Robert Prest Book
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Robert Prest Book
Hi
I have just finished (again) ROBERT PREST'S BOOK f4 Phantom , A Pilots story and I was wondering if he wrote any more books about his experiances in the RAF ???
I have just finished (again) ROBERT PREST'S BOOK f4 Phantom , A Pilots story and I was wondering if he wrote any more books about his experiances in the RAF ???
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Trotti's book is magnificent and well, Robert Prest's has to be one of the best of it's kind.
I've seen a few threads from back in the day about what happened to him and whether he is still around but no one seems to have ever offered a definitive answer.
I've seen a few threads from back in the day about what happened to him and whether he is still around but no one seems to have ever offered a definitive answer.
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Grandmother could fly it
SPIT
Is this the 'Phantom' book where the author says the a/c was so easy to fly he could teach his grandmother to do it? I read such a line in a book on the 'British' Phantom many years ago and would love to read the book again.
(I'd also like the chance to prove whoever wrote that right (or wrong) but not being a grandmother I doubt if I shall ever get the opportunity!)
Is this the 'Phantom' book where the author says the a/c was so easy to fly he could teach his grandmother to do it? I read such a line in a book on the 'British' Phantom many years ago and would love to read the book again.
(I'd also like the chance to prove whoever wrote that right (or wrong) but not being a grandmother I doubt if I shall ever get the opportunity!)
From what I remember one, chapter described what a pilot had to do when landing and he said it was something his grandmother couldn't do. In my humble opinion it is the second best aviation book, the first being that one by an army captain about his training and service.
Think Like a Bird: An Army Pilot's Story by Alex Kimball.
Think Like a Bird: An Army Pilot's Story by Alex Kimball.
Last edited by Argonautical; 13th May 2008 at 08:28. Reason: memory finally kicked in
Is that (Prest's Book) the one that describes tanking in very anglo saxon terms? Something to do with a doughnut and procreation IIRC? If so it made a big impression on the young me. (He has a lot to answer for!)
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Back to the Phantom...
The first couple of posts on this thread frustrated me, as I have the books mentioned: the Robert Prest book, Phantom from the cockpit and - quite recently - the Trotti book, but I knew that I had another relevant F4 book somewhere on one of my bookshelves.... I've finally found it: Fly no More by Brian Davies describes the development, evaluation and introduction to service of the Spey engined F4K - and a very sorry tale it was too. He also flew the F4 in the transatlantic race in 1969. Plenty in there too about testing Scimitars, Sea Vixens, Buccaneers etc, and an embarrassing sequence when he managed to taxi a Gannet into a Vulcan - unfortunately the one that had been comprehensively rewired for Blue Steel development
See, it's true: every vaguely nostalgic thread MUST include a Vulcan story!
Although I was never privileged to fly a Phanton, I can't say it was ever one of my favourite FJ's. Only last month I read an article in Flight Journal describing some lethal handling characteristics that killed far too many crews
See, it's true: every vaguely nostalgic thread MUST include a Vulcan story!
Although I was never privileged to fly a Phanton, I can't say it was ever one of my favourite FJ's. Only last month I read an article in Flight Journal describing some lethal handling characteristics that killed far too many crews
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EyesFront - I can't let that one go. The F4M that I flew was a fine fighter aircraft. Sure, it had its vices (what aircaft doesn't), but if you stuck to the the rules, it wouldn't bite you. "Lethal"? No.
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Fair point! Sadly I'm only an armchair pilot as far as the F4 is concerned, so I should be more careful not to generalise...
The article in Flight Journal is by test pilot George Marrett, who tested the F4C over the Mojave desert back in the late 60s. It seems that typical weapon loads moved the CG very close to the aft limit, and that quite a few pilots lost control and crashed after releasing weapons. I think the F4C was the first airforce version, with a rather different role to the earlier navy models, so I daresay the behaviour described would have come as a surprise to the crews.
The article in Flight Journal is by test pilot George Marrett, who tested the F4C over the Mojave desert back in the late 60s. It seems that typical weapon loads moved the CG very close to the aft limit, and that quite a few pilots lost control and crashed after releasing weapons. I think the F4C was the first airforce version, with a rather different role to the earlier navy models, so I daresay the behaviour described would have come as a surprise to the crews.
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Wasn't the CG issue the reason we had to carry Sparrow 'blue poles' on the forward Sparrow stations?
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F4 comment
It's been a while since I posted, but having flown all 3 Brit F4 variants feel able to coment.
Re Sparrow ballast - Nuther A2 and Beags - you're right.
Re handling - "if it judders, use the rudders". At low speed and high AoA it would bite you if you used aileron to turn (say in a low speed scissors). I can say from experience that it takes a few thousand feet to recover from the ensuing spin (sop was to deploy the 'chute first).
EyesFront - I might be a bit biased, but the F4 looked like it meant business and it could deliver too. OK, so the turn rate and circle wasn't as good as an F16 (flown one of those too) but 9g (when you were rarely allowed), 850 KIAS at sea level and M1.8 at height was pretty good. And the gun was great fun - I loved the smell of cordite when chucking 100 rps of lead into the Med.
I haven't read Prest's book, but might have to now as haven't come across a Brit F4 book.
Re Sparrow ballast - Nuther A2 and Beags - you're right.
Re handling - "if it judders, use the rudders". At low speed and high AoA it would bite you if you used aileron to turn (say in a low speed scissors). I can say from experience that it takes a few thousand feet to recover from the ensuing spin (sop was to deploy the 'chute first).
EyesFront - I might be a bit biased, but the F4 looked like it meant business and it could deliver too. OK, so the turn rate and circle wasn't as good as an F16 (flown one of those too) but 9g (when you were rarely allowed), 850 KIAS at sea level and M1.8 at height was pretty good. And the gun was great fun - I loved the smell of cordite when chucking 100 rps of lead into the Med.
I haven't read Prest's book, but might have to now as haven't come across a Brit F4 book.
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Funny how time and place alter the appeal of different aircraft. "When I were a young lad..." the British skies were full of Hunters, Lightnings, Scimitars and Sea Vixens, with the exciting prospect of Harriers, Buccaneers, TSR2s and P1154's in the offing. Like most people I was in thrall to the Lightning as a sexy, uncompromising hot-rod of an aircraft, and a worthy successor to the SE5a and Spitfire. Somehow, the F4 never quite had the same emotional appeal to me although - as you say - it clearly meant business, and was operationally rather more useful. Robert Prest makes it clear that the Phantom was the aircraft he always lusted after as a boy, so nothing was going to stop him flying one!
Better stop there before the thread gets moved to the 'Nostalgia' section
Better stop there before the thread gets moved to the 'Nostalgia' section
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To put the bit about his Grandma into perspective I believe Prest was flying circuits and thought to himself 'this is so easy my grandmother could do it'. Then he thought about it and ran through what he actually had to do and think about during the evolution of a circuit. He was making the point that what he was doing seemed to be easy to him because of the no of times he had done it and was reminding himself of the dangers of complacency - familiarity breeding contempt. Or maybe he had a switched on granny!