74 FLYPAST June 2018
ramp presence. Just climbing the
steps of the F-4 could give you
vertigo!
Pilots were ‘crewed’ with a
navigator and this would last the full
course. I was there at the same time
as several former V-force pilots and
it was pure luck if you were crewed
with an experienced one or someone
straight from the Tactical Weapons
Unit at Chivenor in Devon.For the back-seater the early
part of the training was relatively
low pressure compared with that
of the pilots. The person in the
front faced basic handling, pre
solo check, night check, formation
flying and the dreaded instrument
check, all of which needed to be
passed prior to the weapons phase.CHOPPED
Instrument flying usually took
place early on, usually after about
five to ten hours on the aircraft.
Fellow Phantom pilot Mark
Graham explains what the training
was like: “It was a bit of a daunting
prospect for them as they had
previously flown the Hawk which
was a joy to fly and fairly benign in
its handling characteristics – now
they had to handle the supersonic
equivalent of a London bus!
“However, it wasn’t exactly a
walk in the park for the instructor
trying to fly and operate from
the back seat with its very limited
instrumentation and even more
limited forward view.”
To make it more of a test, thetrainee in the front was given a
special ‘aid’ to ensure he focused
on the task in hand. Graham
continues: “The student had a
leather instrument flying cover
attached to his helmet to ensure he
flew on instruments once airborne.
This ‘Heath Robinson’ device
was supposed to further limit
his [peripheral] view. The sortie
involved flying steep turns, unusualpositions, and low level over the sea
plus a no-notice practice diversion.
“I remember one particular sortie
with a very nice student whose
flying ability was questionable,
even at this stage. After performing
some low-level steep turns, I
told him we needed to divert to
Kinloss [Scotland] for his practice
diversion, after much negotiation
with air traffic.
“It was not going particularly
well; however, he eventually got set
up for his approach. As we nearedour decision height, I heard a rather
distressed ‘Where’s the runway?’
come from the front.
“Hardly surprising... I could see
the runway from the back and it
was about 45 degrees off and about
half a mile to the left. When I told
him where the runway was, he said,
‘Oh, I reckon we could get in’. A
bemused ‘go around’ came from
me. Obviously, it was a fail, the
Phantom wasn’t really for him and
he got chopped in the end, poor
chap.”BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN
Having got through the pilot side
of the course, the fun began trying
to operate the Phantom in the way
it was intended. While the front-
seaters were filling their boots with
flying, the navs were trying to get
to grips with the weapons system.
In the early 1980s these comprised
the AIM-9G Sidewinder and AIM-
7E Sparrow air-to-air missiles and
the 20mm gun.The
navigator’s
main focus was operating the
AWG11/12 radar. It was a
formidable bit of kit, hugely
powerful and state of the art at
the time. It did, however, suffer
from reliability issues – solid-state
technology was still in the future- and the average time between
failures was about four or five trips.
1918 2018Above
Appropriately coded
‘CO’, XT900, the
personal mount
of 64 Squadron
commanding offi cer
Wg Cdr D Roome, at
Waddington in April- VIA ANDY THOMAS
Above right
Gracefully leading a
brace of Phantoms
from 64 Squadron,
Victor K.2 XM715
from 55 Squadron.
In the foreground is
XT892, which joined
228 OCU from new in
September 1968. VIA
AUTHORBelow right
Hook and gear down
and wing tips trailing
condensation, XV398
of 64 Squadron in- VIA ANDY THOMAS