder Ridge" installation on the Blue Ridge.   I suppose it was some sort of targeting exercise, because it happened almost every week.   When they are going hard, they are LOUD at a few hundred feet AGL.

On the other hand, when they want to be quiet, they can.   I was sitting on my porch one evening, with 80% or so low clouds, when I heard a soft "whoosh" coming from the west.   I looked to see what it might be when a B-2 flying very low cruised over through a gap in the clouds.   Shockingly impressive to see so much airplane making so little noise.   I suppose it's part of the plane's "stealth" capability.   

Lannis

[ScepticalScotty]

So many of you guys were based at Lakenheath I wonder if you ever met Lt Col Bob Brotzman (Retd)? F4, F11 and F15s at the end... He's a friend of mine...Triumph and BMW rider. Cant convince him to ride a Guzzi no matter how hard I try. 

[Mark Dasher]

I was stationed at Moody AFB near Valdosta, GA '84-'85, Base Ops as a weather forecaster.  Now this is swamp country. The real thing with spanish moss, alligators, big snakes and the like.  In the mornings, usually in the summer when doing FOD checks, I remember us having to chase alligators off the south end of the runway before the F-4s could take off!

I was also given an incentive flight in an F-4.  Now THAT was an experience I will never forget!!  Great assignment, but was too short.  Later on, the 4s were replaced with 16s in '86.

After Moody, I was stationed at RAF Mildenhall '85 -'89.  Worked with the SR-71 there as well as EC-135s, KC-10s amongst others.


--Mark

[old as dirt 2]

some of you guys think the f-15's and others were loud, nothing compared to a F-111 F.

[Aaron D.]

The F15 is very loud, much more than a 16. But the only 111 I saw was at altitude so I can't compare.

I'm very much surprised at how quiet the new C130 is, they fly over our place fairly often and we can barely hear them, compared to the older ones that shook the windows.

[Tom]

6 blade props & more efficient engines.

[Two Checks]

I was stationed at Moody AFB near Valdosta, GA '84-'85, Base Ops as a weather forecaster.  Now this is swamp country. The real thing with spanish moss, alligators, big snakes and the like.  In the mornings, usually in the summer when doing FOD checks, I remember us having to chase alligators off the south end of the runway before the F-4s could take off!

I was also given an incentive flight in an F-4.  Now THAT was an experience I will never forget!!  Great assignment, but was too short.  Later on, the 4s were replaced with 16s in '86.

After Moody, I was stationed at RAF Mildenhall '85 -'89.  Worked with the SR-71 there as well as EC-135s, KC-10s amongst others.


--Mark

Mark, do you know a guy by the name of Menko?