Some folks make little mistakes in their work...
 

but few mistakes are THIS big...

I really feel sorry for this guy, but I think his flying days are probably over...
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http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload...raftyphoon.jpg

A Royal Air Force top gun crash-landed a new $136.3 million Typhoon fighter â?? apparently after forgetting to put the wheels down during a training exercise in California.

The state-of-the-art jet was badly damaged as it skidded along a runway on its belly at 130 mph.

"Everything points to the pilot forgetting to lower the wheels, which does happen from time to time," an RAF insider said.

Another possible cause of the accident is landing gear failure â?? but none of the other 48 Typhoons in service has been grounded with such a problem.

The top gun and his co-pilot from 17 Squadron climbed unhurt from the 1,500-mph jet. They were taking part in a major war games exercise at China Lake air base in California where aircraft can train with live weapons because of the remote location.

The mangled jet will be brought back to Britain to see if it can be repaired.

Well, his flight recorder will tell if it is pilot error or machine error....

We always stationed a "wheels watch" at the duty runway end, this is no longer in done ?

A good opportunity to re-use a quote I got sent by one of our forum members a short while ago:

"You know that your landing gear is up and locked ...when it takes full
power to taxi to the terminal."

I've only landed at an Air Force Base a few times, but every time I was asked to confirm that my landing gear was down and locked when given my landing clearance.

The last time I querried the controler and he told me it was standard for pilots to verbally announce that the landing gear was "down and locked" prior to landing at Air Force Bases. I would like to see that standard used at every towered airport.

I bet this guy feels about two inches tall about now, I know I would.

Chris

On a smaller scale
 

Here is a picture of my buddy's Cardinal RG. He "loaned" it to a friend for a Sunday flight and this was the result. Keep in mind the pilot was checked out in retracts as he is a commercial jet pilot. Happens to the best.

Mike

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/cardinal.jpg

Well, except for the slight "wheels up" problem - it sure would have been a pretty landing based on it's location on the runway hash marks...

;)

John D.

John,
The owner was out of town. He called me and asked me to oversee the righting of his airplane. I was getting ready for church, so it was about 9:00 AM or so as I recall. We did not get finished until late afternoon. It took a giant wrecker and a couple of very well trained mechanics to lift it. Fortunately when it was lifted, the wheels came right out. But the engine had to sent off for a rebuild and the body had a quite a bit of damage.
Mike

Was the friend who landed gear up "named insured" on the policy?

Here is an interesting cockpit video of someone doing a gear up landing while on a checkride. Even the examiner didn't know the wheels werent down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K4QH...eature=related

Mike B... Since it doesn't appear to have any prop damage could it been
gear failure and pilot bellied it in rather than he forgot to lower the gear.
Prop being horizonal also indicates a belly landing. Walked away, good landing.


Tim

I hope that the RAF a/c that "belly flopped" didn't have a load of missiles on it like the one in the photo. I can recall from my days as GM Divison officer on the CVAN Enterprise, one arrested landing where the missiles on an F16, kept going across the flight deck after the A/C had stopped. Fortunately, no explosion as they just went "over the bow", but still a bit frightening. TH

I know of a case where a Cessna shed the landing gear on one side while in flight. Pilot had a hard time convincing the tower he wanted a foamed runway with a "fixed gear" Cessna until he flew past the tower window.

I wish I has a larger picture but those propeller tips look like they are curled foward (engine making power) to me.

Unspellable,

Did they actually foam a runway for a light single engine airplane? They dont even do that or airliners anymore. When and where did this happen, I will look it up on the NTSB website.

Thanks,

Chris