Final F-4 Phantom flight in the US military at KHMN

[MikeD]

December 21st. the final flight of a US military F-4 Phantom will occur at Holloman AFB, NM, and is open to the public.

F-4 Phantoms served beginning with the US Navy and ending with the US Air Force. Phantoms equipped combat squadrons for decades, with the final units being VF-202 "Superheats" of the US Navy Reserve, retiring their F-4S models in very early 1988; VMFA-112 "Cowboys" of the US Marine Corps Reserve retiring the F-4S models in 1992; and 561st Fighter Squadron of the active-duty USAF retiring their F-4G models in 1996.

F-4s were used as target drones by the USN and USAF until the USN retired their last QF-4S in 2004, and now the USAF retiring the last of the QF-4E on December 21, 2016.

http://airshowstuff.com/v4/2016/det...inal-flight-and-retirement-ceremony-date-set/

 

[///AMG]

Sad to see it go. After WX cnx'ing my backseat ride in one, I am sad I never got to get a re-attack. Cheers to all of you who flew or flew in her!

 

[TallWeeds]

I look forward to @Adler's pictures of the event.

 

[Adler]

I look forward to @Adler's pictures of the event.

Did you schedule stalk me? I had no idea I even had the day off. Hmmmm.

 

[TallWeeds]

Did you schedule stalk me? I had no idea I even had the day off. Hmmmm.

I did not. I figured it seemed like something you would do though.

 

[RDoug]

Well, seeing as how my first ATC assignment was at an F-4D base (later transitioning while I was there to the F-111F), this certainly makes me feel older. And then you had to bring Cowboy into the picture! In all my horrendous dealings with Naval aviation and pilots who couldn't be bothered to even do the basics, such as weather brief, read the NOTAMs, look over the airfield diagram for the destination airport, etc., the Cowboys were the worst of a very bad lot.

I was working this night, for example, and the news article doesn't begin to touch upon the absolute incompetence of either this pilot, or the one in the second F-4 in the flight: A Navy F-4 jet crash landed in a snow storm

 

[Boris Badenov]

What? They had some kind of engine problems! Plus they heroically guided the stricken jet away from houses before punching out! Heroes, man. Heroes.

 

[MikeD]

Well, seeing as how my first ATC assignment was at an F-4D base (later transitioning while I was there to the F-111F), this certainly makes me feel older. And then you had to bring Cowboy into the picture! In all my horrendous dealings with Naval aviation and pilots who couldn't be bothered to even do the basics, such as weather brief, read the NOTAMs, look over the airfield diagram for the destination airport, etc., the Cowboys were the worst of a very bad lot.

I was working this night, for example, and the news article doesn't begin to touch upon the absolute incompetence of either this pilot, or the one in the second F-4 in the flight: A Navy F-4 jet crash landed in a snow storm

The Cowboys are still there Although not at KNBE anymore, cool of a field that it was next to the lake.

The ELP wreck were VF-302 jets, from what I remember hearing about. Didn't the wingman's jet run off the runway while trying to avoid lead's jet? What's the backstory on the incident?

 

[guywhoflies]

The end of a legendary aircraft. My dad is visiting me right now and I just mentioned this to him. He was a GIB in the F-4C/D in the 555th TFS out of Ubon RTAFB from May 1967-Dec 1967...67 missions and his mig count was -1. Sad to see it go. I wish they would preserve a few for future generations to see at Air shows.

 

[RDoug]

The flight arrived on day one of a five-day snowstorm . . . in April! Neither pilot bothered to weather brief, and brought to a snowstorm two aircraft not equipped with anti-skid, since they were made for carrier operations. Being Navy, neither was ILS equipped, either, and the VORTAC was NOTAMed out of service (brilliant). So, the flight was split for ASR approaches to the long runway.

The first F-4 started fishtailing down RY22 and decided to go around. The pilot put the aircraft into afterburner and decided he wasn't going to get the aircraft off the ground (compressor stall?), so he ordered an eject leaving the aircraft in afterburner pointed toward some pretty heavily populated areas, so it's a miracle the thing didn't manage to get off the ground and instead cartwheeled. The Phantom took out the localizer shack (meaning only ASR approaches for the rest of this week-long snowstorm — thanks a lot), went across Airway Blvd., which because of the storm was thankfully empty, and careened right past a guard shack on Fort Bliss, scaring the poop out of the gate guard.

I rang out the ARFF, which arrived at the scene desperately searching for the crew, who had decided not to wait around. These two "professionals" instead hitched a ride from a passing motorist to take them up to William Beaumont Army Medical Center for a post-ejection examination, while ARFF is desperately trying to reach them inside the fireball.

Number Two now had to attempt an ASR to the shorter RY26L, as we had debris on RY22, and he didn't have reserves for a divert (really? how the heck do you make that mistake?). He landed okay and came up on my ground control frequency telling me he was clear, but stuck in the dirt/snow (couldn't even exit right; so why the heck didn't he just roll out to the end?). He told me he was going to climb out of the Phantom and walk over to the FBO. I asked him twice to verify the aircraft was completely clear of the runway, and he assured me that it was, twice. Ops and ARFF were too busy to check, so we resumed operations. About three or four ops into post-accident use of RY26L, including aircarriers, a landing DC-3 tells local control on roll-out, "Hey, tower, did you know that you have an F-4 tail sticking out over the edge of the runway?"

Total shutdown now, as RY26R is only 75 feet wide and far too short for anything but a Cat II.

Yeah . . . just ask me what I think of Navy aviators. I have a couple more stories it illustrate the point, including two F-8 pilots who caused the closest near miss I've ever seen because they didn't know "base" from "crosswind" and almost took out a flight of two A-10s on downwind at D-M. Or the A-7 pilot who filed for the wrong airport because he, ". . . thought Biggs and El Paso were co-located, like, you know, Albuquerque and Kirkland."

 

[MikeD]

Could the trail F-4 have gone to Biggs? Or was the WX below TACAN mins? (as I remember, that's all BIF had, a TACAN 21 approach).

Lots of errors there indeed.

 

[RDoug]

Biggs tower was closed that night, I believe. I wasn't working radar that night, so that's just an educated guess on my part. Back then BIF pretty much closed every night, but especially when flying was down during bad weather.

 

[chrisreedrules]

The end of a legendary aircraft. My dad is visiting me right now and I just mentioned this to him. He was a GIB in the F-4C/D in the 555th TFS out of Ubon RTAFB from May 1967-Dec 1967...67 missions and his mig count was -1. Sad to see it go. I wish they would preserve a few for future generations to see at Air shows.

That's pretty awesome. Triple Nickel!

 

[NovemberEcho]

Yeah . . . just ask me what I think of Navy aviators.

We had a Marine Harrier squadron in town at Tyndall once and they were so bad at PAR's we just told them all PAR approaches would be done no-gyro.

Still better than the F-35's that asked for PAR's even though they weren't allowed to fly IMC. They didn't tell us that though and would just deviate around any clouds on final...during a PAR.
"Going right of course turn left heading xxx"
"Going farther right of course turn LEFT heading xxx"
"Going rapidly right of course!"

"Oh sorry final there's a cloud and we can't fly through it."

=|

 

[RDoug]

Or, as I like to put it: "Giving a sailor an airplane is like giving a soldier an ICBM. You just know it's not going to end well."

Actually, I've had good encounters with Marine pilots (save for one Harrier story). It's the Navy that breeds unprofessionalism. Great flyers; lousy pilots — meaning great stick-and-rudder skills; not a clue on regulations or even common sense.

 

[///AMG]

One of the bigger sweeping generalizations I've seen on this board in a while…….

 

[CFI A&P]

Did you schedule stalk me? I had no idea I even had the day off. Hmmmm.

Are you sure you won't be in Tikrit or Angola researching the next location for Survivor ?

 

[Hacker15e]

I was at the original "Phantom Pharewell" at Nellis in '96....

 

[Hacker15e]

I wish they would preserve a few for future generations to see at Air shows.

Somebody all ready worked that one out, to the chagrin of the USAF....

http://www.collingsfoundation.org/aircrafts/f-4d-phantom/
https://www.collingsfoundation.org/vmf-flight-experiences-flight-training-programs/

 

[Nark]

One of the bigger sweeping generalizations I've seen on this board in a while…….

We all know Army Aviators are the best of the best...