Incredible stories of airmanship.....

[TVR1]

So, quite often we only hear the worst of air crashes etc but sometimes you read or here of some quite astonishing airmanship. Here are a couple of more obscure ones for you and a couple of better known ones. The last one in particular eharding may have come across (see, I do take note of our members!) What stories have you found on 'tinterweb?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardo's_Push

http://www.history.navy.mil/nan/backissues/2000s/2...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloha_Airlines_Flight...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Airlines_Flight...

http://www.aerobatics.org.uk/repeats/zlin_wing_fai...

[anonymous-user]

I'm not sure the China Airlines 006 is a good example of airmanship.

The pilot(s) actually caused the problem entirely by not following any of the correct procedures after a simple single engine failure on a four engine aircraft.

[TVR1]

el stovey said:

I'm not sure the China Airlines 006 is a good example of airmanship.

The pilot(s) actually caused the problem entirely by not following any of the correct procedures after a simple single engine failure on a four engine aircraft.

Perhaps but I was trying to keep to not too many fatals. As well as more obscure, rather than offering up the usual incidents. Any offerings most welcome.

Edited by TVR1 on Friday 10th June 13:31

[XB70]

Testimony to the 747 airframe to be able to handle that.

[ndtman]

United Airlines Flight 232 that crash landed at Sioux City in 1989 must rate as being superb airmanship.
To be placed in that situation through no fault of your own and still nurse the ac to crash land and enable 2/3rds of the passengers to survive. Fantastic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Fligh...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W45wMs6jSUg

[Grant76]

I was once told a story of a GA pilot who recovered from a deep stall....

Now that would of been incredible!

Can't confirm it though.

[FourWheelDrift]

The Gimli Glider - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider

And - http://www.pprune.org/private-flying/253340-gimli-...

Both engines out, then diverting and gliding into a disused airbase (now a drag strip) and having to reduce speed on approach by using sideslip, in a 767 !

Video reconstruction from Seconds from Disaster - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaHtgpJv9e8

[55allgold]

I'm always amazed by the Israeli pilot who managed to keep his F15 flying and landed it with one wing. Of course, he always said that if he'd known, he'd have ejected, so maybe he should be excluded from this thread.

[mattdaniels]

Grant76 said:

I was once told a story of a GA pilot who recovered from a deep stall....

Now that would of been incredible!

Can't confirm it though.

If he had have been a military pilot he would have recovered it so much better. I want to fly with him I do.

[TVR1]

ndtman said:

United Airlines Flight 232 that crash landed at Sioux City in 1989 must rate as being superb airmanship.
To be placed in that situation through no fault of your own and still nurse the ac to crash land and enable 2/3rds of the passengers to survive. Fantastic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Fligh...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W45wMs6jSUg

Agreed. Superb. If you can still get hold of the video, Air Crash, it has a superb interview with AlHaynes, the pilot...ex military chap dontcha know.

Sioux City Approach: United two thirty-two heavy, the wind's
currently at three six zero at one one three
sixty at eleven. You're cleared to land on
any runway...
Captain Haynes: [Laughter] Roger. [Laughter] You want to be
particular and make it a runway, huh?

Always worth reading the full transcript...

http://aviation-safety.net/investigation/cvr/trans...

Edited by TVR1 on Friday 10th June 21:02

[davepoth]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Logan_Airport_ru...

That could have been very, very bad if they'd not done the completely counterintuitive action of staying on the ground.

[TVR1]

http://researchmaniacs.com/Forwarded/B-17-Incredib...

[eharding]

TVR1 said:

The last one in particular eharding may have come across (see, I do take note of our members!) What stories have you found on 'tinterweb?

The Neil Williams Trophy - the trophy itself is a Zlin scraping a wingtip along the ground - is awarded to the UK Unlimited Aerobatic champion, and hence the one ultimately everyone would like to have their name engraved on.

No chance of that for me, but I did manage to have my name engraved on one that Williams won 43 years before me. The moral of the story is that it's always better to have your name in small lettering at the bottom of an aerobatic trophy, rather than in big letters at the top - because they generally only put your name at the top in big letters when you're dead.

Had Williams been wearing a parachute, he wouldn't have had to exercise the phenomenal skill - and a modicum of luck - that he clearly possessed. The debate about wearing parachutes for competition aeros has rattled on through the subsequent decades - very few did back then, most do nowadays, but not everybody.

If you can get hold of a copy of 'Airborne', some of Neil Williams' collected magazine articles, I highly recommend it. Cracking stuff. They were, certainly, a different breed back then.

Sadly, he met an untimely end ferrying an old German bomber back from Spain - but, as someone who has his name on the Unlimited trophy - four times - pointed out to me last week, if you're going to follow a road out of Spain in crappy weather, make bloody sure you're following the right road, and not the one that heads straight into the mountains.

Edited by eharding on Friday 10th June 23:11

[davepoth]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_6

[paulrussell]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Baghdad_DHL_atte...

[lawrence567]

My best friends dad was the captain of this BA plane - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Fligh...
He regailed us with the story once, sounded incredible.
Sadly he passed away about 3 years ago.

[El Capitano]

lawrence567 said:

My best friends dad was the captain of this BA plane - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Fligh...
He regailed us with the story once, sounded incredible.
Sadly he passed away about 3 years ago.

One of my colleagues was a crew member on that flight too.... like you say, alot of stories.

[big bloke]

Flight 5390, great piloting by the co-pilot, while the captain was hanging out of the window

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Fligh...

[lawrence567]

El Capitano said:

One of my colleagues was a crew member on that flight too.... like you say, alot of stories.

Small world!
I was out in a bar once drinking & was chatting to a chap in the smoking area, turns out he was a private jet pilot, freelance chauffeur for planes i suppose you could call it.
He told us what happened, me & my friend said we knew the captain of that plane & it turns out he was a bit of a legend (according to this chap) amongst some pilots.

[Clivey]

I couldn't help but be impressed by this when reading-up on the Vought Corsair:

Wikipedia said:

One particularly interesting kill was scored by a Marine Lieutenant R. R. Klingman of VMF-312 Checkerboards, over Okinawa. Klingman was in pursuit of a Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu ("Nick") twin engine fighter at extremely high altitude when his guns jammed due to the gun lubrication thickening from the extreme cold. He simply flew up and chopped off the Ki-45's tail with the big propeller of the Corsair. Despite missing five inches (127 mm) off the end of his propeller blades, he managed to land safely after this ramming attack. He was awarded the Navy Cross.

Vought F4U Corsair - Wikipedia