A good landing.
 

What's that adage about "If you can walk away from it it's a good landing".


https://youtu.be/ndGhxHuGO-0?t=644

Indeed, but the pilot seemed to take his time before deciding to get out of the cockpit. Maybe there was very minimal fuel and he was waiting for the fire crew to arrive ? I've always liked the Viggen.


SHJ

I think that was the adage used by Pink Floyd's David Gilmour and his wife Polly Sansom in a Daily Telegraph interview at the weekend - apparently a question about a bent prop in their home elicited the response that about 20 years ago they had a landing prang in his Harvard which removed a wing, undercarriage, etc. Can't say I recall it, surely it would have made the aviation press at the very least. A leg pull perhaps?


No, quick bit of research and here it is... Losing a wing was a slight exaggeration methinks!

Like you I've always thought of the Viggen as something special. After a bit of research and a rough translation from a Swedish friend of my wife's it turns out that the bloke doing the commentary was the pilot. He is explaining that the aircraft had a full fuel load even though it was on a short flight. The reason for him being slow out of the cockpit was because he had trouble undoing all of the straps.
I think that it was a bit like a Lightning. Tremendous performer but a bit short legged.

I think it was a wise decision not to wait. :O

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...370001_001.jpg

Meanwhile, at a B.P. garage nearby...........

Incidentally, the Viggen that's the subject of the video clip and of my photo of the burned-out wreck was the first production AJ-37 (37001).

The pilot/narrator, Lars Bandling, was inevitable nicknamed "Brandling" after the crash ("brand" being the Swedish for fire :O).

Lived in Sweden for a while in early 90s , office as close to a mixed use airfield north of Stockholm called Barkaby , some light a/c but also an alert base for fighters complete with camouflaged hollow rock hard shelters.
occasionally got a Viggen deployment there -lots and lots of noise and some spectacular short landings .

it did a neat trick at airshows where it would do the short landing bit keep reverse on to back track a few hundred yards and then rocket off again.
An awesome machine to watch, how the Swedes afforded to make their own jet fighters was pretty amazing but some clever engineers up there who need something to do through the winter darkness I guess

Met Lars Bandling at Farnborough.
When a solo Viggen displayed, it would usually take off downwind about 800m in from the downwind end of the runway to demonstrate its STOL capability, one of its design features being the ability to use ordinary roads as airfields.

Which makes you wonder why the Swedes didn't have more success not just supplying the airforces of Europe, but of the world. Politics and coercion by the US/UK/France no doubt!


SHJ