OUCHOUCHOUCH wheels-up B1 landing

Thanks.


"BT" wrote in message
...
| I have several questions..
| 1. It was a night landing and the lights are or appear
to be on the gear
| legs, are no light landings normal ?
|
| The only landing lights are on the nose gear, no light
landings are not
| normal IN A TRAINING - PEACE TIME ENVIRONMENT. By the time
they might have
| realized the light was not shining on the runway... it may
have been to
| late. It is also possible that they were directed to do
lights out langings
| for operational security. Otherwise the tower might have
mentioned that they
| had no lights. Deigo Garcia is a staging base for
operations into Iraq.
|
| 2. With the gear up and normal power settings,
wouldn't the speed be
| much higher?
|
| Not that much higher.. the gear does not cause much drag..
considering the
| size of the aircraft.
| I'm surprised the gear horn was not blaring.. the
gear/flap/slat horn goes
| off at 240knts. Target approach speed and configuration
will achieve proper
| AOA, then follow the AOA indicators, they are up front
when looking out the
| window and in the field of view, not down on the panel. No
HUD like a
| fighter.
|
| 3 Doesn't the crew both check gear down lights? Has
the USAF stopped
| using tower controllers procedures, "Check gear down,
cleared to land?"
|
| It may not have been an AF tower crew, it could have been
a contract tower.
| A lot of services use that field for staging into IRAQ.
| They still used the standard phrase when I was flying..
even with fixed
| runner helicopters.
| Only the stick shaking pilots can see the gear lights, the
aft station crews
| cannot, but they should have had a verbal from the pilots.
|
| 4. What is the chance they were doing a high speed
low pass and just
| got too low?
|
| If it was a high speed low pass.. they would have slid a
lot farther and the
| flaps/slats would (may) not have been deployed.
| Minimum approach speed for a no flap/no slat is about
210knts. Normal speed
| with flaps and slats is around 150knots, actual approach
speed varies
| depending on landing weight. Normal speed for a low pass
varies from 350knts
| to 550knts. I would doubt they would be doing that after
an 11 hr ferry
| mission.
|
|
|
| Obviously there was a breakdown in CRM after a long
overwater flight from
| Guam, and possibly staged from Dyess the previous day with
a likely hood of
| minimum crew rest on the layover in Guam. An 11hr mission
is not too long
| for us older types used to long missions, but on top of
the flight from
| Dyess it adds up. It does not mention when they left the
States and how long
| their layover was in Guam. My longest B-52 training
mission was about
| 16hours, my longest B-1 training mission, about 10 hrs.
|
| BT
|
|