Early days of the Tornado - Emergency at TWCU
 

Shortly after the introduction of the Tornado on TWCU at Honington there was a in flight emergency with the jet heading straight down and the wings doing all sorts of weird things via the computer. The crew cooly managed to sort things out before ejection became necessary and there was a tape of the cockpit conversation.

This would be sometime between the Tornado arriving in 1982 and early 83.

Anybody remember the incident? Or, more importantly - anybody still have access to that tape for general listening?

You can see the Military Aircraft Accident Summary at www.ukserials.com/pdflosses/maas_19861202_za555.pdf This was in 1986 however and other than a mid air collision was TWCU's first loss. 9 Sqn lost a Tornado in 1983 but that was due to total electrical failure, IIRC the battery exploded. Sadly the Pilot failed to eject.

As an aside the wing sweep system was electro mechanical and not controlled or connected to a computer. The only three incidents I remember are:

1. A jet that landed and sheared the nose leg off around the hump in the runway and the subsequent bending of the nose section stopped the canopy opening and the crew had to be cut out.

2. A TWCU aircraft APU blew up on start and caused a fire which had it not been controlled quickly could have affected the next jet down wind.

3. The last was the aircraft that failed brake BITE on approach and decide to the take the front RHAG, which even the BAE reps expected to rip the arrester hook off the aircraft but when it worked everyone had a go after that with a subsequent 7 day OOPs to check the torque tube out for problems, oh happy days on Fridays.

I also witnessed two PIO incidents, one on take off and one when 9 Sqn boss decided to do a show for the press, both survived with probably a need for underwear change.

The memory may well be getting a bit rusty.

It may have possibly been an undemanded input from the elevators misinterpreting the flight attitude and extending the wing solved the problem, eventually.....or something like that. It certainly wasn't a loss that's why the crew were able to talk about it and produce the tape at parties!

All I know it was the most amazing tape I had ever heard. Someone at Honington at that time must remember it!

No worries, this is the only thing I could find that might be what you recollect, but this account claims the tape was destroyed:

Winged Warriors: Tornado - Out of control!

Wan't there the one that bounced, the WOW switch allowing the previously selected buckets to deployas he went up, and then back down again in rather short order?

Definitely between the Tonkas arriving in 82 and me leaving Honington in 83. can't remember the crew's names but the tape was the talk of the dinner parties around the patch at the time.

Seem to remember it was the exit from a loop at a reasonable level and the ensuing drama took up rather a lot of the recovery height.

If anyone can supply the crew names on the early TWCU it may be a memory jogger.

This account also claims a Fox 3 to be a guns shot :ok:

kokpit, I think that was what led to the incident No. 1 I listed, as it rings a bell.

Lal
Fox 1 radar missile
Fox 2 heat seeker
Fox 3 guns
Back in the day before AMRAAM/asraam and other smart aa missiles;)

I stand corrected!

I think the bounce with pre-armed buckets was at TTTE, not Honington

Bounce?
 

"Wan't there the one that bounced, the WOW switch allowing the previously selected buckets to deploy as he went up, and then back down again in rather short order?"

There was, of course, this one:


F3...Akrotiri.

Squadron "short landing competition (allegedly)" Jet ended up in the barrier at the upwind end of the runway - no nose wheel - no canopy/MDC - no crew (Still in chutes, & being dragged towards Ladies mile by the standard AKR 25kt cross wind) - engines still running - Seat guns still clearly visible, much to the delight of all those in the departure lounge......Fleetwood Mac`s Tango in the Night still on the CVR ;);)

:eek:

Tonka Bounce
 

No the Tornado that landed with pre-armed buckets then bounced was Honington, A 9 Sqn jet. Our young hero wanted to land short and take the first entrance into the HAS site rather than travel the long way round via the end of the runway. I remember see the sparks and following 'Panic' from outside A hanger.

I believe the 'old bold' pilots did this trick all the time but touched down just after the piano keys unlike our young aviator.

ZE834, 1989(?).

Prop Fwd

There was a T/R preselected bounce incident at TTTE while I was there. IIRC the 2-sticker was doing a wing landing with an inexperienced instructor in the boot. Student had pre-selected T/R way back on the GCA for landing (this cannot be monitored from the back), but at a late stage the leader decided the X-wind was too much and called for a low overshoot. Wingman dropped low on the overshoot and touched down momentarily. T/R engaged with full power selected (definitely not recommended!) and subsequent firm arrival and derotation readjusted nosewheel leg geometry. The instructor could have avoided it by selected T/R to OFF in rear cockpit.

The TWCU APU fire (ZA400?) was the biggest aircraft fire I have ever been involved with. Very scary indeed. I was Ramptramp at the time and remember seeing the drop tanks rippling in the flames and the heat. I thought that it was going to explode any second. Myself and a colleague (Lurch) managed to tow the second aircraft out of the way but we did get a bit burnt in the process. For me it was my left shoulder and my hair.

Happy days!