Forum: General

JakeMelampy wrote:

Production for the QRF-4C is just now ramping up, with the first two airframes delivered to Tyndall this summer.

Thanks for the update on the Recon Rhinos Jake! I remember seeing those first RFs show up, but none after that. There's one that suffered a pretty hard landing, and Effed up the airframe to where it was no longer flyable. Given the size of the Rhino's landing gear, you know that had to be a pretty damned hard landing! Shocked

That bird sunbaked in "The Swamp" for about 3 years, but then I never saw it again.

There really isn't a huge fleet of RFs, however, so it shouldn't take a very long time to shoot through the fleet.

Would be interested to know how many Es and Weasels we have left.

Is the 82nd still flying the Heritage birds? I know that at least one of them has already been sent to Death Row at Tyndall (the Hill 2 bird, IIRC).

Been a long time since I've worked on the ramp there, and plus, I'm in the airlift biz now instead of fighters, so I'm a little out of the loop.

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I was TDY at Tyndall last year and I think they had a couple RF-4s. Talking to the Phantom Phixers there I believe they said all of the Gs were used up already, and they had about 20-30 E's still on the ramp (some flyable, some getting modded, and some on the ready line to get modded). The QF-16s are a perfect match since it's already all fly-by-wire. I think they were looking forward to making the F-16s into drones because it will be very simple compared to the F-4s.

Thanks for the info on ejection seats for civilians. I must have been misinformed and am glad for some clarification. Smile

TC wrote:

There's one that suffered a pretty hard landing, and Effed up the airframe to where it was no longer flyable.

That was one of the prototypes delivered back in 1996. It was only recently (<4 years?) scrapped, right?

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Would be interested to know how many Es and Weasels we have left.

There are two or three Gs out at Holloman, but no more at Tyndall. There are about 80-90 Es left, but no more coming from AMARG.

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Is the 82nd still flying the Heritage birds? I know that at least one of them has already been sent to Death Row at Tyndall (the Hill 2 bird, IIRC).

Yes. When I was there in August, all 2008 Heritage jets are in SEA camo, and there were four of the original jets on Death Row or the Swamp.

Thanks for those updates Jake! Man, it's been awhile since I've been home, but I will, no doubt take a trip out to the flightline, next time I'm there.

So all the Gs are gone. I figured that wouldn't take too long, since they were the most recently flown birds, and thereby, easiest to return to flying status. As it turns out, it only took about 10 years to shoot through the entire Weasel fleet.

Now, a good many of the RFs haven't flown in nearly 17 years. It'll be interesting to see how many they can get flying, but again, there wasn't a huge fleet of RFs, with just over 500 built. As for how many actually made it to AMARG, and at that, in good shape, I do not know.

However, as you have said, and as I had predicted, we only have about 5 years left of QF-4 ops. The Navy probably has even less time, but again, I'm not sure how far through their inventory of Ns and Ss they've shot through already.

TC wrote:

Speaking of which, does anyone have an update on Dale Snodgrass's effort to purchase a demil'ed, flyable F-14?

As I understand it, the plans fell through. I've heard there were concerns about Navy liability and insurance, but nothing concrete.

Well dat sux. I've seen the Tomcat demo flown by both "Snort" and by "Heater" at different times, and I must say, it didn't get any better than that!

I would've loved to have seen "Snort" light the GE-110s at least "One last time...Baby!" Cool

Too true

I saw Heater call an IFE while inverted during a dirty roll on takeoff one year at Miramar. He waited until after everyone including the Blues had flown and then performed a great demo Cool

I'm surprised they didn't have a spare ready for him, if he had knocked off the demo that early due to a problem.

Then again, I was at Tyndall one year for their annual show. During the Friday show F-15 demo, the pilot did a max climb on takeoff, rolled into a Split-S, and crossed back over show center at ludicrous speed. He kept accelerating toward the approach end of the runway, and then put it into a tight turn. Then, he abruptly pulled it out of 'burner, and the narrator said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, unfortunately, we will be unable to continue today's performance.

I'm thinking WTF

That was a grand total of about 30 seconds worth of flying! This and the Blue Angels were really all I came out to see today dammit!

Of course, that does just about equal my shortest flight ever.

"So There I Was..."

As soon as we rotated, I hear the pilots say "Ah $h!t!", and then they left the gear down, turned around and we landed.

Again, I'm thinking WTF

as the pilot says, "Hey Load, can you call in for a parking spot? We're done for the day."

"Sure thing Boss! What the Foxtrot happened?"

"Birdstrike"

Final Score: Moose 4 - Tweety 0 Laughing

Hey Parrot Cranium,

Yup it’s all up to your certifying FSDO… There are fighters with jettisonable bags, and others that have their tanks bolted on based on the FSDO. Same with seats as there are no FAA regs about hot seats in an experimental jet.

You cannot buy a US jet from the US government without friends in Congress passing bills, like the one to get the A-4 and F-4 in civilian hands. All the flying F-104s in the US are Canadian birds, even though the family models were built in California. Of the civilian T-Birds I used to fly, one was Canadian and one was US. But the US jet had been MAPPED to Yugoslavia, so it was no longer considered US property. Rolling Eyes

Forum: General

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