SF ... Here you go :ok:

Image Posting Guide

Best ...

Coff.

Have a Happy Christmas LM ... good to see you around on here again – looks like our petitioning worked :ok:


...and LM you might like to see this thread from UKAR.... :)
View topic - Ghosts of Binbrook Past

He was only given a week's peeling spuds.

We were not called "Fast Jet Pilots" in those days - we were "Fighter Pilots".

Cool. Very cool.

LM ... Ref my post at #27 ... Mrs Coff allowed a spot of mild surfing this afternoon ... where I came across what appears to be a bit of corroboration on the Pete Stone "Med Bang" :}

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5477c700.jpg

Extracted from the Thunder and Lightnings Web Site (visitors comments)


Best ...

Coff.

Nice one mate.

Welcome back!

Surprised to hear the Lightning was limited to 650IAS, the Tornado F3 was quicker (750 I think?) until they discovered that the boys were enjoying this facility too often and the engines were falling out...

You're talking late 50s/early 60s technology.

The F4 was older technology than that, but we had a limit of 750KIAS & could legitimately squeeze that up to 810 in Alpha config, albeit in a very small corner of the flight envelope. http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...ies/thumbs.gif

- stick the emergency ground egress kit on (aka a probe) and it was 625 from memory. Not that anyone..........................

I have a feeling that Maggott was the best Lightning pilot in the world.. at least that's what he used to tell those lovely tartan-clad lassies...

Think the F3 was 800kts. Willing to be told otherwise.

I was on Concorde once (never name drop, Elton told me that) and asked to visit the sharp end where I was surprised to see Vne was 530kts. I didn't expect it to be that high. Shows how advanced that bit of kit was. I remember the atmospheric conditions were such that we were cruising higher than normal and topped out at 60,000' and Mach 2.02 while sipping a beautiful Lanson Noble and eating strawberries and cream.What an aircraft.

I recall that the Tornado F3 was 810 kts KIAS when we started, but very quickly the engineers stopped that. The jet would jet up to that speed at 250 ft level.

In a previous life I flew the mighty F4. Despite all off it's limitations the Brit F4 was fast,very fast. As a JP on one of my first exercises I did a high speed stern on some USAF F4s who were doing 480kts at low level. In full AB doing a slack decending turn the speed got a little high. As I glanced inside I noticed we were a good bit over 800 kts, and that was with the Sgt Fletchers on. Yes, and before you ask, the tanks stayed on.

If you went subsonic from supersonic did the F4M tuck? I remember at Coningsby, would have been around '76 an OCU stude pulled about 10G, blacked out and the USAF nav instructor in the back flew it until the pilot recovered. Luckily it was a twin sticker. The a/c was a bit bent...

Talking to the nav later he said that they had gone subsonic and tucked in, he was waiting for it whereas stude wasn't.

'Mach tuck' was one of the FGR2's handling characteristics.

great photo thread for ex lightning crew
 

View topic - More of Leconfields Lightning days

Hope link works ok?

Regards

Phantomstreaker

The Phantom was very sensative in pitch. It took a while for any pilot to get used to. It became obvious during AAR and at low level. In the USAF we did a low level accel and slow down to demonstrate the effects of pitchup and pitch down. 200kts to 600kts in full Afterburner and then idle/idle A/B and slow down. If a stude started to PIO you would only get 2 reversals to take control of you would be another hole in the desert floor.

I take it it was very interesting if you lost the pitch stab aug then....

Phantomstreaker

Luuuuuvvvverly!

Just getting some tissues for me eyes.....

None of that nonsense with the Lightning.

Absolutely - hurrah for British design expertise! Just a modest tuck, otherwise only the Machmeter to tell you (and the phone call from the Stn Cdr.................)