"Bob" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi John,
I had the pleasure of flying most all the F4 models made for the Navy
at Pax River. Also had one squadron tour in the F4J block 46 and a
couple hundred landings. Had many traps in the F8E with more than a
few "wet flight suit" traps in the dark. Also had traps in props. I
believe I can say without fear of argument from any Phantom that the
F4 was the easiest airplane ever built to land, carrier or shore based.
For starters, the F-4s were all assigned to the "big" decks. Having
grown up on 27 Charlies, the "big" decks were like cheating. Secondly
the F-4 dirtied up was ultra-stable. Squeeze a hair of power and the
ball went up a hair. First time in my career I ever saw a ball go out
the side of the lens. In F-8s you left the ball nearing the ramp and
gave it a little high dip to set the hook or it could easily bounce and
hook skip the whole speghetti pile. The Phantom just hit the deck and
planted itself dowm. Tail hook the size of a plow shear, never heard
of one parting. If you did bolt, a rarity, you had enough power to
bend it around in a VFR pattern and get back to the groove in about 60
seconds. About the only gripe we had around the boat was fuel
consumption was high. Almost as bad as present day F-18s. But our
boarding rates were in the 90% range and bolts were uncommon. By far
the best carrier plane I personally ever flew. Now in the air in ACM
it was a dog and took both hands to pull max G's. Pretty good vertical
with it's power and gave you a real edge over guys who didn't like to
get their nose up. Nasty and unrecoverable flat spin mode, not as bad
as the F-14 but usually resulted in either a punch out or a mort. So
you didn't spin it, simple enough. The guy who told you the F-4 was
scary dirty must have been a helo pilot or an USAF guy. Not all that
analytical for sure.

SNIP

Can't disagree with most of your commentary. The Phantom got better with
the slotted stab, never needed more than one hand to pull max G. It was
challenging to exploit in ACM. For my first 500 hours, my thought was "No
wonder we beat up on these guys!" (F-8 driver perspective.) Around the 500
hour mark it changed, "How did we ever beat up these guys?"

The F-8 "high dip" cost us a jet for a whole cruise. Broke the nose strut
trunions. 27C, night, pitching deck was an F-8 mishap waiting to happen.
Certainly having a left or right runway, a 3 1/2 degree glideslope, and a
wee more hook-to-ramp made the big decks much more accommodating. OTOH,
they all look pretty small in the dark.

Yes, the Phantom was very solid around the blunt end of the boat. Went
through a whole cruise without a bolt ... until I mentioned that fact to my
RO on the last flight (mid translant). BOING!!! Oh well .... 99%

I found the F-14 a revelation. Not rock steady like the Phantom, but
significantly slower and tons more gas. It took some flying (as did the
Gator), but it was safe as houses. I've always maintained that all the
hogwash about shipboard flying qualities, hard-to-get-aboard, etc is just
that: hogwash. Show me the carrier landing mishap rate. Cause there's the
jets that'll kill you or jets that'll take care of you. Nobody TRIES to hit
the ramp. Nor do they put plumbers in unforgiving airplanes.

R / John