FighterControl

Hey Guys,

A little surprise for this evening.
Some nostalgia from 1982 when the Americans were very very busy handling the situation with the Russians wich resulted in some major exercises in Europe held from 1970 till 1997.
A look back when a total of 12x F-4C Phantoms 131 TFG/110 TFS, St. Louis, Missouri ANG were based at RAF Leeming and 12x F-4D Phantoms 183 TFG/170 TFS, Capitol Airport, Illinois ANG were based at RAF Finningley.

A great website with a good overview of all these exercises is: http://www.sharpshooter-maj.com/html/deploy82.htm

Hope you enjoy these beasts!!

Cheers,
Reinier

1. F-4D Phantom II aircraft during Exercise Coronet Cactus
F-4D Phantom II aircraft during Exercise Coronet Cactus by Reinier Bergsma, on Flickr

2. Two F-4D Phantom II aircraft during Exercise Coronet Brave
F-4D Phantom II aircraft during Exercise Coronet Brave by Reinier Bergsma, on Flickr

3. Radar inspection. F-4D Phantom II aircraft during Exercise Coronet Brave
Radar inspection. F-4D Phantom II aircraft during Exercise Coronet Brave by Reinier Bergsma, on Flickr

4. Need some help! F-4D Phantom II aircraft during Exercise Coronet Brave
Need some help! F-4D Phantom II aircraft during Exercise Coronet Brave by Reinier Bergsma, on Flickr

5. Last checks! F-4D Phantom II aircraft during Exercise Coronet Cactus
Last checks! F-4D Phantom II aircraft during Exercise Coronet Cactus by Reinier Bergsma, on Flickr

Superb Reinier - thanks for posting these - excellent content and scans

I take it No 1 was an NBC 'scrub down'

Edit - just visited your Flickr page -

Darren

What a start to a Sunday morning.Brightens up your day.Top Stuff.Some off the very best times for aviation in this country.
Thank you again.

Great pictures here is the list of F4s present at Finningly on 20-June-1982

McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7556 170FS/SI Ilinois ANG
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7583 170FS/SI Ilinois ANG
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7589 170FS/SI Ilinois ANG
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7652 170FS/SI Ilinois ANG
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7663 170FS/SI Ilinois ANG
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7701 170FS/SI Ilinois ANG
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7705 170FS/SI Ilinois ANG
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7723 170FS/SI Ilinois ANG
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7726 170FS/SI Ilinois ANG
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7730 170FS/SI Ilinois ANG
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7766 170FS/SI Ilinois ANG
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-8705 170FS/SI Ilinois ANG

Those were the days my friend.

Lovely work, a super set to view.
Those charcoal NBC suits (image 1) were incredibly sweaty...

A really great sequence of close ups esp. the wash + brush up. I caught the Missouri ANG F-4Cs @ Leeming which I posted here last year but wondering how it was possible to obtain access for close ups as tight security measures were the order of the day back then esp during exercises!

Thanx guys, got some more to come!
Feel free to add this topic with photo's or additional information or personal stories.

Cheers
Reinier

F3 wrote:A really great sequence of close ups esp. the wash + brush up. I caught the Missouri ANG F-4Cs @ Leeming which I posted here last year but wondering how it was possible to obtain access for close ups as tight security measures were the order of the day back then esp during exercises!

Hey F3. I'm from 1975 so didn't take the pictures myself Pictures were made by photographers from the USAF itself. SSGT Jose Lopez at Leeming and MSGT Don Sutherland at Finningley but managed to get them high resolution and gave them a lttle touch up.

Excellent results Reinier. Where did you access them and are there any more? Many thanks for sharing.

Hi Reinier

Awesome shots

Thanks for sharing

Paddyboy

Hi Reinier, thanks for the great memory. I do particularly remember a local guy walking his dog along the road under the '02' approach on that Saturday afternoon 12th June 1982. He was surprised that so many photographers were all keen and ready for the arrivals late afternoon. "They only operate Jet Provosts & Dominies here and they don't fly Saturdays so you're wasting your time !" What a look on his face as that first pair of twinkling nose lights appeared on the approach with more stacked behind .. just like Heathrow
My notebook had most of them from ex. 'NA' 474TFW with a couple ex. 'ZZ 18TFW and also 'WP' 8TFW
Light was really failing when they turned up




Weather was much better on Tuesday 15th




3Greens

Can anyone tell me which year the District of Columbia F4D's were at Finningley - I seem to think I was on my first long ride out on 'L' plates with a Suzuki A100 from Macclesfield, Cheshire in 1979 / 1980?

The days of being young and adventurous!

Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera either in those days - so any pic's of the event but be most welcome.

June 1983 for the District of Columbia F4D's at Finningley

Thanks for the update - I didn't realise it was a later date.

Excellent update Keith!

I remember seeingthe Leeming and Finningley deployments and tryingto take come photos with a basic (everything manual) SLr - sadly they turned out pretty poor and have not fared well in the intervining 35 years.
Thanks for posting.

Yammer wrote:June 1983 for the District of Columbia F4D's at Finningley

noted on 3rd June 1983

McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7531
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7549
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7556
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7561
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7634
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7658
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7666
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7677
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7684
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7688
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7693
McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II 66-7712

pretty sure these were all in and not the arrival day, we used to wait until planes were on the ground before running out to see them, does anyone have any pictures of these,

Top add-ons, Keith

Best regards

Paddyboy