How to land F-4E on speed and butter it——my experience

[wjmzwx]

First,just do the overhead turn at 350-400knots. This part is normal. Just dont make it too tight.

Then, let’s split downwind part into 2phases.

Phase 1. 180-190knots and try to get level flight. Don’t slow down too much. 180-190knots will give u plenty of lift to get level easily.

Phase2. That’s the tricky part. U need to hold the nose Steady and slow down to on speed aoa.   Aoa can be affected by 2 factors, throttle and trim. When u push up the throttle aoa will decrease.When u move ur throttle back aoa will increase. So u need to hold ur nose steady to tell which part u need to change: if nose goes down or up then aoa is mostly changed by trim. U need to trim ur plane out. If nose is steady but aoa is changed then u need to move ur throttle. Before the base turn u need to find that balance of throttle and trim—— nose steady and aoa on speed.

During the base turn, u can still use this method to keep on speed aoa or fly slightly fast.

When u finally on the final approach, u need to firstly aim for a proper decent rate. dont rush to get on perfect aoa again. Ur trim is ok don’t change that too much since u already trimmed out during downwind.  Slowly move throttle to get aoa on speed. 

The method stay the same. If nose is not steady and aoa is not on speed , do trimming. If nose is steady and aoa is not on speed, do ur left hand job.

When u are 50ft above the runway,flare.( at this point aoa will decrease since the ground effect. U can use that as a sign of flare moment.) If u don’t feel the ground effect, it’s probably because decent rate is too high, ur plane punches through the ground effect and smashes into runway. CHANGE UR GLIDE SLOPE NEXT TIME. If u feel the ground effect, u need To throttle back slowly now. Otherwise, u will balloon up and land long. But don’t move it too fast or hold back stick too much, don’t go beyond on speed aoa.

Do it this way , u don’t need to go in fast and still can make ur backseat ugly guy scream and admire u.

Hopefully, this method can help someone who love f-4 but hate jester’s mean landing comments. 
 

 

 

 

 

Edited 17 hours ago by wjmzwx