EMPTY DROPS are better'n NO drops that's for sure MIRACLE STORY 1974 :
QAM - The Last Landing of Mirage A3-16
Then due to port wheel loss touch and going aboard MELBOURNE 887 empty drop tank skidded AMBERLEY 1978 - pilot Barry Evans rec'd an Air Force Cross for his stirling efforts that day.
Then yours TRULLy managed 300 gal short field at night arrest drop tank landing NAS Nowra after rampstrike late 1971.
A few months later at NAS Barbers Point, Hawaii 887 on a foamed runway short field arrested on 300 gal empty tanks after wheels broke (long story). Sadly only a VF-805 Line Book page survives made by 'miscreant' who went on to be the LAST A4G CO (VC-724) with yours truLLY btm left of da page.
