Adskanster ,I am afraid that time has deleted my memory of who was in the 2 Phantoms in #468. All I can tell you is that I flew on 5 and 6 August 1970 with Mr Peter Stevenson, an MOD photographer. On the 5th we flew along the Rhine and on the 6th we flew down south in 4 ATAF. I think the photo was from the second sortie. I am glad that you got a decent colour pic. PM me if you want more details. # 473 I remember the aux air doors causing problems in the early days when we visited non
Phantom bases as every one who saw the aircraft thought that we had a loose panel. Re #480 - I certainly heard rumours of this practice but never knew of anyone who actually managed it. The other grin we had from the Marines was instituted by a Marine Major Robinson who had perfected a manoeuvre in Vietnam. The idea was turn through 180 and get to a fighting velocity. The Robinson Loop started at cruise and one selected reheat, inverted the aircraft and started to pull through. At 420 the aircraft was loaded and at 450 it was possible to peg 8.5 g. At 420 - 450 it was necessary to start rolling out into a steep diving turn and 8.5 was maintained through the 180. The aircraft was rolled out having lost a couple of thousand feet at 480 knots. Anyone remember these?