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 Thursday at 09:48 PM by wjmzwx

[Kleber]

I am able to smoothly land the f4 pretty consistently. The following are the tricks I follow:

- I do not flare the F4, she just drops, I just allow the bird to descent at a rate Jester is comfortable with ;).

- On short final my nose is always around 10 degrees pitch up. I keep the throttle as necessary for a correct AOA.

- When I am over the runway, I watch how the runways get bigger and bigger by watching the window cockpit side: the more runway you see on the cockpit window sides, more close I am to the ground. This is my main cue for "feeling" the closure rate I am approaching to the runway. I try feeling a very slow closure... the slower I get, the happier Jester gets.

Obviously, for being able to use "external" cues, one needs to develop the skill for keeping the F4 withing parameters without "chasing the needles". Which takes time and practice.

 

Edited 26 minutes ago by Kleber