Real World F-4C Question

[Z09SS]

I've stumbled across a couple of references that say the F-4C was nearly impossible to recover should something go wrong when a centerline store was carried.

 

I've not seen this mentioned with the F-4B or F-4D (or any other variant for that matter).

 

Is the instability just not mentioned for the others or is it a unique situation for the F-4C?

[+streakeagle]

Aerodynamically, the only difference between an F-4B and an F-4C is the wing bulges for the fat tires required by the USAF. This only slightly decrease lift/increases drag of the wings. The F-4D was nearly identical to the F-4E. Per the flight manuals, all of the "hard wing" (unslatted) F-4 variants could easily get into a violent departure at high AoA. With enough altitude, recovery was possible and easy... unless it developed into a flat spin. When the famous ace, Robin Olds, hastily converted to the F-4C after flying F-101s, he wanted to experience this problem. He went to 30,000 feet, yanked the stick back, applied some aileron to generate the adverse yaw, and went tumbling. He went below 10,000 feet before figuring out how to recover.

[+daddyairplanes]

another story for the balls of Robin Olds....... deliberately spins an F-4 to see what it's like!!!!

[macelena]

I have a video of an Spanish F-4C pilot talking about them, having experienced several. According to him, a last resort was to open the tail chute, being ordered to bail out when below 10k feet, an order usually overlooked if the crew was confident in recovery. Wish i had it with English subs.

[+Stratos]

I have a video of an Spanish F-4C pilot talking about them, having experienced several. According to him, a last resort was to open the tail chute, being ordered to bail out when below 10k feet, an order usually overlooked if the crew was confident in recovery. Wish i had it with English subs.

Maybe you can share here so spanish speaking members can see it.

[+Fubar512]

 

and

 

Cannot embed this one, but it shows the control settings for spin recovery in the F-4

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HklhZuUQfTY

Edited September 20, 2013 by Fubar512

[macelena]

Maybe you can share here so spanish speaking members can see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MCZ-bXumjc

 

As he says, they even induced them as training

Edited September 20, 2013 by macelena

[+Fubar512]

So nice of them to use SF for the simulation...lol

[+Wrench]

and the Vietnam map! (can't help to recognize those tiles!!)