Sea Fury Crash - RNAS Culdrose

[SeeFive]

After the stbd leg collapsed and he was sliding down the runway, I was wondering if he deliberately dropped the gear to enable the ac to run flat on its belly rather than risk a stbd wing tip dig in? If so, really quick thinking. Either way, good job sir!

[Eric Mc]

Standard procedure if you have a "one wheel up, one wheel down" situation in a Sea Fury is to take to the 'chute (as happened with the original RNHF Sea Fury).

[IanMorewood]

He wasn't high enough to bail out and obviously with an engine problem couldn't climb, so its land as best you can.

[CrutyRammers]

Bloody good job, that man.

[pete]

Incredible landing in the Youtube clip - it's always an eye opener to think that however much the pilot prepared for an emergency landing in his approach, he had no way to know exactly what would happen when he dropped the gear, and seconds to react. Amazing.

[anonymous-user]

SeeFive said:

After the stbd leg collapsed and he was sliding down the runway, I was wondering if he deliberately dropped the gear to enable the ac to run flat on its belly rather than risk a stbd wing tip dig in? If so, really quick thinking. Either way, good job sir!

Judging by how much both legs wobble (in and out) on touchdown, i think it's safe to say neither "lock" was in, which was probably a good think. Still lovely bit of seat of the pants flying and by the looks of it, hopefully a repairable airframe ;-)

[ecsrobin]

Max_Torque said:

Judging by how much both legs wobble (in and out) on touchdown, i think it's safe to say neither "lock" was in, which was probably a good think. Still lovely bit of seat of the pants flying and by the looks of it, hopefully a repairable airframe ;-)

I would think that no engine = no hydraulics.

[jamieduff1981]

Max_Torque said:

SeeFive said:

After the stbd leg collapsed and he was sliding down the runway, I was wondering if he deliberately dropped the gear to enable the ac to run flat on its belly rather than risk a stbd wing tip dig in? If so, really quick thinking. Either way, good job sir!

Judging by how much both legs wobble (in and out) on touchdown, i think it's safe to say neither "lock" was in, which was probably a good think. Still lovely bit of seat of the pants flying and by the looks of it, hopefully a repairable airframe ;-)

The airframe is probably quite badly damaged. Skins and (hopefully not) a couple of fuselage frames underneath, flaps forced up, inner doors ripped off (probably causing collateral damage to the underside). Hopefully the undercarriage just folded up and not up and back.

Then there's the Bristol Centaurus which will be seriously damaged if it's repairable at all. I'm think I'm going to chuck them some money from my company account because I absolutely loved the display this pilot and aircraft combination put on up and down the country, but I fear it'll be a long time before it's flying again.

[Butter Face]

My wife left about 4 minutes before this happened.

Very impressive landing, I bet he was stting himself

[sanguinary]

Butter Face said:

Very impressive landing, I bet he was stting himself

Really?

Probably not. He wouldn't have had time to be emotional, as he would have been concentrating on getting the plane down in one piece, so he could get out in one piece.

[LimaDelta]

Come on guys, put your hands in your pockets. Text "FNHT14 £5" to 70070

[jamieduff1981]

LimaDelta said:

Come on guys, put your hands in your pockets. Text "FNHT14 £5" to 70070

Good man.

[dr_gn]

Very similar situation here 49 mins in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAUc_A3ibxw

So from what that pilot was saying, the pilot on Thursday (Chris Gotke?) made a brave decision to try and land it. ETA assuming the decision wasnt made for him by the engine problem!

Edited by dr_gn on Friday 1st August 20:03

[Butter Face]

sanguinary said:

Butter Face said:

Very impressive landing, I bet he was stting himself

Really?

Probably not. He wouldn't have had time to be emotional, as he would have been concentrating on getting the plane down in one piece, so he could get out in one piece.

You don't think there would have been a tiny bit of 'oh holyfkingstballsi'mgonnadie' in there at all? Not even a tiny bit?

[aeropilot]

Damn fine airmanship there, especially given the low level he was at when the donk let go, and the problems associataed with trying to land cattled Sea Fury's.

[Simpo Two]

Butter Face said:

sanguinary said:

Butter Face said:

Very impressive landing, I bet he was stting himself

Really?

Probably not. He wouldn't have had time to be emotional, as he would have been concentrating on getting the plane down in one piece, so he could get out in one piece.

You don't think there would have been a tiny bit of 'oh holyfkingstballsi'mgonnadie' in there at all? Not even a tiny bit?

I imagine such an incident focuses the mind wonderfully. If you start thinking like that you probably will fk it up and die.

Note that these incidents, whilst seen as 'OMG horror' in our fluffy Facebook think-of-the-children times, happened every day in wartime. The pilots shook themselves off and got back in a new one.

[aeropilot]

Simpo Two said:

Butter Face said:

sanguinary said:

Butter Face said:

Very impressive landing, I bet he was stting himself

Really?

Probably not. He wouldn't have had time to be emotional, as he would have been concentrating on getting the plane down in one piece, so he could get out in one piece.

You don't think there would have been a tiny bit of 'oh holyfkingstballsi'mgonnadie' in there at all? Not even a tiny bit?

I imagine such an incident focuses the mind wonderfully.

He's an ex-Boscombe Down TP, so such calmness and lighting thought process in such a situation goes with the territory so to speak.

Still an awesome bit of flying though.

[ecsrobin]

I'm sure it's a natural reaction to all of us. Say you do your annual fire training as required by your employer, you sit there bored and moaning you'd prefer to be doing your job, yet when a fire happens your instinct goes to what has been drummed into you over the years.

Only after the incident has passed do you have time to reflect and that's when you have a brown trouser moment.

[fatboy b]

Butter Face said:

sanguinary said:

Butter Face said:

Very impressive landing, I bet he was stting himself

Really?

Probably not. He wouldn't have had time to be emotional, as he would have been concentrating on getting the plane down in one piece, so he could get out in one piece.

You don't think there would have been a tiny bit of 'oh holyfkingstballsi'mgonnadie' in there at all? Not even a tiny bit?

Funnily enough, probably not. I had an engine out in a single-engined Piper years ago at about 2000' agl. Looking back, there's just one job in hand, and as has been said, self-preservation kicks in. Once down safely and reflection kicks in, then that's another thing.

[Hooli]

doogz said:

MartG said:

Now on Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_sf9OK8P6k

Excellent work.

Damn excellent work putting that down, I've seen rougher landings from airliners!