On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 15:39:06 GMT, George Patterson
wrote:

private wrote:
This link will be of interest to taildragger pilots

Thanks, but I already know how to do that. :-)

Another war story: In Italy I read a story about a B-17 that landed on
a short muddy runway. It had no way to stop as the mud prevented any
braking action whatsoever, the brakes simply locked up and skidded the
tires as if on ice. As the end of the runway approached, the pilot,
in desperation, slammed on full right rudder while advancing the power
to the no. 1 and 2 engines at the same time. The bomber spun around
in it's tracks. As the tail spun the the front, the pilot pulled the
power on the 1 and 2 engines and went to full power on 3 and 4. Then
he pushed 1 and 2 back up to full power as the rotation stopped and
the airplane was aligned with the runway, but now facing in the
opposite direction.

Full power on all four engines for a few seconds produced enough
thrust to bring the slide to a stop, whereupon the pilot chopped power
to all the engines.

The pilot was enormously relieved that he'd avoided a catastrophic
crash off the end of the runway, and gave credit to god for the
amazingly dexterous handling of the four engined bomber. I felt that
the pilot was giving himself short shrift, I think it was his own
training and smarts that saved the bomber, himself and his crew.
After all, god didn't teach him to fly.

Corky Scott