This is the Home Page of the F-4 Phantom II Society, Inc., a non-profit international organization dedicated to the preservation of the history of the "Phabulous" McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II aircraft.
Our society is open to all persons or groups so interested.
To learn more please click on our Charter.
Click on the PHANCON tab above to find out about our next PhanCon this September at Tyndall AFB, FL.
NEW AMAZON link that benefits the Society...
Amazon is willing to pay the F-4 Phantom II Society 4% of all the money our members and folks visiting our web site then spend there.
The only requirement is that you identify yourself as a F-4 Phantom II Society supporter by using a link from a special web page to get to Amazon. To do so just click on "Shop via AMAZON" in the right column. Or you can check it out at http://f4phantom.com/amazon.html. We encourge you to add that page as a bookmark for future Amazon visits.
We are not promoting Amazon but many of us buy things there, and since they are willing to share their profits with us, we might as well take advantage of the offer. That can be good for us, and good for you as it will certainly help towards keeping Smoke Trails arriving in your mailbox. (4/4)
If you click on Shop via AMAZON now you will see we've added a small store window there to products on Amazon. Check it out. (4/22)
Koku-Fan - PhanCon 2009
PhanCon 2009 made it into the February 2010 issue of Koku-Fan, a major Japanese aviation magazine. Below is a translation provided by the author, Mr. Takayuki TEI.
PHANCON 2009
A Phantom Convention at the QF-4 nest, Holloman AFB, NM.
2009 "PhanCon", organized by the Phantom Society, took place at Holloman AFB, NM on 10/28, 29, 2009. Attendants are MiG killer pilots and their mechanics from Vietnam war, F-4G pilots who played an active role for having command of the air during Operation Desert Storm, as well as just a Phantom fan like me.
F-4 Phantoms mothballed at AMARG next to Davis Monthan AFB, AZ were sent to BAE Systems in Mojave Desert in CA to get converted to QF-4 during the next few month, then flew to Det.1 under 49FW at Holloman AFB. According to a person familiar with this, there are only few F-4s remaining at AMARC; the QF-16 soon will become USAF's main drone aircraft.
At the end of the Oct., 33 QF-4 were observed at Holloman AFB. Only a few of them are colorful gloss painted QF-4s, which are well known as one of the USAF heritage flight aircraft to airshow fans, and most of 33 were unpainted, wearing original aged grey color with day-glow orange on wings. Out of those grey paint aircraft, some of them still wear shark teeth or tiger paint from good old days. I wonder I'm the only one who got more excited by these aged paint aircraft than the latest F-22A.
The photo of cockpit shows a control panel, where HUD used to be, allowing operator to switch to between remote control mode. I couldn't help hoping that this aircraft ends its life before flying in remote control mode.
We had four QF-4 taking off during our visit.
A German air force training squadron is based at Holloman. Tornado with special paint to celebrate 55,555th flight hours [right middle].
T-38, F-22A training partner of 49FW.
A F-22A will face 4 T-38 at a time [right bottom]. The new star of Holloman AFB, wearing HO tail code.
I met a female F-22 pilot in one of the hangars we visited next day.
Where next? The attendees voted to try to have PhanCon 2010 at Tyndall AFB, FL next year. We had a good number of new folks this year, and we hope to encourage more new folks to attend next year. For you old hats, yes, we know you've seen and done it all before. We'd like to do something different for you too. Ideas? Members, join in on our private forum to comment further. You should have gotten an email with how to do that. If you didn't then we either don't have the right email address or it was not provided to us. Rectify that by sending an email to our VP OPS. Go to Contacts to send the email.
A salute to the members that made it happen this year:
Jim and Helen Thompson
Dave Wimmer
And the other folks on the hard working eBoard staff: KBob, Fred, Jack, Steve, Clark, Mike, and Annie Lee (AND of course, our SPOOK!)
In addition, this year we used a service called EZregister to securely handle online reservations. It only cost us a buck a reservation, and it provided a very easy to setup interface. We hope you found it easy to use as well. We plan to use them again in 2010, and heartily recommend any non-profit hosting an event to check out their extensive services: http://www.ezregister.com .
On Death Row, but very much alive
Jim Thompson gets a well deserved hug from the Spook...
Our gang comes with long lenses.. Smile Gordon!
Birds of a feather!
Turkey feathers!
These are the "hangar" queens, destined to provide parts...
Taka grabs a close up!
Any time now...
What they were waiting for!
Did you see what I saw! Note, we all have our hats off (FOD issue, no hats on the flightline, no cellphones either!)
Tornado celebrating 55,555 hours of GAF training at Holloman AFB. They stopped an engine run to let us take photos!
At the south end of a ten mile test track.. which only varies by 5/1000th inch.. MACH TEN ANYONE?
If you look really really close there is a 35 MPH speed limit sign..
The Veterans Memorial Air Park needs your support. Adopt an F-4.
You can help out on the restoration and upkeep of two F-4s at the air park in Fort Worth, TX. They need to repaint both F-4s, plus perform some maintenance. One we fondly know of as Scooby (QF-4S 153821). The other, F-4C 64-0825 , was recently acquired and needs to be repainted in USAF colors. Call 800-575-0535 or write obainof@verizon.net for more info. Or click on the shot of the brochure to the right (Pardon the creases).
Handout on Veterans Memorial Air Park F-4's. They need your help!
My ENEMY My FRIEND
I've just finished reading "My Enemy, My Friend" by Brig. Gen. Dan Cherry. I was amazed at how great a book it is. Although it is only 6 1/4" x 6 1/4", slightly bigger than a cd jewel case, it is by no means small in it's content. It is a story about Dan Cherry and his shooting down of a MIG -21 over Viet Nam on April 6, 1972. But it is much more than that. It includes a brief history of his military history and then in great depth tells of the day when he shot the MIG down.
Then it tells a short story of how he found the actual plane, tail number 66-7550, in worn down condition in Enon, Ohio, about twenty miles from Dayton, Ohio. It goes on to tell about how the plane was moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and how it was restored to its present pristine condition.
What more could a person want in life? Well, someone came up with the idea of finding the very person Gen. Cherry shot down. The story continues with the finding of and getting the two combatants to finally meet face to face thirty six years after the memorable event. The book contains a great deal of pictures and illustrations. Although the book is fairly short, it is well worth the twenty dollars that it costs as General Cherry has autographed each and every one of those for the Society. Everyone knows that a signed first edition of any book is worth way more than that. I would recommend this book to any Phantom Phreak. I have nineteen of them left and I am certain that once they get in Smoke Trails or our home page they will go very quickly.
STE H-102 3053 RANCHO VISTA BLVD
PALMDALE CA 93551-4823
For more info please email our President.
We host a private Member Only discussion group on Google. If you are an active member and have not received an invite please contact the Webmaster. We just may not have your current email address.
February 2010 issue of Koku-Fan, a major Japanese aviation magazine. Below is a translation provided by the author, Mr. Takayuki TEI. 
