F-4

[CFI2766]

Trivia quiz: Who was the first USAF ace in the Vietnam war?

 

[Occam's Razor]

Uh oh...here's the comes the Feinstein and DeBellvue argument!

 

[Deuce130]

DeBellvue lived down the street from me in North Carolina while stationed in Seymour. He took me and my brother for a ride in an old army jeep he had restored. At the time, I thought the jeep was cooler than he was, but looking back on it, it was kind of cool to meet one of America's notable fighter pilots (as he was when at Seymour, not during Vietnam).

 

[Occam's Razor]

Fighter "Pilot"?

Hmmmm...

 

[Big Wave]

Howdy fellas--to answer a couple of questions:

--"Chevy" is the call sign of a QF-4 delivery flight from BAE Systems at Mojave to Tyndall. Most likely, K-Bob is the pilot (for those who know him--a great American).

--The 82d ATRS (the drone squadron at Tyndall) currently flies manned QF-4s in selected airshows as part of the USAF "Heritage Flight" program. The "pretty paint jobs" are done to show a cross-section of F-4 history.

From a previous post:

A litttle background on the whole "drone" thing, hopefully answering some questions:

--F-4s are given a "return to service" inspection at Davis-Monthan ("the boneyard"), and then sent to Mojave to be given remote-control capability by BAE (becoming "QF-4s")--of the approximately 1000 F-4s in the boneyard, 320+ were alloted to the Full-Scale Aerial Target (FSAT) program
--The 82d Aerial Target Squadron (Tyndall) and its Det 1 (Holloman) are America's last F-4 phylers--they are active-duty units charged with administering and supervising the drone operations and maintenance contracts
--QF-4 "riders" are officially called "safety pilots"; with a click of the autopilot disconnect paddle (front of the stick), the "QF-4" becomes an "F-4"--quick disconnects are a real necessity under high G/low altitude/dynamic maneuvers (or worse, during botched landings)
--QF-4s are flown "manned" for the following reasons: to give remote-controllers (all Lockheed-Martin contractors; all highly-experienced ex-fighter pilots) their continuation training (area maneuvers and takeoffs/landings); to fly "dress rehearsals" of live-fire missions (to ensure that both shooter and target achieve the required parameters of the shot); and between one and hundreds of "data gathering" missions (where QF-4s are placed in front of whatever missile/sensor is being tested, in order to validate lab-bench data)
--Most of the missiles fired have instrumentation packages vice warheads; a large percentage of the unmanned QF-4s launched are also landed (to be used again another day)--as missiles/sensors get better, this recovery rate drops
--USAF QF-4s do not have a "camera" in the nose; the remote-controller has instrumentation similar to any PC flight sim; when QF-4s are flown unmanned, they are escorted through the takeoff and landing process by a manned QF-4 (to act as additional "eyes and ears" of the controller)
--Live-fire testing against "full-scale" targets (i.e. converted fighters) is required by Title X, United States Code (otherwise, we would use the much-less-expensive subscale drones--MQM-107 and BQM-34--all the time)
--'Tis a much more honorable fate for these mighty airplanes than being turned into bulk scrap in the Arizona desert

 

[Huggyu2]

Well, there you have it. The Master has spoken. Good to see your posting, Big Wave. Have you been lurking on the site?
I did, indeed, get to meet K-Bob in July '03 while on the way to Oshkosh. Had a nice chat in Holloman base ops.
So, when is Mr Collings going to hire you to fly his jet??? Go do the Nancy-Kerrigan-thing on Cowboy, and take his spot.

 

[Big Wave]

Huggy--

Did you get my email reply a couple of weeks ago?

The Collings thing is "interesting"...we could chat. It's a pretty tough gig to fly a fighter for a non-profit organization (or anyone other than our deeply-pocketed Uncle, if you know what I mean).

Your Kerrigan comment made me laugh out loud...

Hope everything's cool, pal...

BWD

 

[Deuce130]

Fighter "Pilot"?

Hmmmm...

I'll have to check with my old man, but to the best of my knowledge DeBellvue went to UPT after Vietnam and became a F-4 Pilot, though I know he was a WSO during the war. Anyone stationed at Seymour around 81-86 timeframe that can verify this?

 

[bssthound]

Great thread. When I was flying Hurricane Katrina we landed at Ellington around 3 a.m. The driver was taking us to SW Services and out of the fog appears a line of F-4s. I swear I thought I was seeing things and was having all sorts of Twilight Zone thoughts going through my feeble brain. There were a few in the Heritage Colors and, like Albie said, they were absolutely gorgeous. Thank you, Big Wave, for filling us in.

 

[Huggyu2]

If I have my history right, DeBellvue washed out of UPT, but went on to become a WSO. After gaining his fame after the war, the Chief of Staff offered him a chance to go to UPT again. He did just that, and was awarded his pilot wings.
What a neat experience that would have been to be a young FAIP, and have DeBellvue as your "student".