A tale for Adam

[Barneydhc82]

What was it like to ride the fire breathing dragon, CF-104D, for the first time? Damned scary I knew the base test pilot at Zweibrucken , Germany and when I ran into him one day, he asked if my HAI, High Altitude Indoctrination, was still valid. It was and he invited me to ride the back seat of a Twoholer the next time one came up for test flight.

About two weeks later after I had pranged the simulator about three times and ridden the seat up the rails, I was having my semi-annual Radar Controller proficiency check and Testor 99 was my victim. At 3 miles on final I broke transmission for confirmation of the gear and seat lanyard which he acknowledged and finished his tx with "and I have a Dual in 45 minutes".

I carried on with the radar run and after the de-brief for my Warrant Officer he asked about the 3 mile Tx. When I told him the Testor 99 had an empty back seat in the 104D, he told me to get lost for the rest of the day and enjoy my ride

At the hangar we briefed on the mission, a full test card up to Angels 450 which included stalls. Strapping into the seat I was all thumbs and elbows. Pins removed from the seat, oxygen mask secure and working, intercom plugged in and checked; feet in the stirrups and cables free. You wore steel spurs on the heels of the boots which snapped onto balls on the foot rest and these balls were attached to cables which would yank your feet back into the foot rests in the event of ejection.

At this point I was starting to hyperventilate even before the engine was lit up! Calm down idiot, it's only another aeroplane! At this stage I had about 200 hours flyingin light singles and C-45s and this beast was scary to say the least. Start up, taxi for the active, pre-take-off checks and into position Runway 21. "Testor 99, Cleared for take-off, SID One departure". Brake release, into afterburner, rotate at 250 knots, gear up on the squat switches and climb like the mother-in-law was after you . The noise in my ears was unbelievable until going through Mach 1 then all was pretty quiet.

The Mach run at FL450 was impressive with the curvature of the earth and the inky blue-black sky. At 1.83 Mach, the max for a Dual with externals, at that altitude there was no real sensation of speed but at a much lower altitude and slower speed you knew that you were moving. The Stall check was at FL300 with the stick kicker turned off, slow deceleration, Gear and flaps, speed brakes, and at 155 knots we went from straight and level flight to vertical! Straight down! In a heart beat.

Back in normal cruise with my heart tripping out at mach 3 we headed back to Zweibrucken, cleared for the Tacan approach. Outbound at FL200 and Penetration turn at FL120 and a Radar pick off for a precision approach R21. And that is when Bob said "You have control" Holy S$#@! Flying the radar pattern at low altitude and me too damned nervous to do anything but fly the instruments. Turning final at 15 NM, slowing to 175 knots and following my controllers instructions to the "T". At 1 nm from touch down Bob took control and I followed through for the touch down.

Drogue chute out , off the runway at the end and taxi back for de-brief. And I was rubbery kneed all the way back to the office. Then I had to face my wife over flying the 104D. That was the worst part. On later flights I got to fly the bird more and even landed it a few times but that first ride was something that I'll never forget..and that was 50 years ago!!!!

Barney

[hrtpaul]

Sounds cool mate. Jealous as

[Barneydhc82]

That airframe, 654 has been reproduced in 1:48 scale and is in mu collection. The original aircraft is now in our local aviation museum, sitting out in the weather but painted in the later European camo scheme and it is really poor condition.

Barney

[hrtpaul]

Great to hear it's preserved mate

[Adam the Akrodude]

Barney what a impressive story! My heart was pumping at a rate higher than normal just reading it! Everything about the 104 is fast - even the stories! When you get a chance, we'd love to read more about your fun & games in the 104.
Way back in the 60's, the RAAF here selected the Mirage III over the F-104. Very similar performance. From what I've read (and recently spoke to a one time Mirage pilot at our Model Expo here in Melbourne - Capt. Eric's friend), the Mirage was an absolute delight to fly. When you see that twinkle in the eye and very obvious broad grin from a one time driver, you know it's a very special aeroplane. Speaking with a friend who had to work on it, not such a delightful experience - very hard to get to some things inside the very cram-packed fuselage.

I love this period of aviation - truly the Golden Age. It was all about out and out performance. Single engine and high performance did result in a lot of crashes. Then again, lots of Lightnings were lost as well. Lose one engine in a Lightning from fire and it often resulted in lost of control when the tail hydraulics was lost. What was the terrible joke about the cheapest way of owning a F-104 in Germany back then - buy a hectare of land! All the Century Series had fairly high attrition rates - particularly the F-105 over Nth Vietnam. F-104 and F-106 had poor ejection seats initially as well from what I've read.

Don't know if you frequent Large Scale Planes forum, but there is a nice gentleman called Menelaos over there. He sent some time in the Greek Air Force and had a ride or two in the 104D - he loves them! EricG here built an absolute beauty in Italian Air Force colours - the newish Italeri 1/32 kit. Later this year I'll be hooking into my F-104N to represent Joe Walker's last ride.

So cool that the F-104D you went for a ride in still survives.

Please post any more stories - great reading and great inspiration!

Cheers

Adam

[DesTROYer]

A great story. Thanks for sharing it.

[RHB785]

I can't compete with that tale Barney. Nearest I ever got to a super ride was getting suited up in the 2 OCU Life Support Section for a Mirage ride. I was just doing up the last g-suit lace when in walked the orderly room sergeant. "LAC Blackford, you won't mind giving up your ride for a female journo will you?" My reply went something along the lines of "Like heck I won't. I've waited 4 1/2 years for this and I'm posted to Richmond in two weeks time so no way will I give up my ride and I don't care if she's sleeping with one of the bograts." (trainee pilots) He gave me a knowing look and said "Well tough luck sport, your ride is off. Get out of that clobber, get your overalls back on and get back to work." When I walked back into the section everone asked me what happened. When I told them the FlgSgt got on the phone and tried to reverse the decision but to no avail. Oh, and just before I left Williamtown for Richmond an article appeared in the Herald about how much fun a supersonic ride in a Mirage is. The orderly room corporal whispered in my ear in the mess one night that the journo was indeed sleeping with one of the bograts.

You're right about them being hard to work on Adam. They were the biggest engine they could fit into the smallest airframe they could build and everthing else was just stacked in around the engine. There were many jobs that had to be done by feel, you just couldn't see what you were doing. I think the worst job for an eleco was changing the main and 46A inverters. Or changing a cockpit air duct sensor in a single. At least four hours work, canopy off, seat out, left hand side panel off and then 5 minutes to change the sensor and then four hours to put it all back together again. In a dual, five minutes for the whole job. It was in the nose, open up the baggage compartment door and it was right in front of your nose. On the other hand a battery change was much simpler in a single than a dual. In a dual it was in the nose wheel well and a real cow to get at or get any tools to.

Regards,
RHB.