Over-rotated Nimrod
 

Ok I know we were a bit too well lunched but I was with a couple of chaps yesterday disussing "c*ck ups we have seen/done". Does anyone remember an incident when someone over-rotated an R1 in front of Princess Margaret? My mate swears that he damaged the tail boom and ended up with the nickname Boom Boom. I think that do remember the Pilot, retired as Winco I think but my mate swears that I saw it. He says St Mawgen. I sort of recall but it must have been in the seventies if I was there. Sorry to be so vague but when you get a bit senile like me you stay awake all night trying to remember these things.

It was in fact quite difficult to get a tailstrike on takeoff, provided that rotation was accomplished at the correct speed. I cannot recall any incidents of this type in the takeoff phase.

There were however a few tailstrikes on landing. An OCU aircraft had the fuel jettison pipes on the rear of the flaps bent upwards at 90 degrees, unfortunately they also had the camera doors open and chamfered these as well. But, the fact that the doors were only "ground down" with no structural damage, in spite of the excessive body angle, shows that a tailstrike on a normal landing was quite difficult to engineer.

An MR2P at Kinloss did have the ventral fin contact the runway when carrying out a flapless landing. Again the damage was minimal, about 1" was chamfered off. Subsequent investigation revealed that there was in fact a possibility that this would occur on a flapless landing even when the correct techniques were employed.

There were a few (1 or 2?) landing incidents associated with practising the short landing technique for operating into Port Stanley on the AM2 matting and another when practising the use of the emergency runway (northern taxiway) at Kinloss, However IIRC none of these involved structural strikes.

The R1 did have the odd incident including the loss of a large blade aerial on a RHAG. This was another case where the "book" was amended after the event.

YS

Nimrod tail bumper....
 

.... did what it said in the book. Stude on first sortie, QFI newly checked out for this his first course. "OK bloggs, pull back smoothly and firmly ... (Voice rises by at least 5 octaves) NOT THAT FAR!!!!!!!!!" Solid clunk from down the back as the ventral strake crumpled allowing the bumper to take the rest of the impact, which it did satisfactorily. Oh the joys of L1!
The Ancient Mariner

Isn't the ventral strake made out of plywood?:confused:

Yes, it is, but there is a tail bumper as well.

Rossian,

L1 & 2 could have their moments, but one was normally anticipating just about anything at this stage. I usually found that the problem came later on when a normally reliable student did something completely out of the ordinary, like not remembering to flare for landing. It was a tough old beast, it had to be!

YS

Still is and still needs to be; even though 'Thumper' has just retired!

L1 and 2 moments
 

Like the one when one of the stude siggies had an epeleptic fit, and on the next trip the screen eng was very badly scalded by a drawer full of full coffee cups. As we stretchered off the eng. OC Ops said he would think seriously about letting us airborne with studes ever again. The eng also (much later) had a walkabout Oxygen bottle blow up in hes face as he was doing the checks.
The Ancient Mariner
PS I believe that Thumper is now with Etihad.

The "witness" swears Margaret was there and that I was too. To be honest, I was shunted all over the shop when I was leaving Betty's flying club so it is all a bit of a blur. The words "showing off" were used.

Is that the one who had a name like a Shakespeare play and subsequently went to BA?

YS

Ah.... memories of L1. I remember going through as a re-tread when the port undercarriage refused to play for the landing on our L1. Fun or what?
I remember us just missing the PAR as we can off the runway at EGDG.

"Still is and still needs to be; even though 'Thumper' has just retired!"

Lol, and he swears blind to me that name wasn't achieved in any way shape or form due to his flying abilities.......:ok:

I remember getting off a jet after being ferried down to BZN that he was P1 on and saying to him "Now I know how you got your name", only to have to duck rapidly... lol. No doubt I'll get it in the neck if he reads this....

>"Still is and still needs to be; even though 'Thumper' has just retired!" Lol, and he swears blind to me that name wasn't achieved in any way shape or form due to his flying abilities.......<

If this is a reference to Derek 'Thumper' Thompson, I was on UWAS with him in the early 1970s. The acquisition of this nickname was a direct result of his pugilistic prowess rather than his flying abilities :ouch:

That's what he told me some time ago...... Others still claim the name fits for other reasons, lol.

Thoroughly decent bloke though, never looked down his nose at us groundies, and he and his wife throw a blooming good party!!!! :ok:

As I recall, in the early 70's, when the Nimrod was young, someone over rotated on take off at Gib and chamfered the mad boom. A well known QFI was tasked to see how it could have happened, and managed to do it all over again. We were told to take it a little more gently after that.

On a separate issue, but still on Nimrods, there was a discussion some time ago about flight times before the days of in flight refueling. My log book shows one of 11:10, and another of 10;50.

I think his name should be "Thumer", cos there is no p in Thomson

There always seemed to be an argument that it was not possible to do a V2 climb without over-rotating and wiping out the MAD boom.
Did an airshow at Luqa in the mid-70's - took off on the short runway with minimal fuel at full chat - rotate was in two stages, first to get the MAD boom clear and then very hard to stay at V2 plus a couple knots ISTR - looked as impressive as it felt down the back, apparently. Nav lost his hamburger, and couldn't find it again ....:ooh:

Would that be the archetypal 'gap' Thumper?

He of the 'magic trousers' and 'pinching the boss's 1800'?

Tales from a UWAS magazine revealed to me some 35 years ago by Dave 'Milo' Wildpig - the Lad in Chief.

reynoldsno1, this sounds like the one I saw, from memory this was done on the main runway and for take off it turned to line up so close to the edge of the runway it nearly went off the edge, it was in the air by the turn off to the short runway and climbed at an impressive angle and rate. When it landed, it touched down right on the edge of the runway and he slowed down enough to turn off onto the short runway and taxi straight into the pan area. This was the practice display, I think the pilot was told not to try it again.

Thumper with Etihad? Can this possibly be true? There's another ailine I have to cross off the list.

If Thumper reads this, good luck to you. We did an Aerosystems course together.....honestly.......

Princess Margaret visited St Mawgan on 21 July 1972 as this extract from the Court Circular shows, so perhaps it was on this visit?