Parachute to slowdown every time or due to short runway/wind?

Like the section toward the end of each rollout, where the landing gear is re-aligned with the fuselage.

dubi said:

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Stringfellow Hawke said:

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Parachute to slowdown every time or due to short runway/wind?

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found online

Quote:

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The parachutes are used for several reasons. "We pop the chute every time it's raining or when you have crosswinds greater than 30 knots and then when the runway is less than a mile," said Zacot. The chute also reduces wear and tear on the brakes.

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This answer surprises me. We preferred a minimum of 8,000' runway in F-4s. Find it hard to believe that Buffs could operate on an only one mile long runway, whether 6000 or 5280 (NM or SM). Also opposite was the case for crosswinds. The F-4 would experience significant weather vaning when using a drag chute. Our max crosswind component for the chute was 25K. The procedure was to use the chute for initial deceleration, then jettison as its braking affect decreased and weathervane increased as the aircraft slowed.

Any Buff guys out there that would know? Seems the weathervane affect might be less, given the size of the aircraft but still wonder about runway length.

Such a graceful bird. Spent many an afternoon watching them when we lived in Northeast Austin early 60's. Right under one of the inbound routes to Bergstrom. Not really that loud..just a cool sound to them. You knew they were all business though. The F4 Phantoms were another story though...loud AF. F104s and 105s were vocal as well.
good times

Yep, Double Ugly (F-4) could pump out some noise. Hated when the Thunderbirds went from F-4s to T-38s. When the F-4 flew over, even a single ship, you had to cover your ears. Didn't need to for even a four ship of 38s. Heard a 104 fly over one day and thought at first it was an F-4. The 104 used the same J79 engine as the F-4 and made the same howl.

A related side story. The Thunderbirds were based at Nellis which is home of the AF Fighter Weapons school. One of the FWS classes had a Dining Out for graduation. They always invited the T-Birds. Mark Larkins '70 was a Navy instructor who was assigned to FWS as a Naval Exchange officer. When it came for toasts, Mark made the following. "I'd like to propose a toast to the ONLY Armed Forces aerial demonstration team that flies an operational fighter. To the Blue Angels!" The Blues we're flying A-4s at the time.

Yikes

https://theaviationist.com/2013/10/01/duxford-stratofortress/

By my math, this B-52 did it in 4921 feet.

Rabid Cougar said:

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RF-4s out of Bergstrom are kings of the loud speed passers at about 400 feet on their routes across Milam County in the mid to late '70's Awesom experience for 10 year old boy nearly every Saturday afternoon….

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sweet

Former B-1 WSO here.

A BUFF definitely isn't landing on a 6,000 foot runway with any regularity. In the Bone we had to have a waiver from the Ops Group commander to land on anything less than 10,000. I seem to remember BUFFs having a similar restriction. The only waiver I remember being approved was for Fairford in the UK and it's still 9,991 ft. All of the bomber home bases have 12,000+ ft runways.

As for the chutes, I can't remember a BUFF landing and not popping the chute. There always annoying other aircraft by blocking taxiways by dropping them right off the end of the runway. I could see this being because they are trying to save wear and tear as the jets get older and maybe they didn't always pop the chute for every landing.

MORE

Pretty much, saves on the brakes. I probably landed only 10 times without popping the chute and by reg, you had to be down to a certain gross weight to do that and it was close to empty.

Rabid Cougar said:

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RF-4s out of Bergstrom are kings of the loud speed passers at about 400 feet on their routes across Milam County in the mid to late '70's Awesom experience for 10 year old boy nearly every Saturday afternoon….

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Yup. Growing up out in Oak Hill in the mid/late 70's and 80's, the F4 was the national bird of Austin. When they would come over low and fast, it was incredible.

Enjoyed flying the BUFF in the early '80s. They were old airplanes back then! Everything I learned from pilot training went out the window. A completely different type of jet. The crosswind landing is unique. The landing gear actually swivels to align with the runway. At the end of the landing roll you can see the gear start to realign with the runway. You pushed a button that straightened the jet.

I liked watching them takeoff with such a nose low attitude compared to the planes I flew.

best low level high speed passes were from the F-111

Rabid Cougar said:

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RF-4s out of Bergstrom are kings of the loud speed passers at about 400 feet on their routes across Milam County in the mid to late '70's Awesom experience for 10 year old boy nearly every Saturday afternoon….

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Same thing in Kimble County in the '60's. If my dad and I were out working livestock in one of our pastures and one of those things snuck up from behind us, I just had to hope the horse and me jumped the same direction, or I was heading for a rocky landing.

BQ_90 said:

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loved the rabbit cutting across the runway on the second landing

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Landing in Utapao, Thailand back in the 80's, I had to lift the nosewheel back up off the centerline to avoid a dog taking a nap there about 1500' down the runway. He looked up when I was about 30 feet away nudging the power & pulling back on the stick and just stared- still glad he didn't get up & try to run. Popped the nosewheel over him, chopped power again and put it back down. He was gone when we turned off the active!

Anyone heard about the C-17 that landed at the wrong airport? lol

Red1 said:

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Anyone heard about the C-17 that landed at the wrong airport? lol

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Seems unrelated to this thread but whatever.

That crew certainly screwed up, but if you're familiar with the differences in duty day, flight hour restrictions per month, etc between the FAA and DoD combined with the number of random fields the DoD flies too (the 17 in particular) its almost amazing it doesn't happen more and certainly isn't surprising it happened once.