In 1983 an aircraft from this base;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountai...Air_Force_Base helped me become the most infamous vacation person at work. I had nightmares for years afterward and imagined all kinds of things I'd like to do to the F-4 Phantom Pilot responsible. But I'm over all that now. We had 230 Employees where I worked and I am afraid almost all of them asked me to tell my vacation story. It got so bad that I refused to tell the story except to "Groups"
Here is a photo of the aircraft;
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/aircraft...r/f4/f4_07.jpg This is the First view I got when the Phantom flew over my head at less than 500 ft. My world came to a standstill, partially because of these fine folks at General Electric;
http://www.geae.com/engines/military/j79/index.html That's right! TWO J79 Engines Thrust Range- 17,820- 18,730 lbs. EACH! I am very much of the opinion that the J79 Engine was very very baddddd! In every book I've ever read about F-4 Phantoms in Vietnam, the Pilots were just as concerned about their gas guzzling, smokey engines as getting shot down by anti-aircraft batteries. When the F-4 was based here at Portland NG Base, you could hear those idiotic engines 15 miles away! Screech! Screech! when the Pilot applied power coming in for a landing. I do think they are a cool combat aircraft.
At that moment I was in a little ten foot boat and all of a sudden the noise filled my ears and I let go of the outboard tiller handle, the back wash from the practically braking on water, hit the transom and ripped the outboard motor OFF the transom and I actually witnessed the outboard motor fly through the air! I looked down and on the floor of the boat I noticed the gas line had neatly separated from the motor. In a few minutes the F-4 Phantom Pilot came back and banked to take a look at me, sort of like this;
http://www.1000pictures.com/view.htm....jpg+x640+y422 I was in to much shock to shake my fist at him, but I was stranded 15 miles in the middle of no where! God bailed me out of my predicament and I returned home safely.
Vacation Damage
Ski Boat with prop that came off when I reversed the inboard outdrive.
Ten ft. boat with missing outboard (boat was borrowed).
75 bucks to the drunken guy who towed the Ski Boat.
When I got the Ski Boat home it had a hole in the hull.
When I think of my horrible planning of that vacation, it makes me infuriated!
http://smilies.vidahost.com/cwm/3dlil/mad.gif
Doug :D