What would any scale modeler do if given the chance to ride in the full-size aircraft he had modeled? I'd bet the best model in my shop that he'd jump in with both feet. In August of 1985, I had just that opportunity. To fly in McDonnell's fantastic F-4 Phantom. Here is my story of this exciting experience.

All things considered the chance of a civilian flying in a fighter jet are slim at best. Because I have campaigned the F-4 for several years on the scale contest circuit with reasonable success, I was afforded the opportunity with the Indiana Air National Guard. I had no idea the Guard knew of my model which happened to be the exact same C-model Phantom they flew. Except for different squadron markings, the model is identical. In my favor was the fact that Air Guard Commander Col. John Swartz is familiar with R/C modeling. He leads an outstanding group of pilots and maintenance personnel in the Indiana Air National Guard out of Terre Haute, Indiana.

After receiving a call from Merv Crowder, a member of the R/C Club of Terre Haute, it took about 5 seconds to consider and accept the offer of a ride. Merv arranged this whole ride from start to finish and deserves much credit for pulling it off. As I stated earlier, it is a rare treat for a civilian to ride with the Air Guard. This is evidenced by the fact that it took approval from the Air Guard, Air Force, and even the Pentagon. This process took a lot of letter writing and about 8 months to complete. I tried not to get nervous while waiting to see if it would go through --- it didn't work! At long last the approval came through and the ride was scheduled for August16. The only catch was that I would have to go through about 4 hours of emergency training procedures on the F-4. That wasn't work, it was fun. A modeler's dream was going to come true.

Upon arriving at Hulman field in Terre Haute, I was greeted by Merv Crowder and a host of Guard pilots. What a great bunch of guys the pilots were; they answered countless questions about the aircraft and what I would be going through during the ride. Every attempt was made to make me feel welcome and to have an enjoyable experience.

The basic emergency training, or egress training was most interesting. It took about 4 hours and consisted first of cockpit familiarization in an F-4 simulator. The simulator has complete instrumentation and the identical ejection seat as in the aircraft. We went through the complete ejection sequences and seat apparatus. I must have spent at least 2 hours on how to get out of the Phantom. Was I getting nervous? Not a chance! Next came the survival gear, some with the seat, but most of the gear with my equipment. Everything is there from solid water pouches, fish hooks, flares, radios, you name it. Is all this really necessary to fly over Indiana? My trainer informed me that the pilots have to wear this gear all of the time so as to be completely familiar with it. All of this gear is heavy and quite a burden to carry. I can imagine how it would feel to a pilot if suddenly he was required to carry all of this into combat. So here I am completely decked out in my flight suit, G-suit, boots, gloves, helmet and, yes, fish hooks, and my trainer says that he now has to hang me from my parachute cords to the ceiling of the hangar. Was I getting nervous? You bet! The purpose of this part of the training was to demonstrate the small winch in your equipment that allows you to disconnect the chute cords and lower yourself down from a tree. I asked him how many 100-foot trees there are in Indiana. He said not many here, but there were a lot of them in Southeast Asia. Gulp. This was the end of my emergency training. I did not go through the altitude chamber, which includes rapid decompression and recognition of hypoxia. Hypoxia is the gradual loss of oxygen and resultant symptoms. Because of this, I was cleared to 19,000 feet and no higher. Two hours and the flight would begin.