Phantom Pilot Training Video - 1973

[tarantonight]

Came across this on Youtube, some of you might even be on it!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LYy50hVf2s


TN.

[bgbazz]

Interesting video...thanks for posting the link.

[Joe Jingles]

Thanks for the link. Not on it, but a recently departed friend was. A very different world and RAF back then.

[Hueymeister]

No G-Pants?

[Menko]

The very last USAF pilot-less drone flight was in September this year at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
The absolute last USAF operated (but manned) QF-4 drone flight will be in December of this year, by the 82 Aerial Target Squadron, Detachment 1, out of Holloman AFB, NM.
From then on it is only QF-16 Fighting Falcons doing themajority of high performnce full size aerial targets in the USA. - Miss you "Double Uglies", and your distinctive sound and undesirable smoke!

[BEagle]

External anti-G suits weren't available until some years after this film was made. I think it was around 1981 before I was issued with one for my F-4 course.

But as can be seen from the PEC worn in one of the closing shots, the internal anti-G suit was certainly worn by fighter crews in those days, although the Gnat shots were clearly staged and I doubt whether the 'actors' would have needed any anti-g protection for that...

The Summer of '76 plus internal anti-g suits at Brawdy certainly kept one's weight down!

[CharlieJuliet]

Great video, but I can't find a Chris Kemp in Gordon Moulds 'The Phantom OCU Book'. Also I was on the OCU from 72 to 74 and don't recall him, but anno domini may well have intruded. However, I recognise the F4 instructor as Phil H-R (Folding Toothbrush!). Any thoughts?

[MPN11]

Much enjoyed that link - thanks :ok:

Nice to see a bit of Tengah, albeit a bit blurred!

[ScouseFlyer]

Thread back in 2012 re a Chris Kemp ex RAF aircrew who the was an inspector with the NZ CAA.Don't know if the same chap.
SF

[charliegolf]

About 4 mins in...

"Pilots have to be supremely fit"

That's exactly how I remember them too!

CG

[Haraka]

Bit difficult at times:


"Is he the fattest fit pilot, or the fittest fat pilot?"

[glad rag]

Them were the days.

[chopper2004]

See there is the exchange USMC Captain at 27:28 in the mess, whom I am guessing must have seen action in Vietnam ??

cheers

[banjobill]

Thoroughly enjoyable clip.......but why do I remember Chris as a C130 skipper in the late 70's ?

[MPN11]

And that led me to searching YouTube for 'RAF Tengah' .... some bery nostalgic bits there, if yiu are of a FEAf oersuasion.

[RAFEngO74to09]

Thanks for posting - great nostalgia from the year I went to OASC and then my "I can't believe they're paying me to do this" RAFG JEngO tour on the beast a few years later.

27:54 "The Phantom is too much for one man to handle" !

A few more early UK Phantom videos here:

1st video 00:42 "About 170 are on order at a total cost of nearly 400 Million Pounds" - bargain !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie0YcOZATM0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8yH-fEruWA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_ws8jBgSrU

Nice line at RAF Coningsby in the early days.

http://www.f4phantomeers.org.uk/images/64-228/aircraft/228line1969.jpg

[Brian W May]

Yep, Chris was a Hercules captain on 30 Sqn circa 1977 (ish). Definitely him.

[Chugalug2]

Great video, thank you tt. A great country, a great air force, a great time. Even the fire engines looked great! Nostalgia isn't what it used to be, is it?

Engo, if your Phantoms were a bargain, then the Hercules were bargain basement, 60 for £60M (they must have been, Harold said so!).

[A340Yumyum]

Blimey, and that's my Dad presenting wings at 11:53!
A great find, thanks!!

[CharlieJuliet]

So maybe Chris was just 'standing in'? Great videos bring back many memories - does anyone remember the agro of the y-y as mentioned by Terry Bollans in the last vid? This was to try and pick up bearing failures - as, if a donc didn't achieve the y-y there was a good chance that the rear bearing was on its way out. I think the next step was for the engineers to check the temperature of the air coming out of the breather. The Spey was odd with different values for the TGT limit in all configurations, although we (RAF) fairly quickly limited use of the 12th stage bleed in favour of just using 7th stage to try and avoid hot air leaks.

[X767]

Wow - that certainly brought back some memories. I remember it was released as the short before "Serpico" in cinemas at the time.
My contribution at 19:15 was the only few seconds, of hours of filming at Chivenor - not mentioned in the film.

[silverfoxx]

Chris' instructor on Gnats in the film - I (and others) had the pleasure of sharing the Mess with him at Scampton in the early 90's. Outstanding chap and a true gent.

[Phantom Driver]

Great nostalgia video ; reminds me of the old saying -" one picture is worth a thousand words ' . Always a pleasure to come across "new" archives decades later .

Wonder how / (if indeed) the "star" ended up on Hercs just a few years later . I do recall some guys went that route for medical reasons , (including the late great Bob Rowley ?)

[Stan Woolley]

I'm sure I flew with Chris at Airtours while Newcastle based in the mid-nineties, nice guy. Wonder what he's up to now?