On Sun, 15 Jul 2007 14:10:30 -0500, "John Carrier"
wrote:

F-4 was similar w/o the spare chute. A decidedly unfun task to stuff the
chute soooo ...
We tried to avoid chute-braked landings. Touchdown on the numbers at
significantly slower than optimum AOA and good ROD. Worked pretty good for
normal days. Then there was this time at Buckley, 5K altitude but on a 14K
long runway. No problem with good technique, eh? Well, a bit of a tailwind
changed that. Used 13,990' of that runway. No hot brakes!?!

R / John


I always remember one of the first female crew-chiefs (AKA plane
captains in USN) that we got at Torrejon. A cute girl who was
determined to do anything the big guys could.

When it came to loading the drag chute, she found it difficult to get
the necessary leverage to muscle the tail cone door down, so she got a
big wooden rolling pine--it was the perfect size to fit the vent hole
at the back of the tail cone. Stuff the rolling pin into the hole and
suddenly you've got a two foot long handle to easily slam the door.

She painted it lavender and decorated it with tiny yellow and red
flowers so that none of the big manly crew-dogs would steal it.

She could do anything the guys could and a lot of it better. She was a
damn good crew chief.

Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com