2,000 hours on the CF-101 Voodoo from 1969 - 1982.
Yes, the Voodoo would pitch-up, but only if the critical angle of attack (AoA) was exceeded. Because of the swept wing and high T-tail, as AoA increased, the airflow would eventually strike the top of the T-tail, causing the aircraft to depart controlled flight in a pitch-up. In other words, if you exceed critical AoA for a given weight, speed etc, the aircraft would pitch-up just before it would stall. The same aerodynamic tendency of other swept wing/high T-tail aircraft such as the F-104 and the BAC-111, I believe.
Recovery was simple, if you had enough altitude. Deploy the drag-chute to force the nose down and the aircraft would pick up flying speed.
The simple way to avoid this was to just avoid exceeding critical AoA. We had a good AoA indicator and the aircraft had a number of pitch control systems (horn, pusher, RLS) that would normally keep you out of trouble (below critical AoA). But they could be fooled sometimes.
Lots of indicated airspeed was always good and that was absolutely no problem with the Voodoo with its great thrust-to weight ratio. The only problem on take-off was getting the nose gear up quickly enough after rotation as it would hang at around 290 KIAS. And on a cold day, you would be there just seconds after lift-off. In fact, we did not use afterburners below 0 degrees F as the thrust was just too hard on the engine mounts.
Flaps were used only for take-off & landing. Only two positions - full up or full down (45 degrees).
Last edited by TLB; 28th Jun 2011 at 21:47.