Sorry to jump in late.

wrote in message
ups.com...

WaltBJ wrote:
Only buzzed carriers, being an AF pilot, but our basic fence speed in
the F4D (Phantom, that is)was 122 KIAS plus 2 knots per 1000# over
empty/clean. But we could shave that speed 4 knots or so with a
slippery runway (Da Nang in the monsoon!) . FWIW with zero crosswind
you could plant a F104A, full flaps, at 135. If the F102 had had 8 foot
long gear legs we could have landed it at about 115; but with the
factory gear you'd drag a foot or so off the tailpipe. BTW hows come
only a couple responders mentioned airspeed, and one of them sounded
pretty high? Lots of reserve fuel in case of repeated bolters? Surely
y'all had a basic airspeed to add to in case of extra fuel, external
loads, etc. Or did you fly AOA and ignore IAS?

Yep, flew AOA and ignored IAS, once positive that the AOA wasn't stuck.
In the RA5C, I never flew a pass that wasn't auto-throttle - didn't want
paddles to
have a heart attack. Auto-throttle maintained AOA, not IAS.

I always understood the AOA units were somehow calibrated but arbitrary,
so the 139 KIAS was the nominal speed that corresponded to on-speed AOA
with full flaps and 50,000 pounds max-trap weight.

As to how much fuel one had at 50,000 pounds, that depended on the recon
equipment installed.

Frank