[singpilot]

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.