PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - F4 Phantom
Thread: F4 Phantom
View Single Post
Old 7th Sep 2004, 13:19
  #226 (permalink)  
Exmil
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: UK
Posts: 56
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
F4 wheels-up roller

I watched said wheels-up roller on the Fletchers from about 50 yds. Received a bolly from the WO at the time as I was supernumery officer on a practice parade - facing away towards the threshold outside Ark Royal hangar - and missed his command. Sounds similar to the USMC sequence without ejection: touched down, vapour in the tanks blew, burners lit, nozzles and r/h stab scraped before jet staggered airborne. Being towards the end of a dry Summer the 5 flame trails set fire to the South side of the airfield. Even with the remains of one tank folded up over the L/E, the answer was to drop the gear and hook, take the PUAG on the short runway and walk away from it. I hear it's a good way to get an exchange.

In another far away place... hit an albatross at about 480 kts. Put a big hole in the radome (which started to delaminate), trashed the radar, ruptured the hyds, and basically everything on the LHS stopped working. No problem with a low speed handling check and cable landing - major damage, but I bet it would have been worse in another jet.
Exmil is offline