Subject: Walk Around Captions
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 10:01:26 -0400

Hi Steve,

I'm tired of you guys not providing captions, so I'll rise to the request
for captions.  These are the captions for the most recent USN F-4 photos in
the walk around.

1.  Left engine intake.

2.  Front office, viewed from the right.  Note how the canopy frame keeps
relatively clean while the aircraft side (where the crew climb over it)
gets filthy.

3.  Right side of the nose.

4.  Left speed brake, under the wing.  Note the aircraft is being worked on
and that the speed brake actuator is not attached to the speed brake.
While they typically do sag open on the ground, they don't normally ever
open this far.

5.  Nose landing gear, from the left.  Note also the extended integrated
boarding ladder on the right half of the picture.

6.  Right wing, from the front.  Most notable here is the view of the
closed wing slat.  Note the overhang on the leading edge of the wing.  This
is present on USN slats.  The USAF slats are flush (with no overhang) when
they close.

7.  Nose landing gear, from the left, showing the interior of the aft nose
wheel well door.

8.  Nose landing gear, from the right.  Note the locations of the
landing/taxi light and the approach lights on the front door.

9.  Left main landing gear, viewed from the outboard side.

10.  Overall of NF/115.  Of note is the raised aerial refueling probe.
Note also the wing slat overhang, visible along the leading edge of the
wing.

11.  Overall of NF/102.  Again note the raised aerial refueling probe.
Also, this aircraft must have been undergoing engine maintenance recently
as the FOD covers are installed.  Note the wing slats are deployed.  This
is not common on any US Phantom on the ground.

12.  Underside view.  Note the centerline tank is the original F-4 Phantom
style 600 gallon tank.  The F-15 style tanks were never fitted to the USN
or USMC aircraft.

13.  Overall of NF/212.

14.  Rear overall of NF/114.  Note the drooped ailerons and raised flaps,
typical of the F-4 at rest.

15.  Overall of NF/216.

16.  Another overall of NF/216.  Note the Whale on the left side of the
picture.

17.  Another overall of NF/216.

18.  Tail of NF/201.  Note the patchwork paint on the fuselage.  Also note
the mashed tail slots on the horizontal stabilator.

19.  The business end of a pair of J79-10B turbojet engines.  You don't
want to be standing here while they are running.  Also, note the more
typical sag of the speed brakes under the wings and that the left one is
lower than the right one.  IPMS judges, note that they do not need to be
open the same amount...

20.  Left outer wing panel (folded up).  Note the two actuator fairings and
the four pivot points.  Few models of the F-4 have the two actuator
fairings molded correctly.

21.  Right nose with the aerial refueling probe extended.  Note the
location this probe extends from.  This is why Navy Phantoms have no right
console in the rear cockpit.

22.  Head-on!  Big nose...

23.  Left J79-10B detail.  Note three levels of irises.  This is the
typical state the irises sag to after the aircraft has been shut down.  If
you look closely, you can tell that the lower irises are opened more than
the upper, giving the whole exhaust a canted-down look.

24.  A seldom seen (one the ground) feature of the Phantom wing - the
spoilers.  This is the right outboard unit (there are two per wing).
Phantom ailerons do not raise much past the neutral state.  The aircraft
uses spoilers on the wing tops to kill lift.

25.  Big vacuum cleaner.  This is the left engine intake in detail.  The
perforated slab in front of the intake is the moving portion.  At high
speeds, this slab pivots along the hinges (visible on its leading edge) to
limit the airflow into the intake.

26.  Overall of NF/212.

I won't rise to the request often, but these were some great pictures are
just begged for some descriptions.  You should start requiring your
submitters of walk around pictures to write captions.  The guy that had
access to these aircraft most certainly should have been able to write
these.

Take care.

Dave Aungst