One wing F-15

Tom

Another unusual true story.

I was in a F-94C Squadron and we launched a bird with just the pilot
(no RO) in it as a target for radar intercept practice.

During the flight the bird had a mid air with a F-80 over Sacramento
that had just come out of overhaul and was on its test flight. F-80
lost 3-4 feet of wing and tip tank and pilot landed safely.

Radar which was running the training intercepts, called us in Ops and
said that they had lost radio contact with our aircraft and it had
started squawking emergency. They later advised us there had been a
mid air.

We went out on the elevated porch where we could observe the R/W and
listen to the Radar Site radio. They tracked our bird returning to
Hamilton AFB and we finally saw it way out on a straight in approach.
Landed close to end or R/W (thought he was going to be short and in
the Bay) and as it went by us could see the tail flexing up and down
3-4 feet.

Jumped in our line transportation and went out to bird which stopped
on R/W. When we got there we saw the whole afterburner unit was
missing along with the bottom 2/3 of the fuselage from tail to engine
and tail was sagging down 15-20 inches due to weight of tail.. You
could walk under the tail and right up to the turbine wheel which only
had a 3 inch flange behind it where the A/B fastened on. Not much
thrust with no tail pipe or A/B assembly.

Debriefing the Pilot, he said that he had full throttle and full up
elevator and bird sank down to about 1200 feet (from 20K) where he
could hold altitude and where he flew thru a pass in the hills west of
Travis AFB and back to field. On approach he controlled his altitude
with the throttle as he was holding full up elevator (and tail was
flexing down).

We ordered a new tail and A/B and checked bird and it was flying
again if a few weeks.

We always said that by the Grace of God and a few rivets from Lockheed
he survived. One lucky son of a bitch.

Big John


Regarding the mid air. It was day VFR (see and be seen) and Radar was
mission tasked to provide clearance between the Air Defense Birds and
all other traffic so both pilots and Radar had to eat their share of
blame.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~

On Sun, 02 May 2004 17:50:01 GMT, "Thomas J. Paladino Jr."
wrote:


"Pepperoni" wrote in message
...
Photos and story he
http://www.f-16.net/library/stories/midair.html

I love that story! Very inspirational.

It really shows what a good pilot can do even in the most difficult
situations.



"EDR" wrote in message
...
The History Channel had a program on the F-15 last night
(Friday,040430).
Included was an interview with the Israeli pilot and footage of the
aircraft inbound, on approach and landing.
No other word for it, ... just incredible!

Howdy!

In article ,
G.R. Patterson III wrote:


"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

Wow, I'm glad we don't have pilots like that in the U.S. Its not nice
to disobey orders like "eject".

Well, he outranked the instructor, so you can't really say he disobeyed orders.
Superior officers cannot be ordered to do something by an inferior.

....and there may be something to the phrase "Pilot in Command"...

Having read the account/interview, I think the pilot examined his gauges
and indicators, noted no immediate "get out" indications, and was able
to maintain control of the airplane, so long as he kept his speed up.

It sure sounded like reluctance to jump out of a manifestly flyable
airplane.

yours,
Michael


--
Michael and MJ Houghton | Herveus d'Ormonde and Megan O'Donnelly
| White Wolf and the Phoenix
Bowie, MD, USA | Tablet and Inkle bands, and other stuff
| http://www.radix.net/~herveus/

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message ...
"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

Wow, I'm glad we don't have pilots like that in the U.S. Its not nice
to disobey orders like "eject".

Well, he outranked the instructor, so you can't really say he disobeyed orders.
Superior officers cannot be ordered to do something by an inferior.

Try telling that to the LSO when he waves you off.

"William W. Plummer" wrote in message news:iCalc.16536$Ik.1163558@attbi_s53...
From: "Jay Honeck"
Subject: One wing F-15
Date: Sunday, May 02, 2004 6:28 AM

Wow. That plane should not have flown.

It's not obvious. One wing, going fast enough, will generate a certain
amount of lift, maybe enough to hold the plane up. Remember the pilot
beating himself up for crossing the threshold at 250 kts rather than 120 kts
like he was trained. The issue in my mind was how much aileron was
availble to fly the plane, assuming that just about all that was left was
being used to keep the roll axis right.

When they talked about this on TV they said something like 40% of the
lift comes from the body in this aircraft. So at most he lost 30% of
his lift.

Robert

Right !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Big John

On 4 May 2004 09:41:38 -0700, (Robert M. Gary) wrote:

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message ...
"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

Wow, I'm glad we don't have pilots like that in the U.S. Its not nice
to disobey orders like "eject".

Well, he outranked the instructor, so you can't really say he disobeyed orders.
Superior officers cannot be ordered to do something by an inferior.

Try telling that to the LSO when he waves you off.

The issue in my mind was how much aileron was
availble to fly the plane, assuming that just about all that was left was
being used to keep the roll axis right.

I believe the F-15 has elevons... so the two horizontal stabilators
move independently and provide some of the roll.