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Sept 1968 Pics, Nellis & NTTR, F-4


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Thought some of you might be interested to get a real world glimpse of Nellis AFB and the NTTR in September 1968.

 

I had just finished Pilot Training at Williams AFB in May 1968 and was assigned to an F-111 squadron (428th TFS) at Nellis AFB. As you may know, the USAF Fighter Weapons School (counterpart to the Navy "Top Gun" School, formally at Miramar NAS) is stationed at Nellis.

 

I made some friends with some of the instructors in the Fighter Weapons School and asked them if I could jump in the back seat of one of their F-4s and go on a few missions with them. To my surprise, they said "Yes". I flew about 4 missions with the instructors before my F-111 squadron commander found out what I was doing and told me "no more". Never understood why he was opposed to that, but I was just a 2nd Lt at the time.

 

The instructors were great to fly with and always gave me the stick after takeoff and let me fly most of the way to the range.

 

I carried a little pocket camera on these missions and took several pictures. I have attached a sequence of 8 pictures from a mission that we flew in Sept 1968 - starts with a formation take-off and ends with the "break into the overhead landing pattern at Nellis.

 

Fun years.

1207635333_NTTR-11968.thumb.jpg.538d32ea2b384717bdbb57be02f9ad8c.jpg

1781166749_NTTR-21968.thumb.jpg.70a132b1e3c00cc1069bf8bf5dd2489b.jpg

1051980969_NTTR-31968.thumb.jpg.b9e35bdaa45361355ae1502f7c97fccd.jpg

1359399710_NTTR-41968.thumb.jpg.0ec95cfdfe139157c08eee56aacc471b.jpg

990788214_NTTR-51968.thumb.jpg.70124b8e565ba3b10dad9879ab180f2d.jpg

1254143558_NTTR-61968.thumb.jpg.dc149e09f113cca73461e53ba4673fb9.jpg

215312790_NTTR-71968.thumb.jpg.b8e2716eab5073c88bf3da4948f23c12.jpg

1224303280_NTTR-81968.thumb.jpg.373ae736d2824f10becb03d0494bb7c2.jpg

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Very nice images thank you @Bob1943.

So fun to see actual photo grain on the pictures. I can imagine the graphics artists for the F4 Module would be looking at hundreds of pictures like yours to create the liveries and skins for future updates.

"1968 Wow - I see time flies fast - seems like over Mach 2.2 for me"

Cheers and Many Thanks - Stay Safe

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Thanks for sharing! What are thos epods under the wings?

 

If I remember right, the "white" pods mounted under the right wing were 20mm gun pods. In fact, here is a Google picture of an F-4D carrying the same pod.

 

The smaller, brown cannisters under the left wing were rocket cannisters.

1026875251_F-4withGunPod.thumb.jpg.f0266ec4677304b2349a8a8c2c294d5c.jpg


Edited by Bob1943
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  • 1 month later...

wow those pictures are gold

i5 8400 | 32 Gb RAM | RTX 2080Ti | Virpil Mongoose T-50 base w/ Warthog & Hornet sticks | Warthog throttle | Cougar throttle USB | DIY Collective | Virpil desk mount | VKB T-Rudder Mk IV | Oculus Rift S | Buddy-Fox A-10 UFC | 3x TM MFDs | 2x bass shakers pedal plate| SIMple SIMpit chair | WinWing TakeOff panel | PointCTRL v2 | Andre JetSeat | Winwing Hornet UFC | Winwing Viper ICP

FC3 - Warthog - F-5E - Harrier - NTTR - Hornet - Tomcat - Huey - Viper - C-101 - PG - Hip - SuperCarrier - Syria - Warthog II - Hind - South Atlantic - Sinai - Strike Eagle

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Nice shots of pre-Midas 4 echo’s. How long were you a Phantom Phlyer?

And a little confused as to why you would carry a podded 20mm, when the ‘E’ has its own internal M61?


Edited by garyscott

Alien desktop PC, Intel i7-8700 CPU@3.20GHz 6 Core, Nvidia GTX 1070, 16GB RAM. TM Warthog stick and Throttles. Saitek ProFlight pedals.

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I flew about 4 missions with the instructors before my F-111 squadron commander found out what I was doing and told me "no more". Never understood why he was opposed to that, but I was just a 2nd Lt at the time.

 

He was probably just jealous that you got to fly in a real fighter, not just in a high speed low-level bomber...(I worked on the EF-111A during the ‘80s, and would’ve killed for an incentive flight; alas, all of those went to Hosp sq. and USAF LE)

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You need to take a closer look at the photo. That isn't an "E" model. It appears to be an earlier "D".

 

The only ‘D’ is in post 7, all others are Echoes, very early ones.

Alien desktop PC, Intel i7-8700 CPU@3.20GHz 6 Core, Nvidia GTX 1070, 16GB RAM. TM Warthog stick and Throttles. Saitek ProFlight pedals.

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Are pictures 6 & 7 during a STRYK recovery pattern?

 

i5 8400 | 32 Gb RAM | RTX 2080Ti | Virpil Mongoose T-50 base w/ Warthog & Hornet sticks | Warthog throttle | Cougar throttle USB | DIY Collective | Virpil desk mount | VKB T-Rudder Mk IV | Oculus Rift S | Buddy-Fox A-10 UFC | 3x TM MFDs | 2x bass shakers pedal plate| SIMple SIMpit chair | WinWing TakeOff panel | PointCTRL v2 | Andre JetSeat | Winwing Hornet UFC | Winwing Viper ICP

FC3 - Warthog - F-5E - Harrier - NTTR - Hornet - Tomcat - Huey - Viper - C-101 - PG - Hip - SuperCarrier - Syria - Warthog II - Hind - South Atlantic - Sinai - Strike Eagle

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  • 1 month later...
Nice shots of pre-Midas 4 echo’s. How long were you a Phantom Phlyer?

 

As stated in my 1st post, I was flying the F-111 at Nellis, not the F-4. I just got a few courtesy back seat rides in the F-4, as a result of meeting some of the F-4 instructor pilots in the Fighter Weapons School at Nellis. However, they were nice enough to give me a lot of back seat stick time.

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Are pictures 6 & 7 during a STRYK recovery pattern?

 

My friend, that was 52 years ago. I have no recollection as to what the recovery patterns were called back then.

 

In the pictures that I posted, we had approached the metro Las Vegas area from the northwest and were flying east across North Las Vegas in order to turn onto an initial approach for Runway 03L.

 

I'm sure the landing recovery patterns are completely different these days from what they were in 1968. Lot of new development that was not there in 1968.

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Looks like this recovery

 

 

i5 8400 | 32 Gb RAM | RTX 2080Ti | Virpil Mongoose T-50 base w/ Warthog & Hornet sticks | Warthog throttle | Cougar throttle USB | DIY Collective | Virpil desk mount | VKB T-Rudder Mk IV | Oculus Rift S | Buddy-Fox A-10 UFC | 3x TM MFDs | 2x bass shakers pedal plate| SIMple SIMpit chair | WinWing TakeOff panel | PointCTRL v2 | Andre JetSeat | Winwing Hornet UFC | Winwing Viper ICP

FC3 - Warthog - F-5E - Harrier - NTTR - Hornet - Tomcat - Huey - Viper - C-101 - PG - Hip - SuperCarrier - Syria - Warthog II - Hind - South Atlantic - Sinai - Strike Eagle

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Yep, it does look very similar. May not have changed that much since 1968. That is a long time though to not have some changes (maybe minor) with all the new development that has occurred during the intervening years.

 

Too bad that I did not keep my "Pilot Checklist" kneepad from the time that I spent there - that would have listed all the recovery patterns that were current in those years. I was only there for about 8 months before getting re-assigned to the F-100 training program at Luke.

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  • 3 months later...

Nice photos Bob! I've been to Nellis a bunch of times but it looks so different in these photos without all the city encroachment. You can definitely tell it is Nellis though. Nice to see photos of the early non-slatted F-4E's. They weren't around too long before being modified with slats.

Truly superior pilots are those that use their superior judgment to avoid those situations where they might have to use their superior skills.

 

If you ever find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck!

 

"If at first you don't succeed, Carrier Landings are not for you!"

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