Even the good ones can have a brain fart on a bad day!
Posted on 05/10/2006 7:28:38 AM PDT by IonImplantGuru
A former Navy Top Gun with decades of flying experience forgot to put his plane's landing gear down during an air show practice run in Tucson in March, the Federal Aviation Administration found.
Retired Capt. Dale "Snort" Snodgrass, a seasoned pro on the military air-show circuit, was piloting a Korean War-era F-86 Sabre that scraped to a stop and caught fire in the March 4 mishap at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Snodgrass, 57, was given counseling as "corrective action," according to the FAA report, obtained by the Arizona Daily Star under the Freedom of Information Act.
The pilot was unhurt in the incident, which shut down air-show practice at D-M that day. The vintage warplane he was flying, owned by a California air museum, sustained minor damage when one of its wing fuel tanks ignited.
The F-86 was one of dozens of warplanes in Tucson to practice formation flying for the 2006 air-show season. The event was not open to the general public. Snodgrass remains on the Air Force schedule this season. The service still has "total confidence in his abilities," according to a statement from the Air Combat Command.
Snodgrass, a Florida resident, declined to comment on the FAA finding.
(Excerpt) Read more at azstarnet.com ...
Even the good ones can have a brain fart on a bad day!
When I worked in a control tower we always had to confirm "gears down" after using the binoculars.
I wonder what else happened here....
doncha just HATE IT when that happens?
There are two kinds of pilots, those who have forgotten to deploy landing gear, and those who haven't yet.
Should add even more excitement to the air shows.
.pdf file of FAA report hung up Firefox when I tried to open, but maybe it was just my machine.
Word on the grapevine is that he did something like this a couple years ago at St. Augustine, his current home field.
When I was working Shuttle down in Houston, it was always fun when John Young would step in for a little refresher training in rendezvous simulations, because he'd just do things from memory. More often than not, he ended up missing the target by miles and miles, because he did something stupid "from memory." OTOH, it was a lot of fun to be part of trying to save the sim....
ahit happens.., I've seen some forget to extend LG.
Easy, it takes full power to taxi!
(that is in addition to the sparks show)
Fortunately he walked away from this bad day...and I have no doubt will be paying the price through ribbing for a long time to come.
Reminds me of the one where two pilots land a plane on a very short runway, then wonder why it was a mile wide.
'Snort' fuels the F-86 during last year's practice at Davis Montham. The jet is the same one he flew on March 4 when he failed to deploy the landing gear.
Jeffry Scott / Arizona Daily Star 2005
How can I expound upon, "OOPS!"
Anyone you can walk away from...............
Yeah, and Snort's was still a good landing - he walked away from the bird.
Today, I'm just happy I'm me and not him.
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