F-100

I have an F-100 story...a very good friend was crew chief on one of the test planes. It ended up getting into a flat spin and pancaked into the desert (this was the early version before they had the "glove" addition to the vertical stab).

It had spin rockets on each wing. The concensus of the ground crew was that the pilot fired the wrong one for the direction of the spin.

They covered his butt by reporting that the rockets were wired backwards.

 

Oh yeah, waiting to take off was the worst, the cockpit was full of J4 fun, once airborne and under 100% 02 it wasn't so bad. But I do remember sweating like a pig under the helmet/canopy and having the cold air ducts blasting (freezing) below especially while pulling some G's.........that was fun..........not!
The worst was I had a bayonet that was hung up and couldn't get the mask off in time to puke in the bag.......lost it in the mask it's-self and still had an hour left in the mission. Even after clearing with my water bottle it still smelled and the dry heaves set in.........never forgot that day.

 

Even as a pro, I tossed my cookies a few times when I was a 2Lt in F-111Ds. Whenever you feel queasy in an airplane, the first thing you do is drop your mask and turn up the A/C outlet to full. Sometimes helped, sometimes did not, but even now I hate having an airliner air vent turned on my face because it reminds me of 35 years ago as a brown bar. Luckily I got completely over that and developed the normal fighter aircrew stomach of iron.

The F-111s had a very good A/C system once airborne, but it did not work too well on the ground at idle because the avionics required so much cooling air. Add in a mild cold, and you were in trouble before you took off. Normal sorties were 3 hours then, 4 hours if you hit a tanker, and that could include 30-45 minutes on a range yanking and banking at up to 5 "g"s doing dive bombing, RLADDs, VLADDs and low tosses. Rough when your only prep for fighters was flying the T-29C/D.

By the time I starting flying other fighters for the USAFE IG team and NATO TacEval team, I was a senior captain and had not been airsick for five or six years. The RF-4C and F-4G back seats were amazingly cramped and uncomfortable, even for my 5'7" size. I cannot understand how some of my 6' plus WSO buddies could live back there. A/C was terrible and it was hot even when flying. Glad I was not a 2Lt flying those, and that I had chosen the F-111 over the F-4G when I graduated from EWO school.

The later model F-15D and F-16D were a revelation, as was the CF-18B. Tons of elbow room, Aces II much easier to strap into than the old Martin-Baker, and A/C systems that worked at idle on the ramp, even on a 115 deg day at Nellis AFB, NV. Real progress.

The good old days. 5000, 4000, 3000, ralph, pickle, pull. Never bothered me mentally or in any way incapacitated me, just the stomach was insufficiently trained when young. After about 250 hours of fighter time, no further problems, so 2250 or so hours of smooth sailing.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

There were days when I wished my 6'2" then 225# was 5'7" so I could have more room in these damn planes (and Ferraris, for that matter).

While F4s at Clark were incredibly hot, the worst for comfort were T-33s I was assigned to 1985 - 1987 at Tyndall. Although it is manly to stride out to the jet with a butt chute, it's not worth it cuz they put the reserve O2 bottle under your butt, and you could read the #$%^&* serial number from the hard metal cylinder off my butt after sitting on it for hours and pulling G. I was also routinely told that if I ejected, I would probably break my arms due to the narrow canopy rails. And...cabin pressurization? You must be kidding. G suits? Those are for *******. Air conditioning? Maybe 35 years ago when the plane was new... Instruments? Let me introduce to to the J-8 Horizon "Ball of Death" - you could watch it precess. But I did love my first AF plane for 250 hours, a lot for a Flight Surgeon in just 2-3 years...

As Taz said, when I sat in an F-15B for the first ride of my 86 hours in Eagles at Tyndall it was totally incredulous - ROOM, VISIBILITY, AIRCON that works, clean air. It was that exact feeling when first sitting in a T-28 after years of flying T-6s (except for the aircon ). I was sold before we left the ground.

And with the F-15, no lugging your chute to the plane and yes, the miracle of G-suits. They really do help, you know.

Well, as re-reading this post, it's plain to see the ol' geezer-meter is pegging, so time to retire to eat at Luby's and watch Lawrence Welk...

 

Speaking of Sabres...

SPOTTED, today around 11:00AM, I couldn't believe it, a genuine F-100 heading westbound toward Mather Field, Rancho Cordova CA.
Couldn't make out the color scheme, but it certainly was not done up in polished aluminum finish.

 

Geez Russ, thanks for reminding us.........not about the aircraft but about Lawerence Welk tonight.

I would have given my left nut to get a ride in a 16, f-111 or an Eagle....... in '70' we had to settle for our beloved F-100, F5's, F4's, A7's and the little A37.
Since I was a photographer for the AF and not a pilot I was lucky enough to get some seat time in a lot of different flying machines, even if it was in the back of the bus.

 

Dennis- And I am envious of your time in the earlier birds. I always wanted a ride in a Hun, Thud, T-Bird, A-7G (I assume), or F-5/T-38. Even a Tweet with J69s. Did manage rides in the F-4, where I learned an aileron roll was done mostly using the rudder and you could really feel the air loads on the controls, somewhat dampened in later aircraft by, of course, dampers. All fun and something you could not pay to experience. If we had had any money, which we did not, we would have paid the AF to let us fly those aircraft.

Reminds me of one of my greatest disappointments. At Cannon AFB in 1977, my aircraft commander and I were scheduled to refuel on the last scheduled F-111D refueling mission using an ANG KC-97G/L. As we climbed out, one of our engines had a violent compressor stall as we rejoined with our flight lead. We wanted to continue, but SOP for peacetime missions was to abort for a compressor stall. We missed out on an opportunity to refuel from an aircraft that would be retired in the next 18 months. The fickle finger of fate waved at us that day.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Taz, to show my age again, I have to relate that I worked on the KC-97G in 1952 doing drawings to modify the older models. From that I went on to work on the 367-80 that gave birth to the KC-135 and 707 in that order. That was 1953-1960, then I went on to the 727, the masterpiece. From there the 747,767,and finally the 777, the ultimate masterpiece. My son, Spasso, now is an inspector in final assembly on the 777 and the 777 Freighter and soon the 747-8. Between the 767 freighter, the 777 freighter, and the 747-8 Boeing will have sewed up the freighter business. They are all great airplanes.
Your stories and those of SNJ-5 and some of the other older airman completely awe me with what you had to do. And those of you who have done so much in the field of general aviation make this forum a gold mine of adventure.
Switches

 

Bob- One of the most famous stories in recent aviation history is the 367-80 doing two aileron rolls over the Sound. Boeing only made money on the 707 because of the ~800 KC-135s the AF bought. Douglas' similar DC-8 never made a dime because they had no military contract to absorb development costs. They finally made money on the DC-9 and MD-80 series follow-on birds. Convair lost their shirts on the smaller, faster 880 and never recovered in the commercial market, which was effectively abandoned by Convair/General Dynamics. Lockheed did not fare much better in that market and the L1011 was a commercial failure, as were its predecessors

God save us from Airbus, who will eventually kill us all if given the opportunity. Give me a Boeing airliner or tanker every time. Hopefully the AF will figure that one out soon, as well. Boeing's protest on the KC-30 win was well founded.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

There was a jet fly in somewhere north of here on the I5 or 99 corridor last weekend. Steve was there and I think he was able to hitch a ride to Stead in a T33 out of the deal. I bet the HUN was there and you saw it on the way home.


Steve missed a great BBQ at my place but I guess an hour or so in the back seat of a T33 was an OK trade.

 

I saw the rolls by the 367-80 and had an 8mm camera trained on it as it came in but when it started to roll I unprofessionally dropped the camera and watched in awe as it performed a manuever that a big jet wasn't supposed to do. The 707 was a ground breaker and Boeing didn't know how to shift from the good ol' 10 plus military contracts until it was too late but they did well on the rest of the civilian contracts like the 720, 727, and especially the 737. I was a part of it from the beginning and worked on all of them. My most memorable was the 777 where I was one of the first on the team and saw it become one of Boeing's best ever...and the last aluminum product. Boeing is a great company and builds a better airplane than Airbus will ever produce if politics are out of the mix.
Switches

 

I was thinking about the L1011 "failure" that was really not a failure but a darn good airplane. It was left in the starting gate by a shifty and smart move by Douglas who outsourced most of the design and accelerated the rollout and deliveries almost a year ahead of Lockheed. By the time Lockheed rolled out its airplane all the orders had gone to Douglas. Then the shortcomings of the DC-10 showed up.
The Convair 880 and 990 were victims of gross mismanagement by General Dynamics and Convair and the airplanes, although fast, were too small to produce the revenue that the 707 and DC8 could do.
Now the DC-10 is still a fast airplane and the DC-8 is still flying long after the 707 has been gone.
Switches

 

+1

Having flown some of the older and newer planes, the newer ones are just so immensely powerful and capable weapons systems in comparison, but they don't have the flying feel some of the older planes do. Several pilots have also said that. The joke is you don't fly an F-16, you get a vote in where it goes as does the computer. And many F-16 pilots tell me they just leave their feet on the floor after take off, which is beyond my ability to comprehend, as the computer makes all the adjustments.

Now take everything I say with a grain of salt, but the big difference came around the addition of fly-by-wire. You can still feel the wing and what it is doing with the F-15 (which is really an F-4 that they fixed everything) and the F-16 feels like a video game in comparison with the side stick.

As I was putting up the airplane today after a Sunday morning $100 hamburger trip, a Bowers Flybaby wafted into the air overhead. No radios, no electrical system, no computers. Stick and rudder.

The same skills needed for the F-100.

Heard some related good news to our beloved Century series fighters, obtw. There is about to be a FLYING F-105. I will travel to see that.

 

Here's an illustration of our beloved 'Hun' done by artist Joe Milch in '79'. I found it at a CAF air-show in Midland Texas a few years ago. Although it's not the camo version I flew in it captures the spirit and great design of this airframe.
My first flight in a fighter aircraft was in a an F-100 at Luke / 58th Tactical Fighter Wing. I did an illustration of that aircraft that still resides in the halls of the Pentagon today..........I called it 'First Flight", I think I still have a copy of it and will post it when found.
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Dennis- My mother still has my dad's factory North American model of the F-100 (maybe 1/36 scale or so) he received from his old buddy Jim Brooks when working with NA Aviation on space programs in the early 60s. Sits right next to the factory GD model of the F-111D I gave him. His last ride in a fighter was in a Hun in the late 50s and his last operational fighter was an F-84B.

Great pen and ink, by the way.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

I have a very good drawing of an F-100 over Vietnam that I will post as soon as I learn how. I have a lot of art that I have done over the last 45 years that I MUST post here. I have an F-100, F-101, F-102, F-104, and I haven't done the F-105 yet. Stay tuned and take a look at www,parkzart.com
Switches

 

Digging through some boxes today I found an illustration I did of my first mission back in 1970 with Major Gammons ( IP ) at Luke .
The drawing leaves a lot to be desired but it brings back some great memories of that day. We blew the crap out of the Gila Bend range........between puking my guts out, sucking in vast amounts of JP and peeping through my range-finder it was quite an adventure and welcome to the 58th Tac group, One of many to come.
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YOU AIN'T LYIN', BROTHER