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hd2000fxdl

Dead Stick Landing

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He could've bailed out, just sayin. He saved the government the plane but was it worth him risking his life?

 

Ray, why do that??? he had the glide to an airfield in range, probably could have made it a little further if he needed and the Aircraft is going to land someplace, now what if he bails and the aircraft take out a house, a school, a large housing complex, or some event that it takes out a lot of people. Now if he didn't have flight controls and no hope of landing it then pull the handle, but that wasn't the case.

 

But hey, thats just my thoughts and after all all my flying is unpowered.

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Damn he was panting on the way in, can't say I blame him.

 

That's actually normal breathing... the F-16 has a semi-positive pressure o2 system, every time he inhales the regulator kicks in and makes the Whoosh noise,,makes him SOUND panty although he wasnt actually doing so..

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The Pilot sounded calmer than almost everybody else. Nice job!

 

As he should be, while having an in flight emergency can be stressful, panicking will not help you make critical decisions. Same should go for the controllers. Also other people on the radio should remain calm, a pilot in that type of situation doesn't need people making it sound worse than it is or taking them out of their game so to speak.

 

Everyone has all the time in the world to panic, clean up, or what ever they need to do after it's all over...

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He could've bailed out, just sayin. He saved the government the plane but was it worth him risking his life?

 

What do you mean?

 

Was it worth using his skill and training to land the aircraft safely saving his life, a multi-million dollar weapon system, instead of bailing out and leaving the aircraft to crash somewhere in a move that would destroy the jet and possibly kill people on the ground, as well as subject himself to a dangerous bailout?

 

No, he did what he should have done, and displayed skill, training, and airmanship any aviator would be glad to have.

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"Dead stick" isn't too accurate, F-16s have a back-up energy source that will give them hydraulic power for around 10 minutes. After he lands they even say its a running EPU with hydrazine, really nasty stuff but works great. He suffered what we call a bird strike, a large bird shelled out the engine. As for bailing out rather than trying to safe the jet, it is not a simple solution over a populated area, and the pilot obviously believed he could make it back to a runway so that is what he tried to do. Good job on the pilots part, the jet will just need a new engine and a few hundred hours of inspections and it will be ready to fly another day.

 

 

I'm an F-16 Crew Chief if anyone cares.

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Pilots are type A in general, fighter pilots and egos (if we are to believe Top Gun) go hand in hand.

 

He had that aircraft in total control the entire time. I would say that ejecting in that situation would be akin to missing all the hooks on a Carrier landing...

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Here's the F-16 dead stick into Elizabeth City, NC: A fairly short RWY for jets, (about 6000 ft long), but qualifies for an "Emergency landing field" in the grand scheme of US aviation.

 

You'll probably have to watch the video several times to appreciate how intense the situation and how busy the pilot was all the way to stopping on the runway. Very apparently, the pilot was one-of-four F-16s in a flight returning to their base, (most probably from the Navy Dare bombing range south of Manteo), and the F-16 in question had already reported a "Ruff-Running Engine" to his flight leader before the start of the video.

 

A few comments not readily apparent are: - The whole episode, from start-to-finish only takes about 3 1/2 minutes! - The video begins as the flight is being followed on radar. The flight leader asks for the Elizabeth City tower UHF freq which is repeated as 355.6 and the entire flight switches to that freq: Just one-more-task for the pilot to execute in the cockpit as he reports that his engine has QUIT. He has to activate the Emergency Unit to maintain electric and hydraulic power. This unit is powered by Hydrazine: (the caustic fuel that Germany created in WW II to power their V-2 Rockets and their ME-163 rocket fighters among others.) Thus, the last call about requesting fire support after the jet is safe on deck, and pilot breathing easy. - Meanwhile, back in the cockpit, the pilot is busily attempting to "Re-light" his engine: (Unsuccessfully, of course) while tending to everything else.

 

- The video is taken using the Head-Up-Display (HUD) camera which also has a voice recorder.

 

- The HUD is a very busy instrument, but among things to notice are the 'circle' in the middle which represents the nose of the aircraft and where it is 'pointed': "The velocity Vector". - The flight leader reports they are 7-miles out from the airport and at 9000 ft altitude. Since the weather is clear and the airport is in sight, this allows for adequate "Gliding distance" to reach a runway with the engine OFF. Rest assured, jet fighters glide sorta like a rock. They don't enjoy the higher lift design of an airliner like that which allowed Sullenburger to land in the NY river.

 

- Coming down 9000 ft in only 7-miles requires a helluva rate of descent, so the pilot's nose remains well below the "Horizon" until just prior to touching down on the runway. The HUD horizon is a solid, lateral bar, and below the horizon, the horizontal lines appear as dashes. You'll see a "10" on the second dashed line below the horizon which = 10-degrees nose low. - Radio chatter includes the flight leader calling the tower and the tower stating runway 10 with wind 070@5MPH + altimeter setting of 30.13: yet another step for the pilot to consider. - The flight leader calls for the pilot to jettison his external fuel tanks and askes another pilot in the flight to "Mark" where they dropped.. The tower later tells the pilot to land on any rwy he chooses. - Pilot reports "Three in the green" indicating all three gear indicate down and locked which the flight leader acknowledges. - You will hear the computer voice of "Bitchin'-Betty" calling out "Warnings". More confusing chatter when none is welcome or even necessary. (That's "Hi-Tech" for ya.) - The pilot has only ONE CHANCE to get this right and must also slow to an acceptable landing speed in order to stop on the short runway. You'll see Black rubber on the rwy where "The rubber meets the road" in the touchdown area. Note that during rollout, he gets all the way to the far end which you can see by all the black skid marks where planes have landed heading in the opposite direction.

 

OK: That's more than ya probably wanted to know, but you have to appreciate the fine job this guy did in calmly managing this emergency situation. He is a "USAF Reserve" pilot and those guys generally have plenty of experience. That really pays off.

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Pilots are type A in general, fighter pilots and egos (if we are to believe Top Gun) go hand in hand.

 

He had that aircraft in total control the entire time. I would say that ejecting in that situation would be akin to missing all the hooks on a Carrier landing...

 

2 things, first not all are Egos heads, I have a Friend of the family thats a retired Marine Lt Col who was rather well known for his abilities and has his A/C on display down at one of the bases down in PNS. He nothing like what the movies portrayed a lot of fighter pilots to be, probably as close to the exact opposite.

 

Have another guy I worked with up till the 1st of the year when he retired also, and he has a little bit under his belt also and flew quite a bit even did his time as a Blue Angel, and again, nothing like what the movies show. Now I am not sating they aren't A type people, but lets just say quite and reserved A's and ones never had to prove anything to anyone and rode on their abilities and accomplishments, they earned it and treated everyone the same and nobody was better than anyone else and that earned them even more respect..

 

 

Now the second part would need to be confirmed with actual pilots who have done carrier landings and support personnel, but I have a feeling that would be a ditching situation. #1 target speed uncontrollable, #2 no ability to land with full power, #3 ditching would be done in a location that wouldn't have the ability to injure other people. would only be the loss of the A/C and 99% chance of retrieving the PIC..

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"Dead stick" isn't too accurate, F-16s have a back-up energy source that will give them hydraulic power for around 10 minutes. After he lands they even say its a running EPU with hydrazine, really nasty stuff but works great. He suffered what we call a bird strike, a large bird shelled out the engine. As for bailing out rather than trying to safe the jet, it is not a simple solution over a populated area, and the pilot obviously believed he could make it back to a runway so that is what he tried to do. Good job on the pilots part, the jet will just need a new engine and a few hundred hours of inspections and it will be ready to fly another day.

 

 

I'm an F-16 Crew Chief if anyone cares.

 

I was gonna say, there is no way that thing was flying with out power. I have a scale f-16 that i fly and that thing drops like a brick the second you kill the the throttle, while some of my other planes will generally glide.

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Nick, thats all the info, and yes he did a great job and myself like many other people I know that fly read a lot of different crash reports. These are people from sport flyer's, competition pilots to commercial and all other forms of aviation. Not that we are morbid or anything like that, but there are things to learn from each accident. While almost all accidents are pilot error and if as a person who fly's can learn what not to do, you will be that much better off. Some are not always fun to read but life saving..

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I was gonna say, there is no way that thing was flying with out power. I have a scale f-16 that i fly and that thing drops like a brick the second you kill the the throttle, while some of my other planes will generally glide.

 

It doesn't give it any thrust, it only allows the pilot to use some of the hydraulic systems mainly the flight controls. If it truly was a "dead stick" the aircraft would be uncontrollable, it would more than likely just nose down and start spinning, With the EPU running it allows the pilot to level it off and steer.

 

hd2000fxdl, what you say is generally correct minus one thing, you said it was the pilots aircraft, that is incorrect, it is the crew chiefs, the pilot should feel blessed he is allowed to fly it. :D

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You guys are good friends then, huh..

 

No didn't even know the pilot, most pilots are pretty cool with crew chiefs, their lives are in our hands, and we have to work together constantly so we typically have a good rapport. I've only come across a couple pilots that are total assholes and think they shit gold.

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As an Air Force aviator, I'll say a few things in reference to some of the stuff above.

 

1. No, of course not all pilots have huge egos. But the general statement of fighter pilots specifically, having egos, I'd say is pretty accurate. That isn't intended as an insult or meant to be negative. It is simply an observation.

 

2. There is a certain relationship between pilots, aircrew members, crew chiefs, and other maintainers that I have found most people don't realize. Wrecksters comments seem right in line with that. If we aren't giving the maintainers a hard time, and they aren't giving us a hard time and joking around, that is when something is wrong.

 

3. Being in the aviation community, and having been privy to various incident reports, and lengthy safety review board briefs about things of this nature, the way this was handled can not be overstated. That pilot did an amazing job and that isn't an easy feat. I mean, there have been situations where things were significantly less critical, that very minor mistakes lead to crashes and deaths. I don't know if some people realize, that even very minor mistakes, or not taking the correct action immediately, has and will continue to lead to fatal crashes. This could have easily been one. The fact it wasn't is telling of the pilots airmanship.

 

4. Damn was Betty annoying! I'm pretty sure he knew after the first dozen times there was a problem! :)

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1. No, of course not all pilots have huge egos. But the general statement of fighter pilots specifically, having egos, I'd say is pretty accurate. That isn't intended as an insult or meant to be negative. It is simply an observation.

 

In certain professions (pilot being one of them) you have to believe you're the best to be the best. The key is to ride that edge of confident but not cocky.

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Damn i wish we had the pilots yall talk about. Ours were cocky POS's and gave us hell for the fun of it. I would never fly in a military aircraft voluntarily. Pilots didnt seem too smart to me, piss of the people that work on your bird...if i only had a nickel every time i heard "fugg it!!"

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