New Guy here from FL

[Phantom309]

@jmcquate I don't know for sure the roots of the demo, it certainly wouldn't surprise me if happened along those lines. The heritage flight like you saw at Oceana was started in 1997 with it being the 50th anniversary of the Air Force and it took off from there because so many people loved it.

 

[KBayDog]

Tyndall, huh? Lucky SOB... The USAF, thanks to its Cold War penchant for establishing bases in BFE, has more than its share of absolutely shitty duty stations, but every time I drive down that way, Tyndall's location makes me green with envy. I'm not surprised that so many Airmen stick around that area when they get out.

Speaking of BFE, I'm royally pissed that PFN closed. ECP sucks.

 

[Fog]

I work on the F-4's at Tyndall AFB, my primary job is ejection seat maintenance, but I also crew chief when I don't have seat maintenance to do.

> . . . if you have any questions about the ejection seats or air force stuff, fire away.[/quote]

I thought (probably mistakenly) that all remaining F-4s in the AF inventory were drones. Wrong? If your F-4s are still crewed, what are they used for? Parenthetically, I was tarpon fishing a couple of years ago between Tyndall & Mexico Beach and really got a kick out of watching all the F-22s, 15s, 16s, C-17s & other current a/c in the pattern. I live in Pensacola, so our pattern is mostly trainers.

 

[Phantom309]

@KBayDog The AF certainly has it's share of assignments where you wake up in the morning and say to yourself "this ain't hell, but I can see it from here". I was only in for 4 years, and was stationed in Alaska. Tallahassee is home for me, so this is a pretty cool gig I got going here.

You hit that nail right on the head ECP sucks...PFN was so much cooler, I used to drive down the roads on PFN just to watch the airplanes coming in on final. ECP is out in the middle of nowhere

 

[Phantom309]

@fog I actually get asked that a lot, we have two fleets of F-4's one is manned and the other is unmanned. The manned flyers do everything from incentive rides, airshow, BFM, DACT, pod missions, banner tow, all kinds of stuff really. Those ejection seats are kept full up in case the pilot has to punch.

On the unmanned flyers I remove all the explosives from the airplane so that when it splashes down in the Gulf it doesn't hurt some unsuspecting scuba diver.

Our pattern is mostly training as well, Tyndall has gotten so quiet since the 15's got sent away. The 22's were the only show in town until the T-38's started showing. When the 22's were grounded the F-4's had the run of the base. It's nice when we see another unit come in we know we're not alone in the world.

 

[707guy]

@707guy nice to meet you! I know every one of them. Do you remember their names? Phantom East is from Tyndall and Phantom West is from Holloman. If there is anything I can do for you let me know.

You're going to make me check my notes! Can't remember names off hand but here's a shot of one returning to the ramp last year:

 

[Phantom309]

@707guy, Nice pic! that's AF-308 we don't really use their tail numbers any more.

 

[MIDNJAC]

@MIDNJAC Thank you for the welcome. It's been a horrible this year for giving out rides. Back during the time you were here we'd had 30 something days of rain. Was the CO's callsign Blade? if so that guy is awesome! I think he's the CO being a civilian I get out of touch with the chain of command. If you ever make it down this way again and get a ride with us ask your crew chief to talk to Cub. Cub is my nickname out there, I'd love to come over and talk to you in person and maybe even jump on the comm cord and launch you.

By the way I have to say that I loved watching ya'll comeback from flying, ya'll had awesome formations, and when you come in low and fast and break at mid field

Yep, I got wx cnxd like 3 times during that week. It was indeed Blade, and chatting with him about the program and flying was an upside to an otherwise disappointing attempt at flying. As for the break, yeah we don't get to do the "carrier break" at Oceana, so it was fun to do it down there. The guys flying with us from the 493rd seemed astounded that we were allowed to come back to the field like that. I think everyone kept it subsonic at least

I'll say that re: the F-4's seat, the canopy/seat interface wasn't exactly confidence inspiring. Seems like a pretty significant single point of failure.

 

[Phantom309]

@MIDNJAC As far as I could tell most of the "carrier breaks" were kept to sub-sonic. The Hornet though is just an awesome looking airplane, but flying low and fast is even more awesome. The F-4 maintainers would go out back just watch ya'll come back, because the AF pilots don't do those type of things. Our formation have lack a lot, I've been saying for years that we need to send our pilots to the Navy to learn how fly tight formations.

We had one pilot that loved to do low fly bys. He got in trouble with the tower one day, because he kept the airplane right on the deck. The air force says the aircraft has to show some form of accent when doing a touch and go. Our pilot disregarded that rule and kept it at between 14-16ft off the runway.

I would hate to eject out of a F-4. All that fires the canopy is a little 15 cubic inch air bottle. In all it's about the size of a softball, and it has 3000 psi of air in it. In flight the canopy comes off in a hurry, but the air bottle is just designed to get the canopy up into the airstream, on the ground it will blow the canopy off, but not like most people see it in their minds eye. The Navy F-4 seats actually had bigger rocket motors on them than AF versions. I was always told that it was in case the airplane went into drink the seat had enough power to still get the seats out.

 

[jmcquate]

Andrews JSOH a few years back

 

[fc2spyguy]

Of all of those pictured above, I think the mustang would be my pick to get a ride in.

 

[Phantom309]

@jmcquate that first phantom in that picture doesn't have long left on its life. Right now it only has one motor in it, and from what I've heard once it gets a motor it'll fly it's last manned flight then it's off to death row with it.

 

[Phantom309]

@fc2pyguy I wouldn't turn down a ride in any of 'em, well I would the F-22 because it's a single seater. The P-51 is one I would love to ride in.

 

[jmcquate]

@jmcquate that first phantom in that picture doesn't have long left on its life. Right now it only has one motor in it, and from what I've heard once it gets a motor it'll fly it's last manned flight then it's off to death row with it.

I spoke to the pilot and he told me that the guys flying the drones put up a fight and every once and a while cheat death and RTB.

 

[Phantom309]

Once in awhile they do, and sometimes the airplane just decides it's not it's time to die. We had one airplane that every time we put it on the end of the runway it would break. So we'd tow it back it in put it in the hangar, test it and nothing would be wrong with it. It did this like 9 times, well the 10th time was the charm it took off and now it's sleepin with da fishes