I feel a little bad that your tribulations and frustration is my Sunday morning entertainment, but I do love these videos! Thanks!

A few friendly Congressmen can lubricate the process of getting parts from allies who have retired their Phantoms. It won't hurt to reach out to your Congressional representatives and ask if they are willing to help. And if they do agree to help, people will volunteer to make the rest of the process happen.

@trespire

Ай бұрын

Sound like a plan !

There is something magical about the sounds produced by original round motors!

That's how we did it. Having a budy system, where one is working in the cockpit, while another is standing on the ladder with the tool tray, handing tools and receiving them back. One of the motos we had was יש כבוד ללא פוד "Yesh kavod lelo FOD", which translates to There Is Honour/Pride With No FOD, only in Hebrew it rhymes nicely. We were issued 5 knucked finger extentions for those inaccesable nooks and cranies !! You needed extra long and strong fingers to work on Phantoms, preferably with an integrated magnet on your fingertip 😠 ! We've all been there ! Looking good.

Hey you made progress and that's what matters. Hopefully the rest of the installation goes smoother. Thanks for sharing.

Good to see you putting that Phuture Phantom Phixer to work👍. We had a couple folks at WB that tree small in stature. They were great at getting into those small spaces.

Looking at the rail (I guess) of that ejection seat, one can realy see that you all gave your blood sweat and tears.

Got rides in the B24 and '17 one day... What an amazing day!

@DieselThunderAviation

Ай бұрын

Sounds awesome! Those airframes are on my list to fly on one day.

Always look forward to starting my Sunday morning with your latest video. Keep it up, and hoping to hear some jet noise soon!

I admire you because you paid as much attention & passion to the Pantom and GFEs. Sincerely am hoping your success

Suggestion. Check y’all’s vacuum content, after vacuuming. Frequently bits and pieces, miscellaneous goodies to be found…

Chin up DT, it'll all seem glossier tomorrow (or whenever)!! 👍👍👍

Saw the same 'phantom' misery on alot of maintenance crews...lol.

Had many hours 'of fun' doing similar tasks on UK Phantoms!! As an aside, we used to have a small (yellow) clip that held down the ejection microswitch (shown at 5:08) to stop the IFF squaking 'emergency' if you applied power with the seat removed (aircraft thought you had ejected). I see you have yours held down with locking wire by the look of it, don't know if that clip was a UK only thing or whether it was a standard F4 maintenance tool?

Hi. If the US gave S. Korea the first F-4's in 1969,eventually totalling up to 90 + jets, why can't some of them just be given back to the US so that spare parts can be used. To me it seems backwards that Soviet era aircraft are easier to acquire with less hoops to jump through than our own airplanes. Thank you.

Phantom phrustration...

Do old time maintainers have any advice on how to get nuts and bolts into and out of impossible places? I was thinking of a thin wall tube you could thread the nut into then thread the other end through the mounting bracket and the bulkhead and when it's pulled through it brings the bolt through, grab the end and secure with the nut. Needs to be really thin to pass through the holes with the bolt shaft.

@1648Christopher

Ай бұрын

Maybe thin tubing with a smaller diameter then the bolt and heat shrink label tape to secure bolt to tubing before feeding through....

Fasteners are NOT made of plated aluminum. I've removed and replaced thousands of fasteners on F-4'E & G's and none were aluminum. Boeing uses a lot of titanium fasteners as well as stainless.

@DieselThunderAviation

Ай бұрын

That info came right out of the book. There are some titanium and/or stainless steel fasteners on the Phantom, though that is mainly used on the horizontal stabs and tail cone near the engine nozzles.

@jg1vonrd356

Ай бұрын

@@DieselThunderAviation I would really like to see that reference. There may be a few aluminum bolts but I find it hard to accept that the majority would not be steel. The weight savings would be relatively negligible. Generally, aluminum fasteners are not used in any application where they might be removed regularly. Do the bolts in your hand have two dashes on the head? "AN aluminum alloy bolts are marked with two raised dashes".

Have you had the privilege of removing and replacing the STAB ACT yet?

@trespire

Ай бұрын

Think I've seen it, or something similar, while refitting the titanium hot panels located aft of the engine nozzles. I remember seeing hydraulic componants in the tail secion.

@troyledbetter6597

Ай бұрын

Hang in there! You all are moving in the right direction…making progress! C ya next week 😊

@baileyparadis1815

Ай бұрын

I'm curious about this. Done stab actuators on 5th gen. Wonder if it's as much a nightmare as I imagine it could be? Though unlike my tails you probably don't have to pull an engine to do one on the F-4...

@dannysnyder4035

Ай бұрын

That is correct. You have to go through access panels. A lot of it is done by feel. Expect to bleed.

@trespire

Ай бұрын

@@dannysnyder4035 I was structural maintainer, so I didn't blead quite as much. Problem is, in that tail area there are more titanium and stainless componants, if I recall. Even a small burr on a stainless part will get you well. Spook demands payment in sweat and blood !

Kinda ridiculous that you can`t import pieces from a USA build aircraft from a foreign (yet friendly) country, to (at least) keep these (USA built) jewels flying.

@DieselThunderAviation

Ай бұрын

Yeah, sure is. The topic has come up before (not just here in the comments) whenever another country retires their Phantoms. Japan was the last to retire Phantoms a couple years ago if I recall.