The Phabulous MilViz Phantom

[BillD22]

Here are a couple of quick shots of the new MilViz F-4E for FSX, FSX-SE, and P3D. Was there ever a meaner looking "don't mess with me" airplane?!:cool::cool:

 

[click on the image for a full screen view]

 

 

 

[aviator66]

Bill Awesome plane. Lemoore NAS CA. had a few I would run out to the flight line and watch. Great pic's

Dan

[VFR_Steve]

I sorely miss them over here, fantastic shots of a truly iconic cold war bird.

[av8tor98]

Always loved this airplane...outstanding pics of this beautiful fighter!

[jamminjames]

My fav jet fighter. Looks so evil. Nice pics Bill. How is it on fps? Their P-38 really had an impact on my pc.

[hornetdriver25]

Nice ones Bill! :cool:

[Davecook]

I spent the best 5 years of my life as a Phantom 'techie' on 29 Sqn, Royal Air Force at Coningsby. I recently saw an Mk1 naval version at the Fleet Air Arm museum in Yeovilton. Got quite dewey-eyed as I ran my hands over her wrinkled old skin ...

[BillD22]

Dan, Steve, Joe, Jammin', Dave, & Hornet - thanks for all the good words guys

 

Here's a shot for all you "Fly Navy" fans (there are some USMC liveries too). After all - the F-4 started out as a Navy design before the AF guys got into the game

 

 

I spent the best 5 years of my life as a Phantom 'techie' on 29 Sqn, Royal Air Force at Coningsby. I recently saw an Mk1 naval version at the Fleet Air Arm museum in Yeovilton. Got quite dewey-eyed as I ran my hands over her wrinkled old skin ...

 

Dave: I'm pretty sure there are some RN/RAF liveries out there

 

My fav jet fighter. Looks so evil. Nice pics Bill. How is it on fps? Their P-38 really had an impact on my pc.

\

Jammin': Definitely puts a hit on things in high density scenery areas (high single to low double digits) but flyable even on my laptop rig with a nowhere graphics card

[PhantomTweak]

It's the Phunky Phantom!

 

First ones I ever saw was a Blue Angels demo team putting on a show at Moffet Field.

Little was I to know that a mere 10 years or so later, I would be working on 35 of them at MCAS Yuma! Pity Yuma is such a cruddy place for humans, although for 360 flying days a year, I guess it has one teensy plus going for it. Personally, I despised the place for nearly 30 years!

I tell ya though, once they got the AN/AWG-10B and then C radars in them, a lot more of them were flying. The 10A was incredibly unreliable. If we had 45% flying at any one time before the 10B's came out, we considered it a good day. Made us come to think that Duty Section weekends were just part and parcel of the work-week. Even the older Aero-1A radar was more reliable, and it came out with the Phirst Phantoms. :D

Funny thing, too, when we went to Clark Airbase they had a Phantom in the hangar right near our vans, so I went in to see what was what. They were scratching their heads, so I told them I knew how to fix this particular problem. Walked up, took aim, and gave a certain piece a good thump, and lo!, it all worked perfectly again. I thought it was hilarious! Different name, same radar, same problems :D

 

Anyhow, thanks very much for the Phantastic Photo's of the Phair Phantom :D

Brought back some memories, good AND bad!

Pat☺

[BillD22]

It's the Phunky Phantom!

 

First ones I ever saw was a Blue Angels demo team putting on a show at Moffet Field.

Little was I to know that a mere 10 years or so later, I would be working on 35 of them at MCAS Yuma! Pity Yuma is such a cruddy place for humans, although for 360 flying days a year, I guess it has one teensy plus going for it. Personally, I despised the place for nearly 30 years!

I tell ya though, once they got the AN/AWG-10B and then C radars in them, a lot more of them were flying. The 10A was incredibly unreliable. If we had 45% flying at any one time before the 10B's came out, we considered it a good day. Made us come to think that Duty Section weekends were just part and parcel of the work-week. Even the older Aero-1A radar was more reliable, and it came out with the Phirst Phantoms. :D

Funny thing, too, when we went to Clark Airbase they had a Phantom in the hangar right near our vans, so I went in to see what was what. They were scratching their heads, so I told them I knew how to fix this particular problem. Walked up, took aim, and gave a certain piece a good thump, and lo!, it all worked perfectly again. I thought it was hilarious! Different name, same radar, same problems :D

 

Anyhow, thanks very much for the Phantastic Photo's of the Phair Phantom :D

Brought back some memories, good AND bad!

Pat☺

 

Thanks Pat - I always enjoy your r/w perspective on things here in our little virtual aviation world - and it's definitely a known fact that more than a few aircraft system/gauge gripes have been fixed by the application of a "good thump" - ought to be a regular maintenance procedure written up in the manuals :D:D:D:D

 

[NMLW]

She's a dangerous, but beautiful old fighter and you display her beautifully Bill. :cool: :cool: :D

[stvn]

Wow, nice bird...very tempting indeed...great pics!

[lifejogger]

Beautiful fighter, I can remember when they first came out.

[PhantomTweak]

Beautiful fighter, I can remember when they first came out.

 

While we still had the Aero-1A systems (around '81), I actually received a part from supply, still sealed in the original Circle-Bar-W (Westinghouse) foil, clearly marked "Warranted to DEC 1960". We kept that as the oldest part ever received in Radar.

 

She's a dangerous, but beautiful old fighter

Not just to enemy aircraft, either. We had more than one person killed by the seat (I wonder if they ever did clean off the ceiling in the hangar...), and Radar over all lost more than a couple to taking 5KV from a piece of gear we thought as making 5V. Wrong adapter cable. It would fit the plugs at both ends, but it didn't scale back the voltage properly. After our 2ND man lost, we kinda forced Westinghouse to DO something about it! A simple plug change on one cable, 20 min, all safe again. Difference this time was that this was the first time a Tech Rep got spattered by the guy's brains (5000vdc in your hand and out your head into the bench tends to make a mess...). He raised a huge fuss back in the Westinghouse home offices. Thank goodness I had plenty of seniority by then and could point and say "YOU, YOU, and YOU, clean him...errr..it up.".

 

On the bright side of the Phantom, they were a lot of fun down at high-power, standing beside the tail-pipe with one's fingers inside, while the engine was in afterburner. Heck, AB was a huge thrill alone, it makes you whole internal organs rumble.

Great for playing a prank on newbies too. If you were to take the J79 from MIL to IDLE to MIL real fast, it shot fire out the intake. Only do it with one engine, but with both in MIL, and flame goes up over the cockpit, and down the opposite intake :D. Too brief to do any real damage, but it would sear the hair of the head of the guy in the cockpit, if the canopy wasn't closed. Hilarious, if you weren't him. The cry always went up "Let the New Guy do the throttles!". No one would tell them about the flame thing though...

 

Sorry, lotsa memories built up in what, 8 years in the squadrons?

Pat☺

[mikeandpatty]

It looks, from VC pictures I can find, that they actually got the AJB-3 / AJB-7 All Attitude Indicator correct!! I have not seen any freeware of pay ware aircraft that model this marvelous instrument correctly, though I admit I probably haven't seen all of them.

 

This instrument integrated heading into the normal pitch and roll indications we are all used to. It was originally developed for the Loft Angle Bombing System (LABS) for use In the Navy A-3J Vigilante. Later it was used in all A-4s from the A-4C onward, the A-7 series, the EA-6B and the F-4s. It is easily recognized in cockpit photos because of the vertical grid lines every 30 deg of heading that make it look like a basketball. There is also a heading grid along the zero pitch horizon. Each plane would also have an HSI or RMI in addition, however.

 

The need for the integrated heading was to have accuracy in hi angle delivery of nuclear weapons. It had an integrated set of rectilinear needles (like an ILS indicator) that would help in holding a 4-G pull and accurate heading for "accurate" - so to speak - loft angle delivery. Later they were also hooked up to the Navy Automatic Carrier Landing System, or ACLS. Prior to that, IFR and night Carrier approaches had to be made with what was essentially a Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) procedure.

 

In my experience it was a terrific device, especially doing an "idiot loop" - or high angle loft as it was officially called. You could do a loop on instruments and the AJB did not tumble to reverse its pitch sensing, as one would normally see. It was almost surreal to experience.

 

I flew A-4’s, F-4’s, A-7’s and EA-6Bs as a test pilot at Pax River as well as a lot of A-4s in the Fleet, and never had an AJB failure. It was fabulous in MHO.

[HoggyDog]

My fav jet fighter. Looks so evil.

 

YES! Fast, outrageously loud and threatening, dirty exhaust, cranked wings, reverse-dihedral stab, took 2 grown men to tame it... and BIG! My god they were big compared to A4s etc.

 

Bill, absolutely awesome shots of my favorite fighter-slash-bomber! I'm sorely tempted to add this fps-killer to my struggling machine... but of course, without the realistic smoky jet exhaust, I couldn't stand to fly it.

 

It doesn't have the typical F4 smoky exhaust trails, does it?

 

I mean, if it had smoky jet exhaust, I would be FORCED to buy it, and I don't think that's a good idea.

 

Please, I can't afford the fps hit. Tell me it doesn't have smoky exhaust so I don't have to worry about buying it!

 

Thanks in advance for lying to me.

 

Doug

 

PS: Does it?

[mrzippy]

It doesn't have the typical F4 smoky exhaust trails, does it?

 

I mean, if it had smoky jet exhaust, I would be FORCED to buy it, and I don't think that's a good idea.

 

Please, I cant' afford the fps hit. Tell me it doesn't have smoky exhaust so I don't have to worry about buying it!

 

Thanks in advance for lying to me.

 

Doug

 

PS: Does it?

 

Just how smokey would you like it? Cough! Cough! This was just before lighting up the AB on those J-79s. This one cost me $0.00 Great shots of yours, Bill! ;):cool:

 

[jamminjames]

Thanks for the reply Bill. I'm counting my change even as I'm typing.You are so right Hoggydog. If there was ever a plane designed to scare the crap out of someone this must be it!

[Davecook]

Dan, Steve, Joe, Jammin', Dave, & Hornet - thanks for all the good words guysHere's a shot for all you "Fly Navy" fans (there are some USMC liveries too). After all - the F-4 started out as a Navy design before the AF guys got into the game[ATTACH=CONFIG]181074[/ATTACH]Dave: I'm pretty sure there are some RN/RAF liveries out there\Jammin': Definitely puts a hit on things in high density scenery areas (high single to low double digits) but flyable even on my laptop rig with a nowhere graphics card

Bill, if you turn a blind eye to the wider fuselage of the British F4s (due to their RR Spey engines) then yes, there are some reasonably good repaints, but what always spoils it for me is the cockpits. Having spent many hours doing engine runs (even into reheat) I can not sit in a (virtual) cockpit that is not how I remember it. Some payware models even have propellor map and rpm gauges! Could you post some pictures of the Milviz cockpit please? Thanks. Dave.

[PhantomTweak]

I flew A-4’s, F-4’s, A-7’s and EA-6Bs as a test pilot at Pax River as well as a lot of A-4s in the Fleet,

Thank you for your service, SIR! :salute:

Without you Nasal Radiators (kidding :D ) I would have been out of work! Although maybe you could have broken just a tad fewer, maybe? Possibly? Perhaps? :D Lets face it, Yuma's just too miserable a place to work too hard, after all. Beaufort isn't much better, although Iwakuni is nice, but to me, none compare to El Toro for "nice" weather. Then again, I'm from the Bay Area, so maybe I'm biased a teensy bit...

 

Pat☺

[Davecook]

Just read 'Phantom Tweaks' post about doing engine runs. Never tried the 'idle to reheat (sorry - afterburner) and back' trick, we were not allowed above 80% on the apron in the RAF and reheat runs had to be done in the 'Hush House' (enclosed detuner). What was fun was starting a new engine for the first time after they had been installed. The book said you had to drain the inhibiting oil from the fuel system before start but what the heck ... We just held off the HP cock until 45% rpm then lit up the engine. It would start with a little pop and blow a beautiful white smoke ring 30 feet in diameter across the airfield!

[PhantomTweak]

Could you post some pictures of the Milviz cockpit please? Thanks. Dave.

I've been wrong before, usually am, but I think this is it:

 

For MikeNPatty:

 

 

A little of my stuff:

The Aero-1A Radar system hanging out the nose:

 

The RIO Scope (LRU-10), item 21, the Acq Handle, or Antenna Control, (LRU-13), item 20, the Control Panel (LRU-12), item 22, And, the Display Control (LRU-11), item 3, very popular with RIO's as a place to put out cigarettes and other...ahem..smoking materiel, as well as a lovely place, they seemed to think, to use as a barf-bag...

 

Hope y'all like them!

Pat☺

[mrzippy]

Nice shots, Pat! Is that you in the pilot's seat getting ready to pull the ejection seat handle or the guy behind putting his foot into the jet intake?;)

[HoggyDog]

Just how smokey would you like it? Cough! Cough! This was just before lighting up the AB on those J-79s. This one cost me $0.00 Great shots of yours, Bill! ;):cool:

 

Well, this vidcap is horribad quality, but I have watched this movie many, many times, and THIS is how smoky F4s and B-52s actually were in real life!

So yeah, THAT is how smoky I want a credible F4 exhaust to look!

 

The only difference between B-52 smoke trails and F4 smoke trails is that the BUFFs had* 4 times as many engines pumping out the smog. It simply had to be seen (and felt, viscerally) to be believed!

 

* I used the past tense because today's BUFFs have been cleaned up and "gentrified" (yes, you are hearing me say "wimped out" under my breath) with cleaner engines. Just one more reason you kids today have no idea what kind of glorious, fun and exciting world we were privileged to live in before it got all politically correct.

 

Here's what a BUFF MITO looks like today. Still some smoke, but basically, no comparison.

[mrzippy]

Well, this vidcap is horribad quality, but I have watched this movie many, many times, and THIS is how smoky F4s and B-52s actually were in real life!

 

 

The only difference between B-52 smoke trails and F4 smoke trails is that the BUFFs have 4 times as many engines pumping out the smog. It simply had to be seen to be believed!

 

Ah! Another all time favorite movie...A gathering of Eagles.