Loved the story about the RV-4. Thats what I want to do when my 8 is finished. Great pictures Snap!
we are all lucky to be aviators...
One cool morning when I was stationed in Idaho I was to be flight lead in a flight of two F-4 Phantoms on a 1v1 dogfight mission. My wingman ground aborted due to a mechanical. I launched as a single... a clean (no external tanks) F-4 into a clear, cold beautiful Idaho morning sky. 10 minutes later IFR was cancelled with departure control and I rolled her on her back and decended into the range airspace. Leveling out at 50 to 100' off the deck the throttles were shoved to military power(max without afterburner). The ole Rhino accelerated to about 620kts Gnd Spd while I maneuvered through canyons and over ridges. Reaching a flat plateau, full afterburner was selected. The bird leapt forward so aggressively that it nearly knocked my feet off the rudder pedals. In 5 seconds we were just pushing Mach 1. A 5 to 6 g pull to the vertical was next, followed by rolls while climbing vertically. At 25000' and decelerating thru 200kts I pulled the phantom back down thru the horizon and did some basic aerobatics (loops, rolls, cloverleafs,etc ) before returning to base. Enter the "break" at 400kts and ease her onto the concrete. (sigh).
I flew that airplane for 16 yrs, but that one carefree, fun sortie sticks out in my mind... just the type of flying I hope to do again. Maybe not as fast or as high, but pretty darn close guys.
Gotta get back to pounding those rivets!
Merry Christmas!
Talk about an elevator ride! Fun to read about but this chicken would rather watch from inside my -4! 