Back To Work | F-4 Phantom

[@virtualvandy1demo]

My boy “Lonestar”!! So sick he is your volunteer 🤙

[@mikeelder6298]

My dad was in charge of some F-4s in Zweibrucken Germany. I was fortunate enough to go with him on a weekend and set in the cockpit while he caught up on his work.

[@craigpennington1251]

Phantoms: As a normal thing, 1 hr. of flight = 6hrs. maint. every time if not more depending on ground crew & parts available. That's was the norm with our F-4Bs on ship. They're pretty much a full time job that sucks up lots of $. Be careful when working on Pantoms, they'll bite you every chance they get.

[@DieselThunderAviation]

They are demanding with maintenance, at least from my experience with ours! Can't imagine what it takes to get them ready and turned in time for the next day's mission. Just as happy we don't have to dodge missile fins, heard those can get pretty painful!

[@danielcoburn8635]

@@DieselThunderAviation six stitches from an AIM9 one night.

[@danielcoburn8635]

At Nellis during Red Flag, at EOR. We had four in the hot area cooling off hot brakes, a fire truck with a chute tangled in the front axle, and a Marine F-4 that touched down and lifted for another go around dragging his chute with him. Some where in my collection, I snapped a picture of him!

[@trespire]

I heard that a visiting US delegations informed our Maintenance Officers " The IAF is overmaintaing the Phantoms ". We sure were, they were in tip top condition with very low failure rate. Us ground crew took pride in keeping them to the highest possible standards and mission ready. Got knocked over a few times by swinging doors, and poked in the ribs by those sneaky pilons and what ever was hung on them. Nothing too bad ! Stil miss working on our Kurnass, long live Spook.

[@trespire]

@@danielcoburn8635 Ouch.

[@danielcoburn8635]

Looking at the right main brakes, remember finding a few red hot ones at work! Came up out of my chair when he hit his head, scared the daylights out of my wife! ( Must be PTSD)!

[@DieselThunderAviation]

Hopefully we never see glowing brakes on ours, scary stuff. I'd be pretty worried about a tire blowout with that.

[@pilotmiami1]

Bravo. Perfect. Go ahead

[@RyanLilly1]

Phantom bite got em !

[@DieselThunderAviation]

Sure did!

[@fsj197811]

Gear swing... Yet again. Jack it up, set it down has go to be getting a little old by now for you guys. As always, thanks for sharing.

[@DieselThunderAviation]

Up and down, up and down. Gotta say, had a really productive day today. Think everyone will like the next video that goes out!

[@fsj197811]

@@DieselThunderAviation Thanks for the reply and looking forward to the next video.

[@Zone5Aviation]

Ouch Phantom bite! You only do that once!!

[@jorgemachado7784]

Man, I was thinking "the antenna, the antenna" and them Boom, there goes number 7 😁.

[@trespire]

That antenna shouldn't even be there ! Lucky Nr.7 👌

[@stevea9604]

Got Phantom bites but luckily no blood stains 😮😂

[@DieselThunderAviation]

No blood sacrifice today!

[@rael5469]

At work they started mandating wearing bump caps around the aircraft. I'm actually glad they did because over the years I've got some pretty bad dings on the ol noggin. I'm glad they mandated the bump caps. I think they've been mandatory in Europe for decades. I've found that they don't interfere with my work at all and it's already saved me from hitting my head on things. I highly recommend wearing a bump cap anywhere you are ducking around things that you could run into.

[@Andrew-13579]

The most important thing is to not damage the aircraft with your hard heads. 😆 But, I kind of thought you guys were moving around too fast under there. 😄. Maybe it could help to sketch maps of and label every antenna, door and dangerous place on paper printouts of blank phantom silhouettes like 20 times. And then always look first, then move. Of course, I whacked my head on a protruding roofing nail in my attic. 😣🤬😄

[@Flogknaw101]

Wilson needs to carry a helmet everywhere he goes for sure.

[@robertschuler279]

If it don't bleed it don't count!

[@CharlesBurger-d1v]

Need to put some form on the protruding objects to slow down the hangar rashes on people maybe??😮

[@DieselThunderAviation]

That isn't a bad idea for some things. Seen those foam pool noodles used for that purpose on the Mig-21.

[@stosh2112]

Why not use bike helmets

[@SkyhawkSteve]

there are things called "bump caps" that I've seen used in a factory building earthmoving equipment. It's mostly just a hard shell, to prevent punctures, cuts, etc. The Navy used headgear that had a hard shell and a bit of padding, as well as incorporating the hearing protection. Having worked on aircraft, some sort of headgear isn't a bad idea. Even a thick stocking cap would help... but wouldn't be appreciated in Texas, I assume. 😄

[@2-Hands]

​@@SkyhawkSteveWork at Depot and we had to wear those "Brain Buckets" during the Summer months and like wearing a football helmet.

[@DieselThunderAviation]

I've read a comment here previously that the Air Force mandated helmets after an airman got his head caught in the aux air door. The helmets weren't popular with the crew as I understand and only lasted for a few months when one came off someone's head and went down an engine intake. Those would only help for the head, but wouldn't do anything for catching a door or something with an arm or back.

[@rael5469]

@@DieselThunderAviation Come on guy.....wear a bump cap. Just go get one. And mandate it for everyone who enters the hangar. Every time I bump my bump cap into something at work I have to pause to admit that the thing works. I'm like, "How bout that. It saved me again." People care about your safety.