A Good Landing

Any landing you can walk away from......

~~ Smoke Show.... Runway Excursion... Tail Slide... The right Stuff.

notice how he quickly dropped the tail more than normal to take some weight off the wheels. they dont teach that kind of stuff in high school.

flying is a zen like experience; a good pilot views and behaves as if the craft is an extension of his or her body, thus fully in tune with whats going on.

tremendous post.

...bet there were a couple of soiled seat cushions after that

;-)

Glad everyone came out alright. Interesting discussion over on the site.

There are old pilots and bold pilots but there are no old bold pilots.

Syncro

A little more training is called for here, ya think.

whups! I guess maybe I shoulda read the story before passing judgement on the pilot. Appears the guy did a great job bringing this one to a happy conclusion. Awesome pics!

There's two lives and (secondarily) about fifty million bucks of aircraft saved. Damn fine piece of impromptu disaster-prevention on the pilot's part!

What happens next:

1. An investigation to determine the cause of the accident. If it's determined to be pilot error, the pilot may as well resign his commission at that point. He's never going to get another flying position in the AF, nor will he ever be promoted again. Given all the potential consequences of bad flying, it has to be this way.

2. A lengthy stay in the aircraft body and fender shop. It may not look it to the layman but that's probably a six figure inspection, maintenance and repair job ahead. It won't be just new wheels and tires, which are themselves obscenely expensive, like everything else on a modern jet. The entire undercarriage and flight controls and maybe other sub-systems will be subjected to what normally happens at the major maintenance intervals. Removal from the aircraft, disassembly and x-ray and/or ultrasound inspection for flaws, hairline cracks, signs of metal fatigue.

The Air Force is likely to end up spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to ensure this roughly fifty million dollar fighter/bomber is 100% before returning it to flying operations.

(Not to boast but I'm a USAF vet and I know a little bit about this process. Well, maybe to boast just a little! :-)

CORRECTION: Navy, not Air Force! My apologies to the Swabbies! :-) ... But pretty much the same processes as described above.

...what's that Popular Mechanic's story about a flyable fighter jet back in the 80's that got scrapped but due to bureaucracy, someone was able to rebuild and repair it?

Would be nice to do that with the F18, heck even a F14...

I did that in a '78 Delta 88 on Bayview Avenue once.

Musta' been thinking about driving F1......or Rally Cars!

Any one you can walk away from...

Interestingly, the horizontal stabs on an F-18 are carbon-fiber...literally re-enforced 'cloth'. These components, as illustrated, are incredibly strong. As well, the hydraulic actuator rams & bellcrank assemblies that move the stabs look more consistant with those out of a Caterpillar bulldozer. This is a great airplane...hope the CF replace the current batch of A's with these improved 'Rhinos'.

thing, we already know