Posted on 07/29/2011 7:30:51 AM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
July 28, 2011 (by Asif Shamim) - An F-16C block 30 from 100 FS (#87-0296) sustained a hard landing after coming off the runway at Wittman Regional Airport during the AirVenture event at Oshkosh this morning.
The incident happened at 11.20h local time on the north runway at Wittman Regional Airport near the Warbirds area.
Information regarding the status of pilot has not been released, but was early reports indicate the pilot walked away and was taken for medical attention.
Bill Tregoning an eyewitness reported the following "It looked like the plane came off the edge of the runway going about 60 miles per hour," he said. "The front landing gear sunk into the soft ground because of the rain."
He said the front landing gear of the F-16 may have broken.
A board of enquiry will look into the accident
F-16 Ping.
They effectively have 5 runways during show week. Plus, they have 2 traffic patterns, slow movers @ 800 and fast movers @ 1200, IIRC.
They have “short “ and “long” designations on both main runways (ie. land 27 short or 27 long) and use the taxiway as a runway sometimes.
It isn’t for the faint of heart, but if one is a competent pilot, they should have no problems.
F-16 Runway Overrun at Oshkosh
An F-16 rolled off the end of Runway 36 at Wittman Regional Airport after landing about 11:40 a.m. Thursday.
The aircraft did what appeared to be a normal landing with a high alpha rollout, but it failed to stop, and it appears the nosegear was collapsed when it hit the grass.
In the accompanying photos, the engine nozzle appears to be in the fully open position during the landing roll, and a small fire can be seen in the aircraft's tailpipe after it stops.
The photos were taken by AVweb intern Adam Cutler. (The airport was temporarily closed at the time of the incident.)
Perhaps the "high-alpha rollout" makes it look like he was trying to go around.
No way, gov. doesn’t pay enough (regardless of the rumors you hear). Ex-pilots take jobs a Boeing and Lockheed for $160,000/yr starting.
No, the nose gear was not collapsed when it hit the grass. The article is wrong. The picture sequence clearly shows an intact NLG, which collapsed AFTER going onto the soft grass.
Have you seen this video? Evidently their ATCs are not brilliant, although what can you expect when they work for the government.
The article wasn't wrong, just poorly worded. I took the sentence to mean "when the nose gear hit the grass, it collapsed."
Picture 10:
And picture 11:
Note the lack of flames coming out of the aircraft in picture 10. The aircraft was not in afterburner when it departed the runway. What you see in the slide show is debris being sucked through the engine.
As reference, this is what an F-16 in full afterburner looks like:
If he used his AMEX card to rent the plane, AMEX will pay for any damages.
No, the nozzle setting is a bit counterintuitive. The nozzle is pretty open, which implies low throttle setting. If the nozzle were closed small, that would mean high power. When departing the runway, the pilot is supposed to chop the engine to minimize FOD damage. It looks like he/she did here.
It appears the engine is spooling up between pic 10 and pic 11. Not in AB, but not at idle either.
It is a multi-million dollar screw up, pilot error.
In the amount of time that elapsed between pic 10 and 11, a turbine engine cannot spool up very much. When it start sucking in prime Wisconson turf, however, it can spool down rather quickly (and permanently...)
>> He said the front landing gear of the F-16 may have broken.
Presumably while on the runway. Too much weight on the nose while landing?
Presumably while on the runway. Too much weight on the nose while landing?
Nope. The landing gear collapsed after the aircraft ran off the end of the runway and hit very soft rain soaked ground and sunk in.
That is interesting, I didn’t see that before. With the deceleration and gear collapsing, maybe the pilot hit the throttle with his hand or arm while being thrown forward, because the nozzle does close down between 10 and 11. Just a thought.
Here it is on You-Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUei3kAcl9s&feature=related
Latest word is that the pilot landed long (like halfway down the runway). I can’t confirm that, but here’s 2 things that I saw: 1. No speed brakes deployed. 2. Pilot didn’t use full aft stick on rollout. This guy was having a bad day.
The runway the pilot landed on (36L) is 8002’ long. It appeared to be a dry surface, so that’s plenty of concrete to stop on. It looks like he/she landed long. I’m surprised the USAF did not install an aircraft arresting system at the airport. They usually do this for airshows at airfields that don’t have them. Would have saved the day if one was installed.
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