Tail slat question

Okay, maybe you are right, but we always referred to the slatted Es as 556
birds. I thought the ex Thunderbirds E I flew had a solid slab. That was
a long time ago, and I was still a student. All my "real" E model time was
in slats.
--
Les
F-4C(WW),D,E,G(WW)/AC-130A/MC-130E EWO (ret)


"Ed Rasimus" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 12 Feb 2004 16:56:53 -0600, "Les Matheson"
wrote:

The slotted stabs were only on the slatted (post -556) birds. Most Es,
all
Fs,Gs and subsequent models. Hard wing F-4s didn't have slotted stabs.

Better go out and dig up the old dash-1s, Les. First, TCTO -556 was
the change of the conventional weapons control panel and the
incorporation of the pinkie switch for A/A weapons selection and the
forward push button on the throttle to let the front-seater quickly
take control of the radar to five mile boresight and auto-acq.

The LES mod was TCTO -566. I never got to fly a LES airplane, since
the Korat E's didn't get converted and when I went to Spain, I watched
the last of the 401st hard-wing E's depart and only flew the F-4C
during my tenure there. Let me assure you that the hard-wing E model
had a slotted slab. The C and D model didn't have a slotted slab (and,
of course, they were all hard wings.)


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8

Les Matheson wrote:

Okay, maybe you are right, but we always referred to the slatted Es as 556
birds. I thought the ex Thunderbirds E I flew had a solid slab.

For sure. The old ex-T-bird F-4s were monstrosities of
missing and mis-matched equipment, exempt from many TCTO
upgrades.

And us maintenance pukes called slatted Es as "-556 birds",
too; it was a clearly visible "dividing line" between two
much-different sets of equipment and weapons system operation.