A-10C One-Wing Landing

[36 Wanted]

Check this out, folks! I hope you enjoy this, it was a pain to execute a landing with such a crazy behavior from the plane ^^ Don't miss the other DCS videos! :joystick:

 

[tsumikae]

Well, technically it was a one-wing-and-a-half landing :P

 

Congrats, though.

[ricktoberfest]

Don't have time to look it up, but there's video of an Israeli F15 pilot doing that for real on YouTube. Congrats though, didn't look easy

[Aginor]

Yeah, it was this one:

Was an F-15 though, I'm pretty sure an A-10 is not capable of doing that.

[dumgrunt]

Nup, she was designed to get home on one tail, one engine and from memory up to 10ft of wing missing.

 

 

Were you flying on game mode? Didnt see you switch to manual reversion after loosing all hydraulic pressure...

Edited May 23, 2014 by dumgrunt
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[SkateZilla]

i have had half my wing blown off, and still able to fly.

 

Roll input is pretty much one direction, and it required pretty much full trim and full stick input in the opposite direction to keep aircraft some what level.

 

I had to base my approach on the fact that I could only roll one direction and regardless of full input the opposite way i would still bank to the side missing the surface.

 

So I limped home riding the stick and rudders to keep aircraft flying in the right direction, I think I also dropped one of the engines to 50% throttle and used the other to help counter the effects of the rudder and aileron riding i was doing.

 

flew over the base and slowly reduced altitude while circling, once I got low enough I circled one last time and cut the engines and touched down at about 10 degrees bank, had the wing not already be half missing, it would have on the impact with the runway.

 

The landing was a bit hard due to reduced lift of missing surface.

 

Blew all 3 tires, and skidded off the surface side ways and out of control, and finally came to a halt on 3 rims, i think the nose gear was down to just the strut.

 

This was a MP Mission on Eno's Server, I took like 3 SAMs.

 

oh, I didnt land on the Runway (as I didnt want to leave a burning wreck on the runway).

I Set down on the Taxiway :music_whistling: to avoid blocking others from taking off.

Edited May 23, 2014 by SkateZilla

[benargee]

I have also tried this a few times, so far unsuccessful. I Take the plane to about 400 knots dive to around 10,000 feet then nose down then nose up hard so i snap a wing off with a few thousand feet to play with, having a heavy payload helps too.

 

Keep in mind that heavy use of rudder gives you roll control, you can actually roll either way. Differential engine input also gives another control input.

[snafup]

Know the feeling.

Never made it to the actual runway but a road behind the terminal. I was actually close enough to get repairs. Go figure.Picture in link.

 

 

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=124165

[jubus]

I've failed a couple times because the loss of lift/control when slowing under 200kts, but just tried this again with the tips you guys gave; high speed, full aileron trim to the other side, slight differential throttle and rudder to control roll, and succeeded!

Managed to hit the start of the runway at 210-220kts and even managed to stop before the grass by doing the tokyo drift while braking.

 

Track attached (probably managed to violate every possible safety rule on the way :music_whistling:)

1winglanding.trk

[36 Wanted]

Well, it wasn't game mode for sure since it was in the 36th Virtual Squadron server :P I don't know much about the settings though.. As Skatezilla said it's pretty difficult but not impossible, probably it can be done even IRL but I would bet my life on it as no pilot on Earth I'd say ^^

[xaoslaad]

 

That's f'ing amazing. Thanks for the mention of it.

[36 Wanted]

F15 has a lot less wing surface, missing a wing dramatically decreases its stability but apparently doesn't compromise it.. I'd be really curious to hear a story about an A-10 RTBing after loosing a wing in combat XD

[Yurgon]

I'd be really curious to hear a story about an A-10 RTBing after loosing a wing in combat XD

 

I guess that would only happen if the pilot realizes he/she forgot the chute. In any other case, if they have to go into manual reversion they're advised to bail out over friendly territory unless the conditions for a landing are nearly perfect. And with half a wing missing, the conditions are rather far from perfect. :D

Edited May 24, 2014 by Yurgon
Typo

[dumgrunt]

Hmm, ok. looking at your video, it looked as if you still had good roll authority, and to be honest looked like how the a-10a would behave (AFM v PFM, no advanced systems modelling). ill be honest ive never tried the a-10c with game flight mode so i wouldnt know. every time ive snapped a wing off ive lost all hydraulics, hence had to switch to man reversion, roll authority is considerably degraded, and contrary to other peoples experiences i found it very hard to keep it level over 200 kts. dropping all stores, rudder trim, and gear down i found helped stability considerably. landing speed was generally around 150kts. ive done it in a controlled setting a few times, but never actually managed to get home "on a mission" after loosing a wing (blown off asopposed to ripped off). although one time i did manage to keep control and head home, but i think i got too high stalled and entered an unrecoverable spiral after about 20mins.

 

so far as actual operational history, we have all seen quite a few them get home with the crap belted out of them. to the best of my knowledge the closest one has came to coming home after loosing its wing was during desert storm. they were doing a night interdiction run, flying at about 5000ft, and one of the flight got wacked with an SA-2. it left a massive hole in the wing, to the point where only the main spars were there, but some of the outer wing was still intact. the story is recounted in detail in one of the older discovery channel docos about the a-10 on YT some where. I wish id saved the link, because I think its probably the best doco done on the a-10 to date.

 

ill confess i have landed the f-15 (AFM version) with half a wing gone. 30mm really doesnt compromise does it? really all that was needed was some serious roll trim, and landed at about 200kts, dropping flaps made it uncontrollable. i actually found landing with CAS off more difficult. of course, when they get round to advanced systems modelling, ie hydraulic pressure, im sure it wont be so easy.

 

oh and just because im an f-14 fanboy and could let the eagle get the upper hand in a pissing contest.... story of a f-14 landing with half a wing gone....

 

http://theaviationist.com/2013/11/06/f-14-damaged/

Edited May 24, 2014 by dumgrunt
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[36 Wanted]

Well, this was recorded on a MP mission with my buddies from the 36th, I swear to you that I had pretty much no control of the rolling (or pitching) at all, infact, as you can see, I have to keep performing barrel-rolls to keep a "stable" altitude since I can stop my climb or my descent just by pitching up and down. Rolling was possible only to the right, following the natural spiral that the plane would have went into if I didn't correct it. I never tried the A-10C with game mode either but I'm pretty sure this wasn't game mode at all! I lost my wing several times so I was kinda used to the impossible pitch and roll input that the aircraft requires when missing a wing to prevent a spiral or a stall (even though 1.2.8 seems to have made it harder to control now rather than it used to be).. I did other landings like this (one was from a MP pub mission where I took damage from a SAM and forced me to belly land) but I gotta say this one was the "best" so far since I could get home with still an intact gear, not destroying it on touchdown and without completely tearing apart the aircraft ^^

 

Check out also this one of mines:

(I think it was 1.2.7)

 

I was a lot worse than now and I still hadn't my Track IR5 :P

[Pinefang]

I never lose just half a wing. Mine always break off at the wing root so there is no joy in my cockpit.

[Maximus_Lazarus]

It probably depends on the speed you have at the moment it happens.

 

If going not very fast, i think you're screwed.

 

IF have enough speed, and can keep an equilibrium and don't have to manouvre much, maybe one can get lucky :d

[Shaman]

Thanks for sharing! Went to my FB wall to show to friends what damage model flight model combination in DCS is capable of :)

 

You have only this life, you trust your ejection seat equipment (you should): EJECT! EJECT! EJECT!

 

Good landing, you walked away from it!

[G0083R]

There should be a thread for people just to share stories like this, just for a good laugh and a good read. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen any threads specifically for "crash landing" stories.