Scott R Wilson

My son (Navy P-3 Orion turboprop mechanic) is TDY to Okinawa right now. He said the first few days he was there he was restricted to the base because a couple of Marines recently raped and robbed a 14-year-old Japanese girl in a parking garage. The crime was captured on several security cameras, videos from which were played many times on the local news. Incoming personnel are now given classes on cultural sensitivities related to this crime before they can leave the base, and as my son put it, he is now quite sure he knows how to avoid raping Japanese 14-year-olds. There are bad people

This video does an excellent job comparing sizes from the very small to the very large:

This one?

Another couple of videos illustrating size comparisons:

You might want to check out Dr. Phil Plait's "Crash Course Astronomy" videos if astronomy interests you. Here's one on super massive stars and what happens to them:

An exercise NATO held in 1983, "Able Archer 83" showed that amply. Many say it's the closest we came to nuclear war, even more so than the Cuban Missile Crisis. I should have also mentioned in my previous post that sometime in late 1983 or maybe early 1984, Ramstein and Spangdahlem (and possibly Hahn) dropped their Victor (nuclear) Alerts. Even though the rhetoric from the Reagan Administration (remember "Evil Empire"?) seemed to indicate otherwise, obviously USAFE felt the threat was lessening.

You can make your own conclusions about this. When I was in the 526 Aircraft Maintenance Unit working on F-4Es at Ramstein AB, W. Germany 1983-1986, we all went home Friday evening and came back Monday morning. The aircrews did the same. We did have two F-4Es on alert 24/7 with two aircrews and four crew chiefs. On Saturdays and Sundays we also had a skeleton maintenance crew working 5am to 5pm to launch and recover a few jets that went cross-country. From about 8pm to 5am Friday night, 5pm to 5am Saturday and Sunday nights, and all day for holidays like Christmas, only the four QRA crewchiefs

In California they have solar power stations consisting of arrays of mirrors reflecting and focusing sunlight on a central boiler, the steam created by the intensified sunlight drives a turbine. One unforeseen consequence is that birds flying through the reflected sunlight burst into flame and die. I heard a discussion about this on NPR.

That's my favorite F-4F paint scheme, and you did it very well. That's a beautiful model. Here's a mostly unrelated story: There was an F-4F in that camouflage scheme on display at Ramstein for Flugtag 84. A bunch of peace protestors at the show had vowed to dismantle a NATO aircraft by hand, piece by piece. There was a large Polizei presence, and as the protestors moved toward an aircraft, the Polizei blocked them. So they started toward another aircraft, and the Polizei blocked them again. Finally, out of frustration one female protestor hurled a bottle of pink nail polish at the F-4F, l

Double posted

Not at all. They borrowed stock "lizard" F-4Es to practice with between show season while the "pretty birds" were down for inspections

http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/hkojDOeAwQoldidkfCyYdwfCIVCA?format=standard

I'm always happy to talk about Phantoms! Check out this video of Michigan ANG F-4Ds. You'll see Phantoms with engines that smoke flying alongside Phantoms with smokeless engines, plus a few jets that have one of each type engine. Some of the jets are painted Hill Gray which puts this video at 1986 or later:

I lived there as a kid, 4th through 6th grade for me, 1969 through 1971 when my father was stationed there. It was not the greatest place then, either. I did get to see the last B-52C leave and the first C-5A arrive, for whatever that's worth. We had fun killing black widow spiders, throwing rocks at water moccasin snakes and catching crawdads in Stinking Creek which ran through Base Housing. The stench from the feed lot and slaughterhouse east of the base when the winds blew from that way left strong memories. I remember the place being dead flat except for distant rocky hills you mentioned.

I was TDY to Iwakuni for two weeks back in 1990. I agree, the base was well-kept, and the location just a few miles from Hiroshima was excellent. I would have enjoyed being stationed there permanently.

I agree, I started out at George AFB, Victorville, California. The place was dirt, rocks and tumbleweeds. I occasionally got nosebleeds from the dry air. The lack of greenery was depressing, but the command staff motto was "make George a better place to live and work." It made the assignment bearable (and for an airplane nut like me, having Edwards AFB, Nellis AFB, Palmdale and Mojave airports within easy driving distance made it even better). Then I was assigned to Ramstein AB, West Germany. There we had higher level enlisted and officers who seemed to be vying for the attention of USAFE H

Almost certainly the dragchute door latch was worn or misadjusted. If the door pops open with the chute deployment handle (on the left side of the pilot's seat) in the down position, the chute will deploy then jettison as it inflates. The retaining jaws that hold the chute to the aircraft only lock closed when the handle is raised. Raising the handle also unlatches the door.

Belly strap, for sure yes (as was mentioned) since the 57 FIS flew 1966 and 67 model F-4Es. Smokeless engines- depends. At the two F-4E bases I was at (George AFB 1982-83, and Ramstein AB 1983-1986) smokeless engines were slowly replacing the smokey engines. In 1982 only a few F-4Es had smokeless, but by about 1985 smokeless were very much predominant. I am sure the 57th was likewise changing out their engines at the same time. I went to Red Flag with 62 MAW C-141Bs in 1989. All of the F-4Es and Gs there were smokeless, but by then the 57 FIS was flying F-15s.

Double posted somehow, sorry

Funny, I'd never noticed that. What bugged me about Hasegawa's was the engine nozzles aren't pointed down at the rear as they should be. The nozzles on the model sit too horizontally.

"Attack to Defend," heck we just called it the "backstabbers patch." Scott W. 35 CRS, 35 TFW Feb 1982- April 1983

If you get the chance to attend the EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Col. Graham is usually there selling and autographing his books. He also does several presentations on flying the Blackbird throughout the week. He's a super nice guy, always happy to talk about the plane and his experiences. Scott W.

If you didn't see these already, you might find these threads interesting and useful: http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=264022&view=getnewpost http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=271360&view=getnewpost http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=272482&view=getnewpost http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=282496&view=getnewpost

While the elevons on parked aircraft appear to have drooped over time, I think they are actually in the neutral position on the model. In this video it appears that when the inboard end trailing edge of the elevon lines up with the wing by the fuselage, the outboard end trailing edge is raised above the wing, just like on the model. http://youtu.be/_s_TjSjkPjA