vigil617
US Veteran
Women are recommended not to wear nylon hosiery either, for the same reason. Personally, if I'm that close to a burning aircraft, I hope I'm already long gone before my clothes start melting onto me.....
Emergency landing question
- Thread starter Rustyt1953
- Start date
steveno
Member
Rhein Main AB was just across the runways from the Frankfurt airport. you would be surprised on how many times you would see their firetrucks ( they were really big) out along the runways for any number of reasons. thankfully it was for training or as a precaution. sometimes it was 3 or 4 times a week
Tradewind36
US Veteran
Always remember...a landing is a controlled crash, and any
landing you can walk away from is a good one.
And if you can use the plane again it's a great landing.
HOUSTON RICK
Member
I landed in Cleveland on Eastern Airlines (oh darn I dated myself again) right before they went out of business. The landing gear would not automatically come down and they sent the engineer back to crank the landing gear down. He puled up the carpet next to my set and open a small hatch and climbed down a small ladder. He must have been a Navy mechanic at some point because he cussed like a drunken sailor. At one point he said (deleting the colorful language) it may not work, but that is as good as I can get it and went back to the cabin. We were advised to assume the crash position as one wheel would not lock, but we had to land. We had burnt off most of the remaining fuel circling the airport. It was a shaky landing with a few bounces, but the wheel held. We got to keep our shoes. I was glad that the armada of emergency vehicles along the runway proved to be a precaution. Once stopped we did not taxi to the gate but walked over runways to the terminal. More than one person kissed the ground.
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Mainsail
Member
The C-141 was not immune from landing gear troubles.
One crew was using the landing gear pry-bar in an attempt to get the gear down-lock to go into place after manually lowering the gear. The bar was a two piece thing that was held together by a pin, and you stuck it out a little ~6"x8" window. Well he got the down-lock to fall into place, but he didn't have the two halves of the bar assembled right and one half dropped as he was pulling it back into the aircraft. Somewhere in the swamps of SC there a heavy chunk of steel rotting. If anyone were to actually find it they would have no earthly idea what it is or how it got there.
Another crew had a problem with the electrical system in the landing gear. The co-pilot moved the gear handle to the down position and the circuit breaker popped open. Not a problem since the gear can be lowered manually by hand positioning the hydraulic valves; it just takes a little time. The old crusty FE looked at the fuel totalizer and decided to shorten the procedure- jammed his thumb against the landing gear circuit breaker and held it until the gear indicator showed down and locked.
One crew was using the landing gear pry-bar in an attempt to get the gear down-lock to go into place after manually lowering the gear. The bar was a two piece thing that was held together by a pin, and you stuck it out a little ~6"x8" window. Well he got the down-lock to fall into place, but he didn't have the two halves of the bar assembled right and one half dropped as he was pulling it back into the aircraft. Somewhere in the swamps of SC there a heavy chunk of steel rotting. If anyone were to actually find it they would have no earthly idea what it is or how it got there.
Another crew had a problem with the electrical system in the landing gear. The co-pilot moved the gear handle to the down position and the circuit breaker popped open. Not a problem since the gear can be lowered manually by hand positioning the hydraulic valves; it just takes a little time. The old crusty FE looked at the fuel totalizer and decided to shorten the procedure- jammed his thumb against the landing gear circuit breaker and held it until the gear indicator showed down and locked.
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steveno
Member
one of our C-118 medevac airplanes coming back from a major inspection couldn't the nose gear "down & locked" light to come on. after they changed the bulb in the light still didn't come on they did a fly over and from observers on the ground it looked down but nobody could be sure. so they decided to foam the runway and bring the airplane in. this didn't make the Germans very happy all. they send our fire trucks out but the Germans got impatient about the size of our fire trucks so the sent theirs out and foamed the runway in one pass.
at the time Frankfurt was the third busiest airport in Europe and this was with just two runways so having one tied up with the foaming they were not happy campers at all. Frankfurt now has four runways and still the third busiest after Heathrow and CDG in Paris.
it turns out the nose gear was locked but the load sensing switch for the nose gear wasn't adjusted right so the light wouldn't come on.
new to this big of an airplane I asked the crew chief what would happen if the gear lever was moved to the "up" position and he told go ahead and move it to "up". well I sure wasn't going to do that so he did and nothing happened. there are sensing switches on the gear and as long as there is load on the gear nothing will happen. once the airplane takes off and the load on the gear is gone that allows the gear to retract.
I don't think they foam runways anymore because even if an airplane lands on a foamed runway that doesn't mean it still won't catch fire and there won't be as much foam in the fire trucks to deal with a fire. it also means that just because an airplane lands and skids across the runway it won't necessarily catch on fire.
Frankfurt Airport - Wikipedia
Rhein-Main Air Base - Wikipedia
at the time Frankfurt was the third busiest airport in Europe and this was with just two runways so having one tied up with the foaming they were not happy campers at all. Frankfurt now has four runways and still the third busiest after Heathrow and CDG in Paris.
it turns out the nose gear was locked but the load sensing switch for the nose gear wasn't adjusted right so the light wouldn't come on.
new to this big of an airplane I asked the crew chief what would happen if the gear lever was moved to the "up" position and he told go ahead and move it to "up". well I sure wasn't going to do that so he did and nothing happened. there are sensing switches on the gear and as long as there is load on the gear nothing will happen. once the airplane takes off and the load on the gear is gone that allows the gear to retract.
I don't think they foam runways anymore because even if an airplane lands on a foamed runway that doesn't mean it still won't catch fire and there won't be as much foam in the fire trucks to deal with a fire. it also means that just because an airplane lands and skids across the runway it won't necessarily catch on fire.
Frankfurt Airport - Wikipedia
Rhein-Main Air Base - Wikipedia
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Jewelry can....
Jewelry can poke you or some other person. I suppose that they simplify "Remove all jewelry that is spiky or pointed' to just 'remove all jewelry. And I suppose it's all in one place rather than, "OMG, where is my diamond ear ring?
Jewelry can poke you or some other person. I suppose that they simplify "Remove all jewelry that is spiky or pointed' to just 'remove all jewelry. And I suppose it's all in one place rather than, "OMG, where is my diamond ear ring?
mrrick
Member
It seems to me that taking off your shoes releases hundreds of missiles
that will be flying around the cabin in a hard landing.
that will be flying around the cabin in a hard landing.
armenius
US Veteran
I actually realized how dangerous flying and "uncontrolled contact with the ground " could be when I was in flight school and was ordered to go to the base clinic and have foot prints made. I was told that the booted foot was the only thing surviving an accident and was needed for ID. This was not much of a morale booster.
Telecaster
Member
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At a Navy base once, I saw a safety poster showing a close-up of a sailor's hand with four fingers and a bloody stub where his ring was. The wording implied that if you rush down the ship's stairs and slip, this could happen. The caption was something like, "And then there were four..."
ohioseabee
US Veteran
THE PILGRIM
Member
Once in Bermuda I saw Dog Charlie 7 Freighter on the runway with a collapsed nose gear.
Have you ever been in a one horse town?
Well Bermuda is a one runway Island.
Lots of folks used that runway including Navy P-3s.
So they used Caterpillar corrective action.
I think it was a D-8.
Have you ever been in a one horse town?
Well Bermuda is a one runway Island.
Lots of folks used that runway including Navy P-3s.
So they used Caterpillar corrective action.
I think it was a D-8.
shouldazagged
Absent Comrade
Maybe the flight attendants were just giving the poor passengers something to keep themselves busy with before, you know, probably dying in a plane crash....
"Ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-eight bottles of be--"
