F-18 Fighter Crash

[jack_tors]

Pretty amazing video of an F-18 stalling out and crashing in Canada. Thankfully everyone was okay. I have seen this plane pull this maneuver a bunch of time at various air shows. Looks like the pilot lost the edge.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Pilot+survives+fiery+fighter+crash+Alberta/3315220/story.html

[Bayou Tribe]

Pretty ironic song choice.

[The Tribe Zone]

The only problem with that maneuver is altitude...he's got no room for error. 1 little uhoh and he's done.

At age 14 I had over 300 hrs in a Cessna, and somewhere around the 15th hour they teach you that one. Of course your at altitudes of 2-3000 feet. I would call that manuever 'cool'. Your flying at say 3000 ft. You begin by pulling back on the throttle, cutting power to the plane. As the plane begins losing altitude, you compensate by pulling the nose of the plane up. You keep cutting power and pulling the nose up while maintaining your altitude. Eventually you get to the point where the stall warning is constantly blaring and your barely moving.

There's a trim wheel on the console you keep adjusting, that will maintain the angle of the nose. In calm conditions, you can do this somewhat hands-free of the wheel.

My favorite 'ride' was the power-on stalls. Say you begin At 3000 feet, with full power, you begin pulling the nose up into a steep climb. Seconds before you stall the warning goes off, as the plane stalls it shakes somewhat violently. You push the nose of the plane down, your airspeed comes back pretty quickly, and you level off at the same altitude (hopefully) that you entered from, 3000 feet if done correctly. It'll blink your eyes and make ya shake your head alittle...

[peeker643]

Those Canadians are very quick though:

"Ladies and gentlemen, obviously something has happened..."

Thank God the PA announcer let them know. Some of them may have had their backs turned to the explosion and resultant fireball.

[jack_tors]

The only problem with that maneuver is altitude...he's got no room for error. 1 little uhoh and he's done.

At age 14 I had over 300 hrs in a Cessna, and somewhere around the 15th hour they teach you that one. Of course your at altitudes of 2-3000 feet. I would call that manuever 'cool'. Your flying at say 3000 ft. You begin by pulling back on the throttle, cutting power to the plane. As the plane begins losing altitude, you compensate by pulling the nose of the plane up. You keep cutting power and pulling the nose up while maintaining your altitude. Eventually you get to the point where the stall warning is constantly blaring and your barely moving.

There's a trim wheel on the console you keep adjusting, that will maintain the angle of the nose. In calm conditions, you can do this somewhat hands-free of the wheel.

My favorite 'ride' was the power-on stalls. Say you begin At 3000 feet, with full power, you begin pulling the nose up into a steep climb. Seconds before you stall the warning goes off, as the plane stalls it shakes somewhat violently. You push the nose of the plane down, your airspeed comes back pretty quickly, and you level off at the same altitude (hopefully) that you entered from, 3000 feet if done correctly. It'll blink your eyes and make ya shake your head alittle...

Thats awesome, thanks for sharing. Wish I had the balls to learn how to do that.

[The Tribe Zone]

I tell everyone, Your 1st lesson, you fly.

That was uh.....damn.....40 years ago when I was 14. I'm guessing its still that way. Once they let you fly, your probably going to want to do it again. It was 22 bucks for an hour, each lesson was an hour long. Probably alittle more now eh.

Basically thats to get you to a point where you can fly solo. Your pilots license is where the bookwork begins.

I had 300 hrs or more, I forget, but there was some pretty cool flights. You can't solo until your 16, and I was being paid (I worked at the airport, best job I ever had) in flying lessons, so it got to a point where I did the preflight, brought the plane around, the instructor would hop in, and work on his paperwork, and I would fly wherever I wanted to go...

Coolest flight....I'm flying around, the old fart instructor reaches over, cuts power to an idle, tells me I lost the engine....

I setup a glide, circling around an area that looked good enough to land on from a high altitude. Everything looks great from the air, you wanna avoid cornfields, etc. It ended up being a long driveway to a farm. As we glided by the farmhouse (I could see in their windows) I really thought I was going to land, he pushed the throttle in, said I aced this test, and we roared out of there.

I asked him, "Can't they bust us for that?"
"Naah" he sez, "I don't think anyone was home."
"Oh."

[General]

Low speed pass. Blue Angels do it all the time. I am not a pilot and I am glad the guy is ok but obviously not trained at Pensacola NAS by Navy-Marine pilots. Just make beer, leave the complex stuff to us, Canada.

[Fire Marshall Bill]

Canada....America's hat

The day 'BC Bud' is legal in the USA is the day Canada is relevant

[p.b. fan]

i saw the thunderbird pilot die in '81. hit the rocks. love planes, wish i could have been a fast-jet pilot or browns WR. oh. well. these guys have a 25% chance of not surviving their career. i love them-protecting America. best show i ever saw was in '89 when Russkies brought the Mig 29 to town. day before air show[no safety rules] that guy pushed that Fulcrum like nothin' i ever saw before. way better than F-15,16.

[jack_tors]

i saw the thunderbird pilot die in '81. hit the rocks. love planes, wish i could have been a fast-jet pilot or browns WR. oh. well. these guys have a 25% chance of not surviving their career. i love them-protecting America. best show i ever saw was in '89 when Russkies brought the Mig 29 to town. day before air show[no safety rules] that guy pushed that Fulcrum like nothin' i ever saw before. way better than F-15,16.

I took was there with the Mig and it was freakin awesome. That tail slide was impressive but mind blowing at 9 years years old. Wish I could have full grasped the significance of the event at the time given the Cold War era.