CaliCheese

Hi Reflected, I just wanted put the bug in your ear for a future mission project (probably 2027/8). With the coming of the FF F-15C, Mig-29A, and C-130, I think that you are the man for the job to re-create the Eagle/Fulcrum engagement from the movie "Air Force One". I am a huge fan of your missions and campaigns. I think you would bring the right skills, dedication, and flair to a project like this.

The best way to figure out trim and AoA for landing is to practice slow flight in the F-4: Your overall goal is to maintain heading and altitude without climbing or descending while going as slow as possible. 1. Pick a heading and altitude to start 2. Reduce your throttle to idle. 3. When you get to 250Kts, lower your landing gear, at 220 lower your flaps. 4. Keep increasing your AoA to maintain altitude as you slow down. Eventually, you will be on AoA and you will hear the solid tone. 5. Now that you are at the correct AoA, you need to slowly start increasing power to maintain altitude. You want to freeze your airspeed and altitude so neither gauge is moving. You are now in slow flight. 6. Now trim away the stick pressure to maintain what you have. You want to set and then trim, do not trim to set or you will never stabilize. Hand fly the aircraft to the position you want it in and then trim away the forces (harder to do in a sim as you have to do it by look and not feel). Fly around for a few minutes like that; no changes in airspeed and altitude, but definitely do turns (this will help with landing patterns). The F-4 is pretty stable. As mentioned by others, the airspeed will change based on weight. With full air to air missiles and about 300lbs of gas or so, the speed seems to stabilize around 157kts. 7. Now, in order to descend, you just need to reduce a little power. Adjust throttles to maintain whatever rate of decent you want. Don't pull too much power or you will drop like a rock, and it takes a little bit for the J79s to spool back up and arrest your decent. Your airspeed and AoA should not change much while in the decent. Use pitch to maintain airspeed and power for altitude. Practice doing this in slow flight before attempting landing and you will see and hear the visual queue's you need to land. 8. Next I would practice straight in approaches to the runway where you can judge if you are too high or low and find that 2.5 or 3 degree sweet spot. Once you have those, you can add in pattern work. At that point you are just maintain altitude and airspeed in the turn until you are on final and ready to descend. It is very tricky at first, but practicing slow flight helps a lot with any aircraft.