Quote:
Originally Posted by wahoonc
I was told the same thing by an A-10 jockey. He told me if you flamed out both engines to look straight down because that was where you were going to end up.
Aaron
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Yeah, it doesn't have any glide-ratio at all...
Not only is it kinda boxy, but it's extremely heavy. Proof positive that if you strap strong enough engines on any object, that it will fly. And those 2 GE J-79's were VERY powerful.
Funny story:
I remember my first time ever working one with an emergency when I was a young trainee. I'd been working the morning shift in the tower... and as it was nearing lunchtime, was getting towards the end of my shift. I already had 3 or 4 planes in the pattern, and another 2 on the radar approaches. Then an F-4 pilot checks in with me, saying he had a "BLT failure". Well at certain times of the day, it was kinda common practice for pilots to hint that they wanted to get on the ground in a hurry for various reasons, and lunchtime was one of them.
Anyway he checks in over one of the visual reporting points about 10 miles out with a "B-L-T failure", and that's all he says. So I give him the standard spiel of runway, wind & altimeter... told him to enter the downwind... and at the end added something like, "...and I copy the lunchtime request".
Next thing I know my instructor is grabbing the mic out of my hand, and telling him he was #1 for the runway... and then issuing instructions for the other aircraft to make room for the Phantom jockey.
Turns out what the pilot really said was B-L-C (SEE) failure, which stands for Boundary Layer Control. These are the big "board-like" panels you see in an F-4's intake... and they control the flow of air into the engine. So the pilot had an emergency situation which he was managing to keep the plane in the air.
Story has a happy ending as the pilot made an uneventful landing, and I got an education.
Just another 'fun' day on the job for a young PFC learning the ATC biz.