I lived to tell the tale but I'm not willing to do it again.

BTW there was a real life pro pilot in the back seat, as you said, someone who earns a living driving one.....


Not to many USb aircraft around.. an Antonov A-72(?) Coaler is one as well as the Kawasaki C-1 I think.
Boeing YC-14 any one...

There' a cool pic of a NASA modded C-7 Caribou or was it a Buffalo with 4 small turbo fans which blew onto the flaps landing on Forrestal...
the Mc Donnell Douglas YC-14 and now the C-17A Globemaster used pretty much the same ideas.....

I'm a little older than most here...haha.

I flew an F-4N on my final tour. Had a 'blown leading edge and tail. Engine bleed air was strapped and sent to the wings and tail.

Only thing we used once past turn in base was AOA for final. There was an indexer that showed 'fast-on speed-slow' on the lip of the dash that was visible while looking at the ball. No eye movement required, only a change of focus, deck, ball, AOA, ball, deck, ball, AOA.

The blown leading edges and tail slowed us down 15 knots as I remember. The F-4 was a slug slow, and slow to it was 20 knots faster than the F-14 that replaced it. Most of the fleet was glad to have it retire. I was offered the F-14 if I stayed in, but my time was up, and I wanted to go home. Got out in '77.

A few years ago, I was westbound at 43000 feet over Hudson Bay, from London to San Francisco. In a Gulfstream. We were pretty much alone up there that far north. The Canadian controller called us and said we had traffic, six o'clock, overtaking, no altitude readout, and we're not talking to him. I looked across at the other pilot, and said "And what do you want us to do????" Before we could respond, the controller said that the overtake was 700 knots (meaning he was 700 knots FASTER that us). We were doing Mach.83; the controller said he had an idea, and he'll call us right back.

A minute goes by, and he calls back and said that the reason he wasn't talking to that aircraft was because he was ABOVE controlled airspace (which was to 60000 feet). He said he found the flight plan for this guy. Said he couldn't tell us too much, but the flight was from Mildenhall England to Mather AFB, near Sacramento. And that BTW, your two targets are about to merge. The hair on the back of my neck stands up, and I lean forward to look out the top of the windscreen. Sure enuf, that very familiar outline with two dull orange shock cones coming out the tails. From the time he passed overhead to disappearing over the horizon was 2 minutes max.

One of those many experiences in 30 years of flying that you will never forget.

Singpilot, at our next NYC McSorley's outing your beers are on me.

Threshold, ASI. . . Threshold . . .ASI. . sure could use an AOA gauge!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1075588506.jpg

Hey! Spent the entire weekend in Manhattan. We have been liking Matts' Grill over on 8th. Great burgers, great beer. But I will watch for your NYC groups' meetings in the future.

Sing,

Great story about the SR-71. Any pictures from the encounter? Do you have any more interesting stories to share?

No pics of that one, it all happened pretty fast. Lots of stories, I'll have to tell the ones with P-car content, haha.

Sing,

Again a great story....up there you'd have shared with Lears and Concorde..

But to see an Sr in action fanastic.

Shame you didn't fly the turkey (F14) onto a flattop though....

It's funny you say that. The only other thing I had ever flown aboard on was a COD. After a few COD traps, the only thing that felt right was an F4 trap.

The Swing Wing guys did say that the launch was softer, and the trap almost anti-climatic.

When the Tomcat first came out, the TF101 engines had a nasty habit of 'unstarting' on spoolup. Meant that after idling, they would spool down rather than up when you called for power. Wide set nacelles, short final, one spools down, nasty yaw, probably still gonna touch the deck, hopefully the hook comes up clean and in time...

No, I was ready to go home. Lots of hairy pics of the F14-A's going in the drink in a 90 degree bank alongside the portside deck. That was the preferred plan if one or both spooled down on short final. Meant a up to 90 degree bank, zero altitude shot on the ejection seats too. Worst case scenario.

The upsides? Two of everything. Built by Grumman. Big. Only three items on the GTFO (Get The F*** Out) list. Utility Hyd Fail. Wings locked / damaged swept. Dual engine fire.

Ran into a Grunt in a BOQ one day in my time ashore once. Most of my squadron was having an adult beverage and bestolling the virtues of Naval Aviation in general and F4's in particular. He was by himself, nursing a beer, silently taking all this in. I went to the head, and he was in there as well. He saw me enter and as we were both reading the graffiti on the trough wall, he said, very quietly... "You know you guys have it all wrong.... " I looked over and, smiling said "Why is that?"

He thought a moment, and said that "he, by himself, was twice as dangerous as our entire squadron."

Of course, I asked why?

He said he had everything he needed to do the Navy's dirty work.

One A4.

One generator.

One engine.

One gun.

One Marine.


He zipped, said 'Semper Fi' and went out the door.

I had to admit, I was speechless.


He and I have traded Squiddy / Grunt jokes for years.

Sing,

Right about the engines....they needed the F101 for years before the A+/B and D were launched.

But they with a AWG-9 and Pheonix just reach out and touch someone.

The only I saw gonig over the side was in off Scotland in 76....A pretty big recovery operation to get the -9 and misslie back before the Soviets got them.

Met a lot of Grunts Squids and Zommies when I lived in DC, great rivalry between them all. Each one better than the other, except Grunts 'cos nobody goes that low and they're proud of it.

Ironically the calmest were the Habus I have met over here looking after 962 at Duxford.....

Keep the stories coming...

The Yahoo article that started this thread is gone. Can anybody help me find a similar version of it? I would like to read it but don't know the content other than what was said about it.

Here's a similar article: http://www.rednova.com/news/stories/1/2004/03/27/story002.html

If you Google "Hypersonic Jet" and it's in the March/April '04 timeframe you're good.

Thanks, I love this kind of stuff.SmileWavy

Wow, I just learned a heck of lot from you guys. Thanks for the stories and the information. Flight is something that has always interested me.

The first target that the Slime Wesly Clarke had blown up in Belgrade was the Tesla Museum. Do you think that the Serbs were giong to fire up a couple of his Ray Beams.