hmmmmm.......interesting....MikeD....you heard of this one?

[flightmedic]

I have an acquaintence who works within the industry and he sent me this interesting email. I'm not sure about the text as some of it doesn't really flow together or make sense at times. Maybe this is just translated....not sure. MikeD. Have you heard of this one before? If it is legit, that is some good flying skills. The part that I am a little confused about is when he says" I reconnected the electric control to the control surfaces, and slowly gained control of the aircraft until I was straight and level again. " Maybe some of your military fly boys could explain this. I seem to be lost.



> Thu, 9 Aug 2001 09:01:17 EDT
>
> A simulated dogfight training took place between two F-15D's and four
> A-4N
> Skyhawks over the skies of the Negev, Israel...
>
> "At some point I collided with one of the Skyhawks, at first I didn't
> realize it. I felt a big strike, and I thought we passed through the jet
> stream of one of the other aircraft. Before I could react, I saw the big
> fire ball created by the explosion of the Skyhawk.
>
> The radio started to deliver calls saying that the Skyhawk pilot has
> ejected, and I understood that the fireball was the Skyhawk that
> exploded,
> and the pilot was ejected automatically.
>
> There was a tremendous fuel stream going out of my wing, and I understood
> it
> was badly damaged. The aircraft flew without control in a strange spiral.
> I reconnected the electric control to the control surfaces, and slowly
> gained control of the aircraft until I was straight and level again. It
> was clear to me that I had to eject. When I gained control I said : "Hey,
> wait, don't eject yet!" No warning light was on and the navigation
> computer
> worked as usual;
> (I just needed a warning light in my panel to indicate that I missed a
> wing...)." My instructor pilot ordered me to eject.
>
> The wing is a fuel tank, and the fuel indicator showed 0.000 so I assumed
> that the jet stream sucked all the fuel out of the other tanks. However,
> I
> remembered that the valves operate only in one direction, so that I might
> have enough fuel to get to the nearest airfield and land. I worked like
> a
> machine, wasn't scared and didn't worry. All I knew was as long as the
> sucker flies, I'm gonna stay inside. I started to decrease the airspeed,
> but at that point one wing was not enough. So I went into a spin down and
> to the right. A second before I decided to eject, I pushed the throttle
> and
> lit the afterburner. I gained speed and thus got control of the aircraft
> again.
>
> Next thing I did was lower the arresting hook. A few seconds later I
> touched the runway at 260 knots, about twice the recommended speed, and
> called the tower to erect the emergency recovery net. The hook was torn
> away from the fuselage because of the high speed, but I managed to stop
> 10
> meters before the net. I turned back to shake the hand of my instructor,
> who had urged me to eject, and then I saw it for the first time - no
> wing!"





Cheers
Brent

[Maximillian_Jenius]

Hmmmmm....I'm gonna say no!!!

-Matthew

[FlyingNole]

Well you'd be wrong Matt.....It is real

It happened. The F-15 is a rocket, and the pilot was able to come in fast enough to keep the plane relatively level. I even believe the Israeli's released the HUD video tapes to the public.

[Ryan110175]

Yea, it's for real. I saw the story on a show on the History Channel about the F15. It showed pictures of the plane with only one wing. Several people interviewed on the show did not believe it was possible untill they saw the F15. It was stated, like FlyingNole said, that the F15 had a greater than 1 thrust to weight ratio and therefore could fly like a rocket to the runway. Pretty amazing.

[FlyingNole]

Oh ya I forgot to mention. If you have seen the show on the History Channel, you'd see that the exterior shots of the F-15 (in flight/video) are "fake." The one where you see the rear when it's about to touch down is a real F-15, but they just edited our the right wing. They just did it for effect. However, the b&w photo and a couple others (you can see where the picture quality is different) are real.

[Maximillian_Jenius]

[ QUOTE ]
Well you'd be wrong Matt.....It is real

It happened. The F-15 is a rocket, and the pilot was able to come in fast enough to keep the plane relatively level. I even believe the Israeli's released the HUD video tapes to the public.

[/ QUOTE ]

Your just saying that cause your jewish....



Hey I'm not perfect I have been wrong only once before in my life. Guess twice isn't bad either!

-Matthew

[MikeD]

Yup, real. Great job, though in all honesty I don't know if I'd have bothered RTBing with the jet. If it's the jet or your life, I take my life. Dump the jet and return it to the taxpayers. Especially in Israel training areas, where there's a lot of open area without population, so the risk of people getting killed on the ground is low. That's the only holdback to ejecting, making sure where your plane will impact. Beyond that, the huge risk with staying with a sick aircraft isn't worth the reward.

Anyone remember the details of the USAF 4450th Test Group A-7D crash at Indianapolis, Indiana in 1987?

I'll have to do one of my reports on that one.

[Mike Lewis]

[ QUOTE ]
Yup, real. Great job, though in all honesty I don't know if I'd have bothered RTBing with the jet. If it's the jet or your life, I take my life. Dump the jet and return it to the taxpayers. Especially in Israel training areas, where there's a lot of open area without population, so the risk of people getting killed on the ground is low. That's the only holdback to ejecting, making sure where your plane will impact. Beyond that, the huge risk with staying with a sick aircraft isn't worth the reward.

Anyone remember the details of the USAF 4450th Test Group A-7D crash at Indianapolis, Indiana in 1987?

I'll have to do one of my reports on that one.

[/ QUOTE ]

Was it really an A-7D?

[MikeD]

[ QUOTE ]


Was it really an A-7D?

[/ QUOTE ]

Funny thing was, the press was all over this one, but never figured out who or what the 4450th was, even with all the media scrutiny. There was ever a tie-in to who they really were or what they were really doing.

Good OPSEC.

[flightmedic]

I think I'd go with your idea of leaving the bird!!!

One of your reports on that would be interesting. For a relative newbie with 70 hoursTT I find them very interesting and imformative. Really a good learning tool. Thanks for the work and effort.


PS............I may be missing something here as I have never been into the tech stuff............but can you explain to me what the heck he was talking about when reconecting the electrical system......

Cheers
Brent

[BCTAv8r]

Didn't two F/A-18s get hit sometime ago and both landed with pieces of the airplane missing?

[BrettInLJ]

[ QUOTE ]
Yup, real. Great job, though in all honesty I don't know if I'd have bothered RTBing with the jet. If it's the jet or your life, I take my life. Dump the jet and return it to the taxpayers. Especially in Israel training areas, where there's a lot of open area without population, so the risk of people getting killed on the ground is low. That's the only holdback to ejecting, making sure where your plane will impact. Beyond that, the huge risk with staying with a sick aircraft isn't worth the reward.

Anyone remember the details of the USAF 4450th Test Group A-7D crash at Indianapolis, Indiana in 1987?

I'll have to do one of my reports on that one.

[/ QUOTE ]

Plus, the aircraft is probably not repairable anyway. It's probably good for scrap parts and the avionics/weapons systems, but I imagine fixing it would cost too much since the structural integrity is compromised.

[MikeD]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Yup, real. Great job, though in all honesty I don't know if I'd have bothered RTBing with the jet. If it's the jet or your life, I take my life. Dump the jet and return it to the taxpayers. Especially in Israel training areas, where there's a lot of open area without population, so the risk of people getting killed on the ground is low. That's the only holdback to ejecting, making sure where your plane will impact. Beyond that, the huge risk with staying with a sick aircraft isn't worth the reward.

Anyone remember the details of the USAF 4450th Test Group A-7D crash at Indianapolis, Indiana in 1987?

I'll have to do one of my reports on that one.

[/ QUOTE ]

Plus, the aircraft is probably not repairable anyway. It's probably good for scrap parts and the avionics/weapons systems, but I imagine fixing it would cost too much since the structural integrity is compromised.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll cover the accident more in detail, but essentially, the jet ended up in the 2nd floor of the Indianapolis airport Ramada Inn.