Robert Prest Book

[SPIT]

Hi
I have just finished (again) ROBERT PREST'S BOOK f4 Phantom , A Pilots story and I was wondering if he wrote any more books about his experiances in the RAF ??? :ok::ok:

[dakkg651]

To my knowledge he didn't. Pity.

Have you read 'Phantom over Vietnam' by John Trotti USMC or 'Phantom from the Cockpit.

[Tim McLelland]

Don't think he did write anything else. It is a pity - it's a very readable book and it's nice to have something about British Phantoms for a change!

[gareth herts]

Trotti's book is magnificent and well, Robert Prest's has to be one of the best of it's kind.

I've seen a few threads from back in the day about what happened to him and whether he is still around but no one seems to have ever offered a definitive answer.

[It's Not Working]

SPIT

Is this the 'Phantom' book where the author says the a/c was so easy to fly he could teach his grandmother to do it? I read such a line in a book on the 'British' Phantom many years ago and would love to read the book again.

(I'd also like the chance to prove whoever wrote that right (or wrong) but not being a grandmother I doubt if I shall ever get the opportunity!)

[Rhino power]

INT, it is indeed the very same book, the one written by Robert Prest that is, not the other titles mentioned.

-Regards, RP

[Argonautical]

From what I remember one, chapter described what a pilot had to do when landing and he said it was something his grandmother couldn't do. In my humble opinion it is the second best aviation book, the first being that one by an army captain about his training and service.

Think Like a Bird: An Army Pilot's Story by Alex Kimball.

[dakkg651]

Argonautical.

I've got to agree. 'Think like a bird' is a cracking read.

Know where I can get my hands on a Beaver?

[brickhistory]

Know where I can get my hands on a Beaver?



Errrmmmmm........................................









And Prest's book is very good.

[2Planks]

Is that (Prest's Book) the one that describes tanking in very anglo saxon terms? Something to do with a doughnut and procreation IIRC? If so it made a big impression on the young me. (He has a lot to answer for!)

[Zoom]

I hope you don't think that Bob invented that expression because it was doing the rounds long before he started flying.

[Stitchbitch]

Know where I can get my hands on a Beaver?

No, but you can't go wrong with this one...

http://www.getoffonbigbeaver.com/ :E

[EyesFront]

The first couple of posts on this thread frustrated me, as I have the books mentioned: the Robert Prest book, Phantom from the cockpit and - quite recently - the Trotti book, but I knew that I had another relevant F4 book somewhere on one of my bookshelves.... I've finally found it: Fly no More by Brian Davies describes the development, evaluation and introduction to service of the Spey engined F4K - and a very sorry tale it was too. He also flew the F4 in the transatlantic race in 1969. Plenty in there too about testing Scimitars, Sea Vixens, Buccaneers etc, and an embarrassing sequence when he managed to taxi a Gannet into a Vulcan - unfortunately the one that had been comprehensively rewired for Blue Steel development

See, it's true: every vaguely nostalgic thread MUST include a Vulcan story!

Although I was never privileged to fly a Phanton, I can't say it was ever one of my favourite FJ's. Only last month I read an article in Flight Journal describing some lethal handling characteristics that killed far too many crews

[27mm]

EyesFront - I can't let that one go. The F4M that I flew was a fine fighter aircraft. Sure, it had its vices (what aircaft doesn't), but if you stuck to the the rules, it wouldn't bite you. "Lethal"? No.

[EyesFront]

Fair point! Sadly I'm only an armchair pilot as far as the F4 is concerned, so I should be more careful not to generalise...

The article in Flight Journal is by test pilot George Marrett, who tested the F4C over the Mojave desert back in the late 60s. It seems that typical weapon loads moved the CG very close to the aft limit, and that quite a few pilots lost control and crashed after releasing weapons. I think the F4C was the first airforce version, with a rather different role to the earlier navy models, so I daresay the behaviour described would have come as a surprise to the crews.

[BEagle]

Wasn't the CG issue the reason we had to carry Sparrow 'blue poles' on the forward Sparrow stations?

[NutherA2]

Wasn't the CG issue the reason we had to carry Sparrow 'blue poles' on the forward Sparrow stations?

IIRC Beags, flying the FG! (F4K) in the Air Defence role, where the only external stores were fuel tanks, sparrows & sidewinders, having at least one sparrow, blue or white, on a forward station meant the C of G was always safe and meant we never had to do all those complicated sums before take off.

[Exmil]

It's been a while since I posted, but having flown all 3 Brit F4 variants feel able to coment.
Re Sparrow ballast - Nuther A2 and Beags - you're right.
Re handling - "if it judders, use the rudders". At low speed and high AoA it would bite you if you used aileron to turn (say in a low speed scissors). I can say from experience that it takes a few thousand feet to recover from the ensuing spin (sop was to deploy the 'chute first).
EyesFront - I might be a bit biased, but the F4 looked like it meant business and it could deliver too. OK, so the turn rate and circle wasn't as good as an F16 (flown one of those too) but 9g (when you were rarely allowed), 850 KIAS at sea level and M1.8 at height was pretty good. And the gun was great fun - I loved the smell of cordite when chucking 100 rps of lead into the Med.
I haven't read Prest's book, but might have to now as haven't come across a Brit F4 book.

[EyesFront]

Funny how time and place alter the appeal of different aircraft. "When I were a young lad..." the British skies were full of Hunters, Lightnings, Scimitars and Sea Vixens, with the exciting prospect of Harriers, Buccaneers, TSR2s and P1154's in the offing. Like most people I was in thrall to the Lightning as a sexy, uncompromising hot-rod of an aircraft, and a worthy successor to the SE5a and Spitfire. Somehow, the F4 never quite had the same emotional appeal to me although - as you say - it clearly meant business, and was operationally rather more useful. Robert Prest makes it clear that the Phantom was the aircraft he always lusted after as a boy, so nothing was going to stop him flying one!

Better stop there before the thread gets moved to the 'Nostalgia' section

[cum grano salis]

To put the bit about his Grandma into perspective I believe Prest was flying circuits and thought to himself 'this is so easy my grandmother could do it'. Then he thought about it and ran through what he actually had to do and think about during the evolution of a circuit. He was making the point that what he was doing seemed to be easy to him because of the no of times he had done it and was reminding himself of the dangers of complacency - familiarity breeding contempt. Or maybe he had a switched on granny!

[Exmil]

I had the fortune to be about 100 yards away from the F4 doing the wheels up roller at Leuchars. Allegedly, experienced front seater was going through evolution of the circuit chat to the back seater and suffered a cognitive failure, forgetting to put the wheels down. The Fletchers took the impact just as said QWI(P) applied the burners. Subsequently took the cable on the short runway and walked away from smoking jet. Should've been in an FG1 with audio AoA instead of FGR2 - would have given him a clue:E

[kluge]

I met Mr Prest once at an airshow, probably Finningley, in the early '80's.

I was a young 148Sqn ATC member and I remember him promoting his artwork.
A painting of his I remember was of a grey F4 at low level full chat.
I think that he had recently left the RAF.
He very kindly signed a copy of his book for me, which I still have.

I remember him as a very pleasant and polite gentleman who took the time to talk with a young ATC cadet about the RAF.

If he is on PPRUNE, Mr Prest you were a great inspiration. Thank you.

K

[seafuryfan]

I remember the bit about 'Granny' as well. IIRC, the point Mr Prest was trying to make was that he could get his Granny to fly a circuit, but if things started going pear-shaped, 'Granny's' capacity would quickly be found wanting.

A good book, I still have it (with a classic F4 burner take-off on the cover). I wonder what happened to Robert Prest?

[thunderbird7]

Check out 'Carrier Pilot' by Admiral Paul T Gilchrist. Similar vein but a bloody good read ... for a SPAM.