thing
I take it it was very interesting if you lost the pitch stab aug (in the phantom) then....
It sure would have been, but never lost one. Switched them off intentionally to demonstrate how it flies though to students and to frighten some tailgunners.
To put the pitch sensitivity of the phantom in the correct ligth i like to add to the discussion. Different phantom types behaved differently, and the fuel loading and external loads had an distict effct on pitch sensibility. The F4-F had a tank 5/6 lockout switch, when used those tanks stayed dry and the pitch sensibility was history. In types where this feature was not available proper fuel management with the transfer switches could prevent any pitch problem.
The mach tuck had nothing to do with the basic aerodynamic layout and was not present in one g flight. It was a problem of the artificial feel system. In supersonic flight the feel system created a very heavy stick affording some force to change the pitch, a lot more than in the subsonic region. Therefore when decelerating from supersonic / transsonic while applying gīs the fore mentioned stick force lighting led to an increased g load for a given identical stick force applied.
Nothing an expierienced phantom driver couldnīt handle on an average day.
Iīm not familiar with the spey phantoms though, only flew the F-4E / F4F, RF-4C, RF-4E types.
Keep the stories coming, you lightning mates!
franzl