John Miller wrote:
John Carrier wrote:

The Phantom was very stable aircraft around the boat. Despite its genuine
mach 2 capability (well, maybe not the S model), it was remarkably docile
and forgiving throughout its envelope.


My flight instructor once mentioned that on his first flight in a
Phantom, as he got it slowed down for landing, it scared the poo out of
him (apparently *felt* like it was in danger of departure, even though
it was O.K.).

Can any of you experienced Phantom pilots shed any light on this?


Well, it did get a little 'vague' when you got around 'on speed', and
the margin from onspeed to nose wander, wing drop off wasn't that large
but ya got used to it. Yopu could do all sorts of things with the stick
when really slow, w/o the jet doing anything, since so much of the
wing/stab was somewhat ineffective.

What was really scary was riding along on a mode 1 at the boat and
watching the stick move some vast amounts, w/o the jet really doing
anything.