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News: Legendary F-16 test pilot Neil Anderson dies [2006-09-18]
Neil R. Anderson accumulated over 15,000 flight hours in over 200 types of aircraft, some of them still very much experimental. But the story that probably spawned the most legends about him involved a belly landing in an F-16.
The aircraft had a few tense moments during its first two flights. On both flights, the nose landing gear would not fully extend for landing. Gear extend /retract tests on the ground had gone well, so no one expected any problems in flight. However, since the NLG extends down and forward, the air pressure of 200 kt at extension prevented full extension. The pilot, Neal Anderson, tried extending at a lower airspeed, pulling 3g, etc., all to no avail. For some reason he flipped the alternate flap switch and the hydraulic pressure pulse was just enough to lock the gear down. About 50 guys in the control room started to breath again. After the flight, gear rigging adjustments were made to correct the problem. Or so we thought! On flight 2, the same thing happened. Neal was not pleased to say the least.
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