Dayton Ohio Airshow USAF Thunderbird Mishap

[gums]

Salute!

I,too, am surprised about both the rain accumulating on the canopy and the final approach speed and rollout technique.

1) I did not fly in a lotta heavy rain in that jet. Snow, yes, rain not much.

The HUD symbology is useable even if the canopy in front of it is completely FUBAR. We had one guy fly for about 10 minutes using the HUD and the inertial flight path marker and such because he was attacked by a large pelican and blood/gore obscured his vision, heh heh. The bird also broke off most of his radome, including the AoA sensors. Then the computers got contaminated and the jet went la la, so he punched.

If you look at my HUD tape from the leading edge flap failure, you can see a great display of the ILS symbology. Should be on my profile entry interview. So you can lean around the HUD and skid, as this guy apparently did. No biggie so land in the skid while following the ILS all the way down and keep speed down where it should be.

2) I did land in squirelly winds and even crosswinds right at the limit when flying the Viper. The jet is very susceptible to gusts and to be honest, it does not want to land and floats if you are fast and wish to touch down firmly. Thus a very long landing.

This episode comes down to lack of experience by a low time Viper driver and poor technique from approach speed, then flare and then rollout braking. I can't believe the 'birds selected a guy with so few Viper hours ( 150 hrs or so?), and he may have gotten a fair share of them after being selected as the narrator. BTW, I used to think No.8 was the logistics/maintenance guy and no 7 was the narrator. Oh well. If that first female had zero Viper time, then I guess this guy was good to go.

The jet lands very well at high yaw in a steady crosswind. It also lands well without a flare if you have plenty of drag, but the T-bird jets are extremely clean and light. So you gotta pull back on that throttle lever, duh?

Or you go around.

The anti-skid on our jets got way better during the early 70's and were not the pulse mode doofers I flew with in the Deuce and VooDoo. You simply pressed hard and the brakes would gradually increase pressure as you slowed and stopped the "rolling skid". As with this dude, I once went out on the overrun after landing my VooDoo on an ice-coated runway after landing long. Anti-skid cycled the whole way and I had my hand on the "hook" as nose gear crossed the barrier cable, all the while debating with my RSO whether to drop the hook!!! We were at a walking speed and the asphalt had more traction than the concrete runway, so we turned and cleared the runway for the next guy. A Cannuck transport guy on the taxiway watched the whole thing and after I reported to tower ( they could not see see me due to the heavy snow), he said, "nice going, mate" or something like that.

Gums sends...