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New Guy here from FL

Phantom309

Phantom309

Active Member
Adam here from Panama City, FL. Not real sure where to post introductions here so I'd thought I'd give it a shot here. I'm an air force vet, and work on an air force base. I love military aviation though. I work on the F-4's at Tyndall AFB, my primary job is ejection seat maintenance, but I also crew chief when I don't have seat maintenance to do.

Sometimes I wish I had gotten involved with Navy aviation instead of AF, from an outsider looking in, it would appear that the Navy has a stronger heritage and cooler traditions. Give a choice between the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds. I'd choose the Blue Angels any day of the week.

I look forward to chatting, and learning about Navy aviation from all of you, if you have any questions about the ejection seats or air force stuff, fire away.
 
Welcome aboard! Nice job working on Phantoms - I've worked with a few of the maintainers on the Tyndall F-4 Phantom East Heritage flight team - curious if you know any of them.
 
Phantom309 said:
Sometimes I wish I had gotten involved with Navy aviation instead of AF, from an outsider looking in, it would appear that the Navy has a stronger heritage and cooler traditions. Give a choice between the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds. I'd choose the Blue Angels any day of the week.
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Welcome aboard Phantom309 , you'll make a good addition to our forums. That statement above is unusual coming from an ex-Airman, but is appreciated. We do have a few USAF members here who post occasionally. As you have probably noted, we have a cool cross-section of jet/prop (+turbo)/helo drivers & maintainers here. Catmando is our resident F-4 jock, and a vet of LINEBACKER II, the ravaging of Hanoi - Christmas '72. ;)
I look forward to chatting, and learning about Navy aviation from all of you, if you have any questions about the ejection seats or air force stuff, fire away.
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Are you at all familiar at all with the Douglas Escapac II (RAPEC) ejection seat? We had them in the A-4s...great seat at that time '6os & '70s! I punched out of a burning A-4 at 35o kts., seat worked fine... but at that speed it was a wildass ride. Ripped out 3 panels in the chute, and the risers scraped off one side of my neck, as they streamed out as I was spinning:eek: ...good times, no complaints! I'm sure you'll have plenty of interest here in your ejection systems/survival equip? experience. Join in.:)
BzB
 
@707guy nice to meet you! I know every one of them. Do you remember their names? Phantom East is from Tyndall and Phantom West is from Holloman. If there is anything I can do for you let me know.
 
@BzB604 thank you for the awesome welcome! Working at Tyndall and on the F-4's I've had the opportunity to speak to a few Navy pilots and they are by and far awesome to speak to. The one that sticks out the most was a legacy hornet driver that told us what it was like flying in an out of a carrier. In the long run that was my biggest hang up on joining the Navy, I just couldn't imagine being out on a carrier for that long and knowing what I know now about aviation. The Navy has earned my respect for perfecting the art of generating that many sorties on a small and moving airfield. I truly will never know how they manage that chaos.

I hope I get to talk to Catmando, I bet he has some tales about Linebacker II. A lot of the guys I work with were in 'nam and were involved in linebacker I and II in some shape, form or fashion. Even some of our pilots when I first started working on the F-4's were F-100, and F-105 drivers during Vietnam.

I've never worked on the esapac seats, I've read a little about them over my time in the career field though. One question if you don't mind. Did you even have time to think about what you were about to do when you punched out? Did you get to fly again? I guess when it comes to survival it's just a matter of getting it done. I bet that must have been one wild ride though. I've only worked on two seats and that was the ACES II in the F-15's and soon to be QF-16's and the Martin-Baker in the F-4's.

We have one pilot that punched out of 2 harriers, and another one the punched out of a 16.

I plan on jumping in feet first, so far I really like what I've read here. I hope I can share my ejection seat experience and little bit of crew chief experience here.
 
Welcome aboard! I just barely missed my chance at a backseat ride in one of your Phantoms back in Aug during NWSEP. Got briefed up (was supposed to fly with your CO), and then waited around all day for the weather to improve, which it never did. Awesome jets though, it was really cool to be flying around them down there.
 
@MIDNJAC Thank you for the welcome. It's been a horrible this year for giving out rides. Back during the time you were here we'd had 30 something days of rain. Was the CO's callsign Blade? if so that guy is awesome! I think he's the CO being a civilian I get out of touch with the chain of command. If you ever make it down this way again and get a ride with us ask your crew chief to talk to Cub. Cub is my nickname out there, I'd love to come over and talk to you in person and maybe even jump on the comm cord and launch you.

By the way I have to say that I loved watching ya'll comeback from flying, ya'll had awesome formations, and when you come in low and fast and break at mid field, that's why I chose aviation as a career field. That's an awesome site to see.
 
I didn't even realize they still flew phantoms out there...that's awesome. What's the process to get a ride?
 
@ scoolbubba I'm not quite sure what the process is to be honest as I don't work on that side of the house. I'm sure if your ever at Tyndall or Holloman for that matter I would get in touch with our Ops desk or one of our pilots and they can tell what steps you'd have to take to get in the back seat.

We've had the Phantoms since 1994 not sure when they are gonna go away though. We are gearing up for the arrival of the QF-16's the rumor mill is saying we should have a couple of them for us to start learning on in the near future.
 
@jmcquate did you have two phantoms at Oceana? There was supposed to be 3 total but one broke in St. Louis it developed a hyro leak on the wing. After Oceana they went to Duluth and just got back this past week.
 
Welcome Phantom. I heard the first demo in SEA paint was done for a General's retirement at Nellis, and it grew from that........any truth in that?
 
Phantom309 said:
@jmcquate did you have two phantoms at Oceana? There was supposed to be 3 total but one broke in St. Louis it developed a hyro leak on the wing. After Oceana they went to Duluth and just got back this past week.
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Just one. It did a demo then heritage flight witha Shaw F-16
 
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