Posted on 06/27/2014 12:12:23 PM PDT by Kartographer
Mahoney slowed down and called for help. He was flying solo and communicated with a landing signal officer, who can act as a co-pilot of sorts from the ground. Mahoney approached the USS Bataan at about 300 feet, so the LSO could see the landing gear and diagnose the issue. The LSO, nicknamed "Paddles," confirmed that the nose gear did not come back down.
It was then that Mahoney was informed of a stool built for this particular situation. By lining up the nose of the jet with this invention, it was possible for the pilot to conduct a vertical landing. Mahoney had no experience with this.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Did you *read* the article? They told him about it and he successfully landed on the stool.
My eye is twitching, but I’m a Marine mom. More good landing stories in comments at link.
What’s the big deal? He’s a MARINE.
Semper fi
Do or die
May have made one of his own.
He then could have sent his "gently used underwear" to Obama.
That's what the headline sounds like. It made me think of the X-13 Vertijet.
I was imagining a landing with the plane vertical; with the nose pointed towards the earth and the tail sticking up in the air.
I doubt they would ever get the seat unclinched if that was the case.
Bravo Zulu, Jarhead! Nice professional landing and interview. Semper Fi
TC
Well actually this WAS a conspiracy, by definition. Because more than one person conspired to create the nose "stool" to be used exactly for this situation. And, this situation could not occur without the plane trying to land, which would include a pilot at the controls. And, said pilot knew nothing about this nose stool.
Therefore the nose stool was create by multiple people without informing the very person who's life would depend on it's proper use. That's a conspiracy of silence, and a fairly serious one, since the life of the pilot would depend on him using it properly and pilots tend to like to know about their equipment and practice using them to keep from, like, dying.
So why do it? Only one reason comes to my mind - it was an issue they didn't want to worry the pilots about, because it would have meant more training, money, red tape, review problems, whatever for the Navy. BUT, it was also a problem they wanted to prepare for so as not to get a pilot killed over something they could prevent. Solution? Conspiracy. Make the nose stool, don't tell the pilot, only use it if necessary.
it's pretty bad when it happens often enough that they have a ready made cradle...
use a heavy rubber bladder material. fill it with water. tie it down so it can’t move, whatever. But, make sure the pilot can see each end. Anything is better than a little stool the pilot can’t see in the first place. you know those bladders used to raise things off the bottom of the ocean? lots of other options that our tax dollars could come up with other than a stool.
There is a stool built for Just after this type of situation as well.
Hoping they cover this in flight school for Ben.
Yes. It’s just that article specified that he hadn’t heard about it before he had to use it, and i thought he’d probably like to have known about it before hand.
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