Flying the F-104 Starfighter | Frank Heinevetter (Part 1) 

Great respect for the Luftwaffe F104 pilots. I was ground crew at RAF Wildenrath in the 80s when a “State 2 “ emergency landing situation was broadcast on the station tannoy. It was a German F104 with a lighting strike. I was on “Crash & Smash” team so 4 of us fitters jumped into the squadron Land Rover to join the Fire Crew and ambulance at the end of the runway and waited for the Starfighter to appear. It came in on finals crabbing at an alarming angle and bucking violently. Just as we thought it was going to crash into a field the pilot flipped the aircraft sideways and literally dropped it onto the runway. The aircraft bounced violently a few times, the drag chute deployed and it came to a halt. We all raced down the runway and when we arrived the canopy was open and, despite the very real fire risk, a clearly relieved Luftwaffe Hauptmann had removed his helmet was calmly smoking a cigarette. He deserved it. The lightning strike had peeled the leading edge of the port wing back like tin foil. He’d essentially landed the kite with one and a half wings. Amazing flying.

What a Gentleman and a great Pilot! Thank you for the interview and for allowing us to have a great time watching this video! Alles beste für Herrn Heinevetter!

The story of the bird strike is really unbelievable! It sounds like the bird actually was squeezed between the front windshield and the top of the canopy, yet the canopy did not break!

I started my PPL in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1975. The CFI, and my main instructor wasCapt Sheik Mohamed. Hope i spelt that right. He had flown F104s in the Pakistani air force and told of climbing vertically way past the ceiling, until she flamed out. Then tumbling back, and gradually stabalizing. A proper sky god.

What an interesting and lovely chap .Thanks very much for all your interviews. Some of the World's Best people.

This guy is a gem.

...more great F-4 stories by Frank Heinevetter and the interviewer really did a super job, also. Very respectful and empathic in light of this super experienced Cold War Air Force veteran - just great!! I just realized, that Frank is wearing a SINN St103 pilot's watch - SUPER choice and just what you would expect from an F-4-Jockey... Looking forward to more of Frank's great F-4 adventures - what a guy!!

15:10 Frank with his Parents and the F104.

Great interview! The 104 is one of my favorite jets!

I’m so happy you were able to get front seat. Nice work.

Just saw the heads up for another Starfighter episode and im already drooling😆Thanks Mike!

Great interview! I agree, the 104 is definitely one of the sexiest looking planes ever made!

Great Interview , nice Storys 👍🏼🇩🇪🎗I live near Bonn , Rhein/Sieg Area . I remember low flying Aircaft back in the late 70' and 80' 🤩 Back then we had Sonic Boom's almost daily 🥳miss that 😉 Great Channel 🙏🏼thank you 😎

I can't imagine having to go through such technical and stressful training in a foreign language; even if you are fluent! When under stress, you are going to revert to your native tongue and having your instructor admonishing (yelling at) you in English is going to compound the difficulty!

That was interesting to hear about using the flaps below 450 KIAS fo maneuvers! Thank you for the interview!

What a great interview. Thank you so much. I flew for an airline in the 90’s and early 2000’s before medically retiring. It was a transitional time from mostly military pilots to mostly civilian trained and the end of the last Vietnam era pilots. The airline I flew for had a lot military pilots up until it ordered the regional jet and began a very expansion. What I loved about being a new first officer was flying with the men who had flown during the 60’s and 70’s. We had pilots from several different counties. Evidently there was a period in the 80’s when the US ran out of pilots and companies could get workers permits to hire pilots from all over the world. Fortunately for me, my airline ended up with quite a few pilots from Europe and a lot for US pilots from the Vietnam era. It’s been along time since I’ve flow, so I had to pull my logbooks out and check, my memory isn’t as good as it once was. Anyway, your interview struck a chord. Many of the pilots I flew with early on had flown the F-104. with a quick glance in my note section, 5 pilots had flown the F-104. All, except those from Germany had flown it early in their careers as it was being phased out. Every aircraft is a mix of compromises that engineers had to make in order to try and achieve budget, performance and mission specifications requested by the customer. The F-104 met all of what the US Air Force asked for when its “thinkers” put together the competition for this new fighter. Like so many other military designs of that era…… what was believed to be the future of military combat turned out to be different than planned. This is particularly true with the interceptor designs that focused on climb rate, raw speed and no need for dogfighting capabilities. The F-4 wasn’t that far behind and much of its development was influenced by the same thinking that went into the F-104, F-102 / 106 and F-105 etc. The phantom turned out to be highly maneuverable once pilots were trained to use its strengths. But initially, it was a Naval interceptor. I’ve never heard anyone who flew it say: I disliked or hated the F-104. All enjoyed their time in this platform. You had descriptions like Ferrari and other muscle cars…….If you have ever driven an older Ferrari …. It was fun and memorable….. it got you a lot of attention… but it kind of wore you out if you drove it very long at high speed. Considering that this aircraft was designed and in squadrons only 13 years after WW2…. Or only 55 years after the first power flight….. Well…. I certainly wouldn’t pass up a chance to fly it. There is a company in Florida still operating F-104’s. Here is a link to their web site. flyastarfighter.com/

I like Franks watch. Look like a Sinn 103

The reason for the accidents involving the F-104, was that it was being used in ways it was not designed for. It was a high speed interceptor..other countries that flew the F- 104, were impressed with the aircraft

I had an uncle who served in the RCAF and was stationed in Germany in the 60s as a jet engine mechanic. He did not have many compliments for the F104. He refured to it as "the widow maker"

Awesome aircraft .. I remember attending airshows in the 70s and they were everywhere... Grew up in the fens close to a lot of the major airbases in the UK Remember a flight of German F104s buzzing our garden low and very fast .. Could hit 600 knots low down you know ... Nothing could catch them at low level .. Very stable too ...despite what people say about being unsuited at ground attack .. German attrition rates were down to jumping straight from subsonic planes like the F-86 straight into the hottest ship in the sky ...

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stunning content Aircrew Interview. I broke the thumbs up on your video. Maintain up the very good work.

Now one can see why the great WW2 ace Erich Hartmann disapproved of the F-104...

Amazing

👍 Thank You 😊

I have a close friend who flew the 104 and he had some very interesting and frightening experiences flying this airplane.

He speaks very good English and I assume German and other languages. I find memorizing languages very difficult.

It went over 100,000 ft. No other aircraft other than the Blackbird, could get up there..

Thank you for your memories of this very sexy bird.

German Joke: How do you get your own F-104? Buy a small patch of ground and simply wait. The amazing thing about this bloke is that he survived the F-104 - great video.

Lucky man. The 104 might not have been a dog-fighter, but in its time, it was the ultimate bad-ass airplane. I always wondered if I could hack landing one of those. Those 180+ knot approaches must have been eye-watering.

Still holds the low altitude speed record.

Hallo Frank, hatte Du auch zu den Marinefliegern Kontakt?

November 1995: Check Up for Military Service: My Eyes are Ok. March 1996: Check Up Drivers License: My Eyes are OK. July 1997: Basic Training, Check Up: You need glasses! End of July 1997: Eye Doctor, Army-Hospital at Giessen. 1st Checkup in the Morning, a young medi:. You´re eyes are very bad. You really got the drivers license? 2nd Check Up after lunch, Rank: Colonel: "Where´s the idiot who made this check up this morning?"

Wo ist Heinevetter?

And Pt. 2 ?

This is spooky. I just wanted to search for "Aircrew interview F-104". But then I see that that Video is already recommended on my front page. I guess AI will take over the world soon :)

Eric Hartmann - Ace of Aces - was sent to America to evaluate the F 104. He was very critical of it and called it an unstable and dangerous aircraft. When Hartmann realized his efforts to not to have the plane inducted in the Luftwaffe were of no avail, he resigned in protest. The many subsequent accidents the plane was involved in, and the many lives lost, proved Hartmann right. It was a sleek aircraft and looked nice. Performancewise it was not very effective. Notice, the F 104 serves no air force now. It's contemporaries, the MiG 21 and the Mirage III and V, are still in squadron service of some air forces. In the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971, IAF Gnats and Hunters were out turning the PAF Starfighters. Not a very successful aircraft.

The Scrap Queen has entered the chat

Holy crap - you found an F-104G survivor?

5:40 she is gorgeous

Sehr geehrter Herr Heinevetter, ich verfolge immer mit großem Interesse ihren Kanal. Heute am 22.05.2021 ist ein Bericht im Donaukurier über den letzten Flug der F 104 in Manching erschienen. Wenn Sie Interesse haben kann ich Ihnen den Artickel per E-Mail übersenden. Leider habe ich ihre Mailadresse nicht. Die besten Grüße aus Bayern. Ihr Peter Ilchmann

Not in the same class as the English Electric Lightening .

The Canadians used it as a bomber ,more successfully .