Ryan- Very nice. I got a couple of sorties in RF-4Cs out of Zweibrucken. Fun to fly and much better view from the back than the F-4G. We would have gotten court martialed for flying that low in Germany. That base and most of our German and UK USAFE fighter bases are closed now. Only Spang and Lakenheath left.
Ah, the High Rollers from Reno last soirée before the got 130's. Heard some guys got in a lot of trouble for that, and that's a shame...
Something called "lizard gate"..... Went to congress and pilots involved lost their careers apparently.......anyone know whole story?
I'm with you! When I was a little kid, the Blue Angels were still in F4s, and they'd do their turn around & flyback to the Chicago airshow over my neighborhood (about 40 miles west of Chi-town) - simply awesome stuff back in the day!!
That was also when there was pretty much nothing but open fields behind my house - people would be out there riding dirt bikes or hunting pheasant. Talking say, 1972 to maybe 1975 timeframe. "Sound of Freedom" in my mind - and we obviously still had heroes losing their lives in those exact same aircraft at the time...
Wait.. what.. '72-75.. I just looked up operational history and could only find Vietnam.. is that where you alluded to?
I got to talking with one of my coworkers today who spent a lot of his career in the F-4 and is familiar with this video.... This sort of ultra low level was quite common back in the fun days of the USAF. My coworker claims the fastest/lowest he has been was 600+ knots at 8' AGL. Can't really imagine you could don that sort of thing these days. We felt pretty bold flying a C-130 at 50' during Red Flag, of course the wing dip in a turn for the Herk is a bit larger.
My brother spent most of his career in the back seat of F-4s, mostly Weasels because he was an EWO, like me. The F-4Gs were the last of the lot for USAF. So much EW crap in the back seat they would not even let IPs land from back there at the end. I got 4 sorties on those and the view forward did suck. Great disappointment to my father, who flew P-47Ds in WW-II. Both his sons ended up with bad eyes and sitting in the back or right seat.
Very cool! Absolutely my #1 favorte airplane of WW2. I can remember building a plastic model kit of one when I was about 8 or 9, and I've loved it ever since. Used to draw pictures of it sitting in elementary school class. Would love to hear some of your dad's impressions of flying it. Also just picked up this little gem last week. Horizon micro P-47. It's the only RC model I've ever seen that is in the razorback version, which was always my favorite. Had to have it. Haven't had a chance to fly it yet, but it's a good looking little model. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Um, no. Forgive the holiday pun, but this kind of stuff would have gotten your nuts roasting on an open fire as far back as the mid 80s. Reno lost their Phantoms well after that, as far as I remember. Yes, the Air Force was more tolerant of honest mistakes in the past, but this was a crime and it didn't often tolerate those. I know many great guys that lost their wings for just flying over aunt Millie's house at 100 feet and the like. It may have been common in the 60s and 70s, but as America went into it's days of body dysmorphic disorder after Viet Nam, people tolerated very little from the military and it trickled down to major punishments for bringing undue negative attention on the Air Force.
I was 6 when I first saw them in 1972. It was the single thing I wanted most form life... and I actually couldn't help but crying at the noise.
We flew at 100' all the time on the Nellis ranges in the 70s and 80s, including mach 1.2 at 100'. That was allowed under the flying ROE. Lots of time at 200' at night on TFR on low level routes, too, and many bomb runs at 200' at night on Melrose Range. Rules on low level varied depending on where you were flying, but low levels were generally in areas of zero or very low population. There was virtually nothing in a large portion of the Nellis ranges and dwellings were few and far between on the low level route areas in NM, CO, and AZ. Plus many parts of Northern California and Eastern Nevada were used by us for low levels in the mid-80s. By the time I left Europe in 1991, low level flying had been severely restricted in airspeed and altitude. In the early 80s, flight at 100' and 540-570 KTAS in the UK was quite common. You could circumnavigate the UK low level then, impossible now.
That's what I was thinking. I was a little kid at the time, but 'Nam was certainly what was "going on" back then & remember seeing some of it in the glory of our family's black & white TV (though, we got a color set sometime about '75 or '76.)
I completed a Med deployment in '72 on the USS Julius A. Furer DEG-6 and remember well plane guard duty for carrier launch operations. We'd be balls to the wall approx. 2000 yards either dead in front or 45 degrees off the bow of the carrier (served the JFK, Forrestal and Intrepid during the cruise). On launch, the Phantoms (or A-7's or A-4's) would scream directly over.
Early next year i am planning on taking a photo trip to the Rainbow Canyon area w of death vally. A Visit to Rainbow Canyon : Military Low Level Flying Should be fun shooting photos of planes that are flying below you.
A tough time for sure.. Aussie vets were badly treated on return, ignored.. many mental health issues.. it wasn't their "fault".. it was the political climate that placed them there and then didn't look after them on return. Talking about heroes I saw some pics recently of a still sprightly P-51 pilot given passenger ride, his first time back in the plane since WW2. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Too many times I have heard people refer to the P-51B or C as " Razor Back Mustangs". There was no such thing. They were called " Fast Back Mustangs". The only airplane that was called the "Razor Back" was the P-47B. THAT was a RAZOR BACK.
I lurk a lot in this forum, but thought I would post this bit of news. My best friend's father, RADM Don Primeau, naval aviator, passed two weeks ago at the age of 90. He got his wings in '55 and flew the FJ-3 Fury, F9F-8 Cougar, F11F-1 Tiger, F-4B Phantom and the F-4J; he had several tours in Viet Nam. He flew off the USS Essex, USS Bon Homme Richard, USS Franklin Roosevelt, USS John F. Kennedy and USS Forrestal. I distinctly remember the first time I was in Admiral Primeau's house when I was about 14 years old and was introduced to the "I love me" wall; gobs of awesome squadron/carrier pictures; I have included one of them below. No such thing existed in my house, my dad was a supply/logistics/finance officer (who also witnessed 22 H-bomb bursts in Operation Hardtack!). In any case, Fair Winds and Following Seas, Admiral Primeau. Image Unavailable, Please Login
