Phantom flight

On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 14:34:47 -0600, "John Carrier"
wrote:

Can't speak for early aircraft, but by the time I transitioned to the F-4,
all Navy jets had a command selector valve. Either the rear seat would go
alone with the pilot commanding both (rear first for obvious reasons), or
either seat could initiate dual ejection. Generally, we flew dual command
to either seat with a qualified RO in the back. Sadly there were a couple
"qualified" RO's I flew with that I'd rather not have entrusted with the
decision. Fortunately, I never had to jettison an aircraft command or no.

R / John


And, I always brought the equipment home for reuse as well.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com

Hey, Ed, I tried, but when both engines quit at 1500 AGL right over the
runway at 300 KIAs - well, I thought about a 4-lane road half a mile
away at about 50 degrees left but then I thought about running into
cars and killing civilians trying to save an eleven year old F4 so -
when it got to glide speed and we still didn't have a light out we
went. Phil Burbages' first recheckout ride after 5 years pounding a
desk, too. Felt bad - it was a good bird until then and I'd been flying
jets since 1954 - this was 1978. Number of landings = number of
takeoffs minus 1. (engines quit because some AMC mech left a wad of
typhoon tape in #2 fuel cell 15 months earlier and it finally wandered
around and plugged the transfer port to #1 fuel cell. The low-level
float and quantity probe are in cell 2 - and it stayed full as #1 went
dry. Just wasn't our day. I did get a tie and a pin from Martin-Baker
but it cost Uncle Sam 2,236,000 bucks . . .Walt BJ

Ed Rasimus a formulé ce mardi :

Strange policy those Navy guys got! The USAF Phantom was set up so
that the back seater could eject himself only, and if the front seater
initiated ejection it would be a dual sequenced ejection.

IIRC, it saved the life of a colonel (or major ?) that flew RIO of a
general over Thailand. I seem to remember that this F-4 was hit by AAA
over North Vietnam and tried to return to a Thai AF base. An air force
general was driving the bird and died just afert the RIO's ejection.
Can't figure out where I read that thing...

--
Sergio
(pour m'écrire, remplacer @aviation par @gmail)