What date was LXX stood down?:(

What on earth will LXX do for the 2 years before an aircraft pitches up..assuming no delays!!

Be packed in a box from the end of this year and unpacked to stand-up as the A400M sqn.

:{

A400M.......................2013..............I wonder if Paddy Power have got wind of this :D

Despite all of the banter within this thread it still doesn't explain how several 'experienced' aircrew missed the fact that the gear wasn't down for landing... fact!

They probably hoped that no-one would ask that question!!!!

That's why we have investigations - to find the cause and hopefully prevent it from happening again:ok:

Shouldn't take too long to figure it out though........

Before the avalanche of 'you can't possibly say that', I served on 242 OCU as a flight instructor.

We did circuit after circuit after circuit, with one throttled back it was easy to get irritated by the gear warning horn, but we briefed never to pull it.

It was SOo easy to wonder if we'd done the checks this time around, or last.

Airmanship dictates though, that at half a mile or so from touchdown, just glance at the gear and flaps FOR YOURSELF.

I am convinced that this was a lapse and nobody looked (distracted perhaps?).

It's just a sad reminder that each member of the crew has responsibility to make sure the essentials are attended to.

I refute that a gear problem occurs which results in no gear available - there are just too many ways to get a C130s gear down - at least partial gear. If you can't get the MLG, you'd go for the nose gear freefall to protect the nose. There's no sign any of the gear doors are even cracked.

Judging by the kit on that aircraft, it's loss is embarrassing to say the least.

http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/q...wmay/XV304.jpg

Not least that it was the lowest FI Mk 3A just out of Base servicing:{

Look on the bright side, the tyres will be less worn...

...and there was no risk of injury when jumping off the crew steps :bored:

It looks in slightly better nick in that phot than the B1-B than was landed in one of it's more aerodynamic configurations last year.

IIRC that needed a bit more than a rub down and 5 minutes with the spray gun.

Sadly it looks like Cat 4/5:{

If we had the resources and will to fix it ourselves, like we used to, it would be Cat 3

If we sent it to MAe Cambridge where she will join a long queue of broken aircraft with 'emergent' work, it would be Cat 4

If we give up on her, she's Cat 5

Theoretically she's Cat 3 and fixable in a few months

Realistically? Nobody cares.

Or you crazy fools could take her on as the next project for the GEs Pet Semetary? You know, take dead aircraft, bury it in the GEs cursed hangar and see it resurrected as a strange, evil, zombie aircraft :)
:ok::ok:

How is it that I believe you?

In my time on the Herk, and it's excruciatingly difficult to tell on a photo, but at normal rates of descent and training weights, I would have not expected damage to amount to a write off.

Looking at the flaps, they obviously had Utility hydraulics (for the uninitiated, it's the same system which powers the landing gear).

I can't imagine what it felt like when they didn't feel the mlg touching down - all too late by then of course, but it would make you feel physically sick.