Harriers, Helocopters, and Water, Oh My!

65stanger said:
Many, many moons ago (when I was in the AF), we were instructed that the OFFICIAL Air Force definition of crash is..:"A landing in which the vertical velocity is so great, and the time reducing it to zero is so short, that structural failure occurs." :D

Isn't that similar to the MC's "unofficial" urging that Scarrier pilots try to stay with their ships above all else??? The idea being "If the pilot punches out, it's a crash. If he rides it down then it's only a hard landing. If the "flying surfaces failed upon landing' because the tip gear punches through the wings themselves (or if the wing spars themselves fail); hey, it's still just a hard landing, because officially "the AV-8B very rarely crashes". :rolleyes:
If the military had wanted a kid with an engineering background and a blown out knee "back in the day"; I think I still would have preferred a Warthog (or even a flying eggbeater) over a Scarrier. 'Course, the Army agrees with me (over the Corps) on that; but that's not all that surprising :p
 
Roger that, since 12APR04, and recently as June, I've "spent" about $96mill in Iraq. Walked away from both without a scratch. One was a shoot down, the other a "hard landing". Both helos destroyed. Oops. HEY! I'm a gunner, not a pilot, it wasnt MY fault....as always FLY LUCKY! It'll out perform skill any day!
 
slepe67 said:
Roger that, since 12APR04, and recently as June, I've "spent" about $96mill in Iraq. Walked away from both without a scratch. One was a shoot down, the other a "hard landing". Both helos destroyed. Oops. HEY! I'm a gunner, not a pilot, it wasnt MY fault....as always FLY LUCKY! It'll out perform skill any day!
God Bless! :flag:
 
slepe67 said:
Roger that, since 12APR04, and recently as June, I've "spent" about $96mill in Iraq. Walked away from both without a scratch. One was a shoot down, the other a "hard landing". Both helos destroyed. Oops. HEY! I'm a gunner, not a pilot, it wasnt MY fault....as always FLY LUCKY! It'll out perform skill any day!
65stanger said:
God Bless! :flag:

I'll agree with my large hirsute friend :flag:
And don't forget that you need to fly lucky while in the States as well. Wasn't all that many weeks ago that a pilot tried to duplicate the Scarrier video up this thread - only his bird splashed down in somebody's backyard swimming pool in a neighborhood too close to the runway approach here in Yuma :eek: Marine Corps is still working out how much that's gonna cost!
 
StangDreamin' said:
...................And don't forget that you need to fly lucky while in the States as well. Wasn't all that many weeks ago that a pilot tried to duplicate the Scarrier video up this thread - only his bird splashed down in somebody's backyard swimming pool in a neighborhood too close to the runway approach here in Yuma :eek: Marine Corps is still working out how much that's gonna cost!
I thought the pilot did that intentionally 'cause the ground crew "FORGOT" to wash the bird..................:scratch:
 
I was at that airshow where the Harrier 'went in'. Thank goodness it was over the sea, and not on land - there would have been flaming bits all over the place.

Scary, man.

All pilots that eject join a special club that even has it's own tie...some consolation!!
 
limey66 said:
I was at that airshow where the Harrier 'went in'. Thank goodness it was over the sea, and not on land - there would have been flaming bits all over the place.

Scary, man.

Scary? The bird that flamed out over our town was carrying a couple "live but not armed" 500 pounders and 300-odd rounds of 25mm. That's scary!

There were 1250 residences evacuated from the 2km "blast radius" for 14 hours after the crash; until almost all the 25 mike-mike was recovered. Plane landed mostly in a private swimming pool, but it "overlapped" into three other backyards (there was an intersection of 4 property boundaries under the port wing root).