trapperjohn
MB Enthusiast
I know quite a few of you guys love your planes and I had not seen this before.
http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/KIyYK9oz9Go&autoplay=1&showinfo=0
http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/KIyYK9oz9Go&autoplay=1&showinfo=0
F111 Lands - Wheels up.
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Nice bit of flying and I suspect the taxpayers were quite pleased that it was a 'damaged repairable' rather than a write off.
Dryce
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I wonder if ejection was rather less favoured option not just because of the inherent risks when perrformed in any aircraft but because the complicated F111 capsule system may be riskier in these circumstances.
davidmi
Active Member
Very neat. Some of the Oxfordshire forum members may remember an F-111 that crashlanded gently near Stoke Lyne back in the 1970s on the approach to RAF Upper Heyford and remained largely intact in like fashion.
Coincidentally, on buying my first copy of the Oxford Times for years the other week they had a looking-back supplement and there was a photograph of myself in what appear to be flared trousers with a group inside a blast shelter at Upper Heyford taking a close look at an F-111. My next-door neighbour of the time was a navigator in the F-111 and after a lot of expensive training he and the USAF were pained to discover he became a bit too readily airsick. When teamed with a new gung-ho pilot, he had to point out that any more rolls were going to mean a very unpleasant trip back from the bombing ranges in Scotland! When he moved to ops at High Wycombe, I would occasionally drop him off at the base just off the M40 and it gave me great pleasure to be saluted both on the way in with him in uniform and also on the way out on my own.
Coincidentally, on buying my first copy of the Oxford Times for years the other week they had a looking-back supplement and there was a photograph of myself in what appear to be flared trousers with a group inside a blast shelter at Upper Heyford taking a close look at an F-111. My next-door neighbour of the time was a navigator in the F-111 and after a lot of expensive training he and the USAF were pained to discover he became a bit too readily airsick. When teamed with a new gung-ho pilot, he had to point out that any more rolls were going to mean a very unpleasant trip back from the bombing ranges in Scotland! When he moved to ops at High Wycombe, I would occasionally drop him off at the base just off the M40 and it gave me great pleasure to be saluted both on the way in with him in uniform and also on the way out on my own.
Firthy
Active Member
That was in Australia, most of the Youtube clip was from a series doco on the RAAF shown on ABC TV Australia a few years ago. I am struggling to remember the shows name but it was a great insight.
Nice video but when I first saw it my thoughts were ...
1. Why the arrested landing, rather than a much gentler touchdown without the hook?
2. Why on earth did they belly-land with 3000 litres (well over 2 tonnes) of fuel still on board? The fuel dump facility is demonstrated earlier in the video ...
1. Why the arrested landing, rather than a much gentler touchdown without the hook?
2. Why on earth did they belly-land with 3000 litres (well over 2 tonnes) of fuel still on board? The fuel dump facility is demonstrated earlier in the video ...
Dryce
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I wondered if it was to give the pilot some feedback on height and also stabilise the aircraft with some drag at the rear.
Could be to allow a go-around - or possibly CoG management?
Think you're right re. the stabilising effect of the cable.
Not convinced about the large amount of fuel though! That looks to be about 15% of an F111's internal fuel load.
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