Ouch! RAF Pilot Puts Eurofighter On Its Belly

[mayagrafix]

£69m parking job out in NAS China Lake in California :doho:

http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/dis ... K=20534661
http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?Cont ... 90b7f0432b

[Paul K]

Oh blimey.

[Nigel H-J]

Everything points to the pilot forgetting to lower the wheels, which does happen from time to time," one RAF official told The Sun

:doho:

I feel for the pilot, I really do.................Oh, the embarrassement of it all!!

Nigel.

[Quixoticish]

I seriously doubt it was as simple as "forgetting" to put the gear down, the fact probably is that the Typhoon suffered a similar failure where the gear wouldn't deploy as the 29 Sqn aircraft that made an emergency landing at Coningsby some time ago (I'm sure everyone has seen the pictures). I'm intrigued by what the BOI says about this, I hate to be a cynic but I imagine it's far easier to blame the pilot rather than admit the shiny new Eurojet toy is having teething problems (or blame no-one and say nothing and let the press make up their own stories). Surely the Typhoon has so many gadgets and other assorted tomfoolery that would beep, shout, scream and generally have a hissy fit if you didn't extend the gear on finals? Wouldn't the runway caravan (don't the yanks have those?) Spot that the gear wasn't down?

[Hot_Charlie]

Wouldn't the runway caravan (don't the yanks have those?) Spot that the gear wasn't down?

I'm not sure they do. Runway caravans seem to be an RAF thing from what I've seen.

[T6flyer]

Not knowing anything at all about how a Eurofighter works, I know from personal experience that in singles such as Piper Arrows and Cessna Centurions, a buzzer sounds when at a certain low speed and when the gear is still up. Surely there must be something like this in this computerised fighter. Shame that the pilot is to blame, when it looks like something blew inside the box of tricks in the fuselage.

Martin

[Pringle]

The Merlin has a similar whizz bang alarm when the gear is up and you pass through a certain height and you are below a certain speed.

Only problem is, if you go through these limits with the gear up and have no intention to land it will warn you...ONCE. If you don't go over those limits then decide to land it won't warn you again. Has led to a few in the simulator but not in the real world...yet

Maybe he was doing some low level, got a warning, ignored as he wasn't planning to land, then subsequently did land without going over those limits.

I'm sure rumour control will get us the truth in a long and roundabout way