Scott R Wilson

I took the photo that you posted of the real 63-7704 back on May 6, 1983, just before I went to Ramstein AB, Germany. I was in New Orleans to ship my car to Germany, and stopped by the NAS on May 5th and photographed all of the ANG F-4Cs, AFRES A-10s and Navy Reserve A-7s that were outside. I shot 7704 from the right side that day. I came back the next morning to reshoot 7704 from the left (the photo you posted) to get the MiG kill. Then I went over to the port, dropped off my car and took a taxi to the airport. Those were the good ol' days... I have a couple more photos I took from the other

A bit of trivia about the F-4, if the canopy is open you can't eject. Why? Because there is this thing called a canopy interdictor, the little coil of wire from the canopy to the interdictor block on the rear of the seat. The canopy has to jettison for that coil to pull out the interdictor block from the seat before the seat can fire. F-4 canopies are jettisoned by unregulated air flowing into the canopy actuator so that the canopy is flung open fast enough to break it off the hinges and actuator attachment. If the canopy is already open, it can't be flung open, therefore, can't be jettisoned

How did you do this? I don't recall a separate slats switch other than the overide switch, perhaps it was a mod done after I no longer worked on the airplane? Or maybe I'm just mistaken on that point or the operation of the override switch? You guys bringing another Phantom to Oshkosh this summer? I live in Appleton, 20 miles north of OSH and I am always very pleased to see you guys there. I was on the warbirds ramp aligned with the departure end of Runway 36 when your bird left last year, it was most impressive. She made a hard right turn at the end of 36, if my camera hadn't been broken it'

It seems a few people appreciated my efforts, I thank you. I'm new to this site, how does one go about "pinning" a posting? I presume that means making it more permanent? I thought of a few more things that might interest the Phantom Phans here. I'm going to write my thoughts in no particular order. I've seen models of USAF Phantoms with the inboard wheels painted white. On USAF versions, the inboard wheels hubs were bare steel, very rusty and darkened by dirt and brake dust. The rims around the tires were bare metal, silver and not rusted but often dirty. The outboard hubs (which were mostl

Better late than never- I just now came across your post. Wow, it's been a long time since I posted all that on RMS about USAF F-4s. Let's see how much I can remember, if I miss anything, ask away. For those who don't know me, I was an avionics specialist (comm-nav to be specific) on F-4Cs and F-4Es from 1980 through 1986. Just going by some of the errors I've seen in print and on models I've seen, I thought at the time I posted those essays on rec.models.scale that I could help clarify some things and help people do more accurate models. I'll re-write what I think might be helpful, focusi