Forum: F-16 News

Good afternoon,

This morning F-16AM J-640 from Volkel Wing (312sq) made a belly landing at Charleroi. It should perform a touch and go/before arrival at SABCA. This Viper is sold to FaChile and arrived here for respray/rework before it will delivered to the FaCh in September.

here a video:

[Link pending approval]

Just wait and see it if will be repaired (depends of the costs).

regards,

Maurits

F-16.net Sponsor

bad deal for FACh..

Is it odd that the MLG doors are open (or appear to be open), but that the gear aren't out?

It's been nearly twenty years since I've worked 16's, but if I recall correctly, the doors are mechanically attached to the MLG uplock mechanism, so that when the doors open, the gear just fall out. Am I wrong on this one?

Mike

Well, at least it was going to the mod/depot facility and wasn't an acceptance flight.

The plane was coming from Volkel for update/revision at the SABCA factory, which is less than 1 km away from Gosselies (Charleroi/Brussels South) airport. Newspapers gave two different versions of this story. According to the official version, the pilot announced landing gear problems befor landing and the gear collapsed when the plane touched down.
But some people say that the plane was doing a touch-and-go and came with too high AOA: the tail touched down and the gear collapsed at this moment.

Another fact is that belgian speaking television RTL released a photography oh the plane when landing, just befor touhdown. The pic is in low res and it's quite difficult to say if aft undercarriage is correctly [Link pending approval] [Link pending approval]

Quote:

... but if I recall correctly, the doors are mechanically attached to the MLG uplock mechanism, so that when the doors open, the gear just fall out. Am I wrong on this one?

Mike - You're not wrong. But, it's not necessarily odd that the main gear doors appear to be open but the gear aren't out. If the gear received a retract command and the aircraft settled onto the runway, the main gear doors would have been physically prevented from closing.

It's certainly an unfortunate occurrence; but, I'm glad to see the pilot is ok. And the investigators also have an intact jet to work with to determine what happened.

exfltsafety wrote:

Mike - You're not wrong. But, it's not necessarily odd that the main gear doors appear to be open but the gear aren't out. If the gear received a retract command and the aircraft settled onto the runway, the main gear doors would have been physically prevented from closing.

It's certainly an unfortunate occurrence; but, I'm glad to see the pilot is ok. And the investigators also have an intact jet to work with to determine what happened.

I'll buy that - thanks Larry! As you said, good to see that the pilot was uninjured and the bird isn't too badly beaten up. With luck she'll either be repaired or replaced with a stored aircraft relatively quickly.

Mike

I believe there were 2 incidents in the 80's during touch and goes in "B" models where the trainee in the front seat actually moved the gear handle to 'up' before pushing the throttle forward from idle.

Both aircraft ended up coming to a halt on their belly. I know for sure one was at Fort Huachuca and I think the other was at Nellis or Indian Springs. Habit patterns and I think they determined it had something to do with a false sense of acceleration on the runway and that cockpit noise level doesn't change much on T&G's anyway.

I know the IP at Fort Huachuca. Before he could blink the aircraft settled and they were along for the ride (slide). Shocked

I want to say the one at Nellis was a T-bird trainee but I'm not sure about that.

Of course this may not be the case here but they did mention T&G's and as Ex-FS says the aircraft does look like the retraction cycle could have been initiated.

OL

edit: Actually the one at Fort Huachuca had wing tanks so they didn't quite make it to the belly.

I think he had a gear problem (no pun intended) and was either assessing the situation or trying for a go around. Nevertheless, I think a gear up landing on a clean jet is the proper config if a main folded or hung? The picture shows all 3 down looking normal, but you can’t see if the toggle is locked. Two Cents

Source:
http://www.checksix-forums.com/showthread.php?p=1152165

MKopack wrote:

exfltsafety wrote:

Mike - You're not wrong. But, it's not necessarily odd that the main gear doors appear to be open but the gear aren't out. If the gear received a retract command and the aircraft settled onto the runway, the main gear doors would have been physically prevented from closing.

It's certainly an unfortunate occurrence; but, I'm glad to see the pilot is ok. And the investigators also have an intact jet to work with to determine what happened.

I'll buy that - thanks Larry! As you said, good to see that the pilot was uninjured and the bird isn't too badly beaten up. With luck she'll either be repaired or replaced with a stored aircraft relatively quickly.

Mike

The pilot like te make a touch and go but selected to short after the touch the landing gear handle in up position.

greetz bonzo 312sqn

Quote:

The pilot like te make a touch and go but selected to short after the touch the landing gear handle in up position.

It's not the first time that has been done and I suspect it won't be the last.

exfltsafety wrote:

It's not the first time that has been done and I suspect it won't be the last.

You're right, and as you said before, thankfully with no injuries and hopefully minimal damage.

Mike

Anyone know who the pilot was? I'm glad he's ok.

bonzo312sqn wrote:

The pilot like te make a touch and go but selected to short after the touch the landing gear handle in up position.

greetz bonzo 312sqn

I Think you'r full of sh*t ... but welcome!

Quote:

I Think you'r full of sh*t ...

You shouldn't comment on things you don't understand.

Forum: F-16 News

Belly landing RNLAF F-16AM J-640@Charleroi 8 April