Here she is in 2004.:ok:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7012/6...c62a0c19_z.jpghttp://farm8.staticflickr.com/7034/6...7f098eb9_z.jpg

Nice picutres! And, yep, looks like she'll do a trip. Probe door needs sorting out. Might need some engines, I suspect, but still up for it.

Just checked. The last time I flew 409 was in Cyprus with 29 Sqn on 16 March 1982. Wow. Happy days. See, I've got to bring her back!

Here she is yesterday.

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/...0/DSC05590.jpg

And here is some of the corrosion underneath

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/...0/DSC05583.jpg

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/...0/DSC05582.jpg

Maybe not quite as bad as I suggested earlier, but still not sure I would like to fly it back to UK, Courtney ;)

Hmm, I see what you mean, Ant. Maybe a lick of paint first? :uhoh:

4 jets in the Falklands flight were Faith, Hope, Charity and.......... Desperation.

Shame - I'd prefer to remember her coming up the side of Alice, upside down, while we sat on the pad with the score cards ready - or being overtaken down in Lafonia with only the top of the fin visible from the adjacent 'valley'...............happy days

I don't think so. 406 was Hope.

I know they will have changed occassionally, but to my recollection, 466 was Desperation and 421 was Faith. Can't remember Charidee.

Courtney

Is there still a wingtip section from one of the other scrapped F4s as a coffee table top (supported by a beautifully constructed stone wall) in the "Goose" bar, if that still exists? It was a bugger getting it up the stairs...

Slightly off thread...

Anyone know what is to become of the 23 Sqn Phantom at Waddington once 8 Sqn have replaced it with a Hunter?

Sling it under your S-61 Ant - she'll do a trip! (about as far as Mare Harbour!) :}

Courtney, XV419 is in my log book so may have been Charity.

A little speed tape and she'd soon be as right as rain.....:\

Yeah. Save some to go round a couple of those hyd pipes too. Fill her up with OX38, if she leaks, it means she full!

You beat me to it Beags. Bit o' speed tape and she'll do a trip!

Here she is in happier days with a full load in '77:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...56F4LineB1.jpg

Oh, and BTW, I flew XV497 the Waddo F4 on my first tour too! It featured in the 81 Man Alive programme when it served on 19 Sqn.

We just don't have any mean looking aircraft anymore. :{

Now that is a good pic!!! It must have been one of the first with the RWR and ILS antennae on the fin. IIRC they were only just appearing around '76?

And you're right. It was a very mean looking jet. I think it is still the one closest to my heart. I'm so sad.

Courtney

I last flew her (or in her as a semi-professional directional consultant) on the OCU in 1984.

This may just be a cunning Army plan - goes with renaming RAF Mount P and RAF Ascension to MP Base and AI Base - but I also suspect the dead hand of engineering regulations which require gate guardian aircraft to meet certain standards. Elf 'n safety dontcha know. Clearly what is needed is an inert replica F4 to commemorate the aircraft's contribution to keeping the place British:D

Impiger et Acer,

I don't recall any navs on the OCU being SEMI-profesional. I think you are doing yourself down!

Well,
Firstly sorry this is so picture heavy.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...1/IMGP0027.jpg
Having just returned from my winter break in the tropical paridise that we all know as MPA I can report that the latest rumour is that the Jet (Hope) will be scrapped this year (Although OC 1435 Flt was trying to get it a repreive) with the Tail and Nose sections going to the museam in Stanley, I beleive the plan is to put a coffee shop where she currently stands. The reasoning behind scrapping rather than moving is that the structure is in such poor condition that it would probably fall apart if a move was attempted!!! (This is rumour control and not an official line)
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...1/IMGP0038.jpg
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...1/IMGP0039.jpg

Although no need for hyd fluid as she's still leaking and therefore not empty yet!!!!

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...illleaking.jpg

GTS solinoid will need a wallop and the plug a quick clean then she should do a trip!!!
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...xAirDoor-1.jpg

But she does still look good at a distance
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...1/IMGP0026.jpg


http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...09H3-11-11.jpg

So, I'll sign the AF/BF but good luck with getting the leg locks off!!!!
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...1/IMGP0041.jpg

Oh woe is I
 

Oh woe is I as another of my precious Tooms goes to the knackers yard which must leave us close to single figures now for complete(ish) airframes and after serving this lovely lady on 111(F) for 8 years as a Flight Line Maniac, it leaves me cold that MOD can treat the remains of our Phantom Phleet with such callous disregard. After leaving the squadron I went onto the F4 engine test bed for 5 years at Bruggen and was posted kicking and screaming away from the F4 Phleet to the Tonka fleet. One abiding memory was the Pharewell to the Phantom party at RAF Whatashame and after a great night I was woken bleary eyed in the morning by one of the aircrew on the tigers who drove me to the far side of the airfield and there abandoned in a muddy pit was my squadron. All of 111's F4's being smashed to bits by a gang of workers who looked on amused at the sight of a grubby man sobbing quietly in the rain.

I am currently writing a hefty tome on the F4 from the engineers perspective but I also need to write about fighting and flying the F4 and need the patience of ex F4 aircrew who flew the aircraft during my time which was from 1973 to 1982, but preferably during the years 1975/6 at Leuchars. Anyone interested would they please contact me? Thanks

I have though kept contact with the F4 drivers and GIB's of the Luftwaffe and have spent two separate weeks as the guest of 74 and 71 Geschwader at Hopsten and Wittmund over the intervening years. They are to have their Phinal celebration in June of 2013 and I have been cordially invited by the CO to attend the 40th year celebration of operating the F4, 50 years of ops at Wittmund, the last ever Phlight of an F4 and the introduction somewhat belated into service of the Typhoon and all in one Phabulous week. Details are yet to be promulgated but I am sure if interested parties contacted the CO at Wittmund he would look kindly on ex RAF F4 people. He can either say yes or no and I would bet on the answer being yes as he is impressed with the passion with which we still hold the old girl. See you at Wittmund in 2013?

Yours in anticipation

Spook