Any Phantom stories out there?

[walbut]

I seem to remember that the Phantom nosewheel steering system was susceptible to water ingress into the position feedback potentiometer on the noseleg. It was in a fairly exposed position, likely to get water thrown up at it by the nosewheels. A spurious feedback signal might command the steering motor in either direction with no input from the pilot, often with exciting results. By the time the fault is investigated the water may have evaporated or moved and it's NFF as a result. Then it's that tricky decision, do you change a component or leave everything as is?

[Dead Loss]

Bournemouth Ejection

Re the Bournemouth ejection, it was indeed P**e H*******s who jumped out. The pilot was D**e H****y of Tremblers. It was supposed to be me in the back that day, but I picked up a late notice weekend away to Ramstein and P**e very kindly filled my place. It caused my then fiancée some consternation when she arrived back in the UK on the Monday from a trip aboard to discover the navigator from a Tremblers jet had ejected. She knew I was supposed to be in that jet and I hadn't been able to tell her I was in Germany instead (this was well before Internet and social media). D**e torched the 'Welcome to Bournemouth' banner as he took off across the grass. It was indeed due to the notoriously fickle NWS on the FG1.

[howiehowie93]

Gibbo586,

I was on 111 then and saw that very incident; I think it was late on a Friday Afternoon / evening and the aforementioned OC had just had the whole of his charge in the hangar to tell them that only the Aircrew were 43 Sqn and the ground crew were just Stn Support as far as he was concerned. Then he got into his jet and spun it on the run way - something to do with the effectiveness of NWS vs rudder during the take of run as explained on my next See Off. There was much jolly banter in the NAAFI / Hendies / Commie to be overheard that weekend I can tell you.

Our boss (CCC I think it was by then) got us all in the following Monday to let us know what a jolly fine team of the 111Sqn Family we were !!

Regards
H (just a Sootie)

[Avionker]

Then its that tricky decision, do you change a component or leave everything as is?

Of course an occasional transient fault in the SSI (Seat Stick Interface) logic processing module, can explain all kinds of strange occurrences which later prove to be impossible to reproduce.

[BEagle]

...the aforementioned OC had just had the whole of his charge in the hangar to tell them that only the Aircrew were 43 Sqn and the ground crew were just Stn Support as far as he was concerned.

That OC can only have been The Scottish Officer....

[gibbo568]

I seem to remember that the F4K and F4M NWS was slightly different.

The F4M had a linear output, but the F4K was expotential, to reduce its sensitivity around the neutral, (something to to with moving around a carrier deck?)
This could have led to the pilot thinking that nothing was happening until it suddenly 'oversteered'!

Its a long time ago, and I do not have my course notes, so I stand to be corrected on this!

BEagle, you are correct as to the identity of the pilot.

[RetiredF4]

It must be one of the few aircraft still airworthy after being abandoned by its crew”.

One of our phantoms topped that one. It landed on it´s own, bent its nosegear when the jet left the runway and came to a stop in the gras, as the set power of around 90% couldn´t drive it forward any longer.
The firebrigade had easy access to shut down the engines, as the canopies had given way to the seats and their occupants. On short final a flock of birds caused an erratic evasive maneuver of the student pilot in the front seat, which scared himself that much, that he gave up the stick and grabbed for the ejection handle. The IP no longer in the backseat could do nothing else but watch the now pilotless aircraft land in the touchdownzone before he himself hit the ground.

The jet was repaired end reentered service few month later.

franzl

[Throb@30wCPDLC]

Wasn't there a "I Learnt About Flying" report once about an F4 in the Falklands that landed with aerial wire caught on the fin, shortly followed shortly by a call from an irate farmer who'd had his aerial ripped out by a low flying aircraft?

If my memory serves me correctly, the aerial was something like 30 feet above ground which meant the aircraft must have been almost scraping mud or it was inverted!!

TRUE....saw the culprit 2 days ago.......He was posted back to the UK at short notice......I had to replace him at very short notice!!

I think they worked out he must have got down to about 10ft.......very impressive it must have looked too!!

[Exmil]

FI F4 aerial snag

See #51. Did he ever receive the photos I brought back?

Great timing (by Biffo?) to be there as the crew suffered a "lapse in concentration".

From memory, it was port wing low, almost 90 AOB, and the aerial was 27' agl taken into the LH engine, so about 10' would be right.

I'm glad I've never been so distracted to fly so close to something with Pk=1.
How on earth could we have mistaken the taxi way at MPA for the runway and be looking up at our groundcrew on top of the revetments whilst overshooting?

[ORAC]

Dorset Aircraft Crashes:
19-8-84 XV569/Q Phantom FG.1

Had a problem on take-off and the navigator ejected while the aircraft was still on the runway. He was badly injured in the subsequent landing but the pilot managed to keep control of the aircraft and made a safe landing at RAF Lyneham.

[Tinribs]

Nose wheel thingy

Bill Freeman had a severe case of the nose wheel thingy at Aldergrove in about 76 finishing up on the grass with the nose wheel sticking up into the cockpit.

I was the Canberra TP for the same unit, 23 MU, and saw the take off.

I don't think there ever was an explanation

There was an RAF advert running in the press at the time with a phantom and the word "Peacekeeper" The helo pilots changed it to "peacekeepoffdegrass" and put it on the mess notice board

Bill saw the funny side of it

[Ant T]

From my post #35 -

Wasn't there a "I Learnt About Flying" report once about an F4 in the Falklands that landed with aerial wire caught on the fin, shortly followed shortly by a call from an irate farmer who'd had his aerial ripped out by a low flying aircraft?

True story, but there was no "call from an irate farmer". The farmers were my father-in-law and brother-in-law, my wife took a photo of the rear half of the Phantom as it disappeared behind the house, taking out the ham radio aerial - so 30 ft is about right!! When the investigating team arrived, asking questions about when the wire had been broken, they all denied any knowledge of the flyby. Flybys were definitely encouraged and that farm would never complain. Used to get some pretty spectacular Herc flybys there too, up the valley behind the shearing shed, sadly times have changed, and lucky to get the occasional 250' pass now............

I have just scanned the photo - I had not remembered it quite right, the aircraft was not quite disappearing behind the house, but not far off it !!

(Yes Exmil - as you said above, it is Biffo's photo)

[MightyGem]

they all denied any knowledge of the flyby

Well done them.

[Marcantilan]

Great pic and story, thanks for sharing it!

[cornish-stormrider]

Holy Mother******ing **** **** **** ****er,
that is INSANE.

Cool as ninja's on motorcycles with shotguns though...........
Was the pilot mental? I know it was in the good old days and men were men but thats not low - thats mowing the grass.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have believed anyone went that low without proof.

Nutter, with balls and skills, but still nutter.

[500N]

"they all denied any knowledge of the flyby"

"Well done them. "


Agree.


How long before the photo surfaced ?

[si.]

I've rubbed my eyes a few times, and still think that F4 looks rather low...

It's a good job the thread discussing the minimum altitude over the piano keys isn't still on the front page...

[Courtney Mil]

...but F4 pilots weren't the ones accused of being too high over the piano keys.

[si.]

Even on a 3 deg approach, he wasn't going to make Stanley's keys at over 50'

Fuse lit, no wait and watch.....

[Courtney Mil]

The only rule at Stanley was to hit the first cable.