F-111 Belly Landing

[GH85Carrera]

If you're into special airplanes even a little, here is a video I'm sure you'll enjoy. These Aussie guys do a remarkable job getting their aircraft back on the ground with a minimal amount of damage. It could have very easily gone the other way. Also, notice early in the video there is a sequence showing a F-111 dumping fuel with the afterburners on lighting up the night sky. Something a little unique to the F-111.

The airplane was originally designed to land on a carrier deck so the gear structure is very strong. Even landing on a long runway you just maintain 10 degrees angle of attack until the runway stops your descent.

Because this is the way the airplane was designed to be landed it felt just fine inside the airplane, but for an observer outside the aircraft it looked like you forgot to flare and really clobbered the landing. I don't know if metal fatigue was a factor in this accident but they are fortunate the wheel fell off upon liftoff and not while accelerating down the runway in full afterburner.

Using the tail hook to catch the arresting cable was a great idea, as you will see.. Arresting wires on runways are not like the ones on the flight deck of a carrier. They provide less resistance and let you decelerate over about a 900 ft. range, something you wouldn't have room to do on a carrier.

Pretty neat landing and luckily no fire.

Check out the 7:05min. video below:



It did not want to embed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KIyYK9oz9Go

[pwd72s]

A buddy since chilhood was an F-111 pilot...Thank for the video, I'm passing the link on to him.

The USAF retired the F-111. Are the Brits still flying it?

Anyway, Jimbo flys this these days..

[Hawkeye's-911T]

The RAAF was the last air force to use the General Dynamics F-111 "Aardvark". They retired their's in 2010

Cheers
JB

[kach22i]

Nice video.

[flatbutt]

Very "Sully" like control.

[motion]

The grass sure looks a lot softer!

[onewhippedpuppy]

Very impressive.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by motion

The grass sure looks a lot softer!

But the grass did not have a cable for the tail hook.

[TheMentat]

wow... I wonder if the airframe had to be scrapped?

[Joe Bob]

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by motion

The grass sure looks a lot softer!

True but the uneven surface would possibly cause the plane to catch an edge and flip. Better to have a hard smooth surface to slide on.

[Schumi]

I read the title as F-117 Belly Landing and just freaked out.

Still impressive though.

[J1NX3D]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Also, notice early in the video there is a sequence showing a F-111 dumping fuel with the afterburners on lighting up the night sky. Something a little unique to the F-111.

The RAAF F111 dump and burns used to be a feature highlight of our airshows.

F-111 Dump and Burn - YouTube

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by TheMentat

wow... I wonder if the airframe had to be scrapped?

probably did not matter if the decision to retire them had already been made at the time..

[BXR12NT]

The aircraft was repaired and returned to service for 3 or so years. The wheel that departed travelled across the airfield to the buildings visible in the video where upon it struck and wrote off the CO's car.

[GH85Carrera]

I bet someone in the maintenance dept got fired for loosing a wheel.

[svandamme]

Probably used the wrong nuts with new , wrong offset wheel, like that dude who lost all 4 wheels of his RX7 at an autoX

[BXR12NT]

No, the stub axle failed due to a fatigue crack. The wheel took most of the axle plus the brake unit with it.

[svandamme]

I was just kidding bout the nuts , but did you used to work these planes?

[BXR12NT]

No, didn't work on them. I was a Flight Engineer on C-130's and AP3C Orions . The Australian Airforce is pretty small 13000 people or so. This incident was very thoroughly discussed in crew rooms across the country. Partly because the pilot involved was very junior but handled the emergency like an old hand and partly because, in an Airforce the size of ours you can guarantee , at least one of your squadron mates knew the pilot .