OT but a good story!

[355th_Paulie]

Weather it's true or false, fact is that it's a good story!!

 

"A simulated dogfight training took place between two F-15D's and four A-4N. Skyhawks over the skies of the Negev, Israel..."At some point I collided with one of the Skyhawks, at first I didn't realize it. I felt a big strike, and I thought we passed through the jet stream of one of the other aircraft. Before I could react, I saw the big fire ball created by the explosion of the Skyhawk. The radio started to deliver calls saying that the Skyhawk pilot has ejected, and I understood that the fireball was the Skyhawk that exploded, and the pilot was ejected automatically.There was a tremendous fuel stream going out of my wing, and I understood it was badly damaged. The aircraft flew without control in a strange piral. I reconnected the electric control to the control surfaces, and slowly gained control of the aircraft until I was straight and level again. It was clear to me that I had to eject. When I gained control I said : "Hey, wait, don't eject yet!" No warning light was on and the navigation computer worked as usual; (I just needed a warning light in my panel to indicate that I missed a wing...)." My instructor pilot ordered me to eject. The wing is a fuel tank, and the fuel indicator showed 0.000 so I assumed that the jet stream sucked all the fuel out of the other tanks. However, I remembered that the valves operate only in one direction, so that I might have enough fuel to get to the nearest airfield and land. I worked like a machine, wasn't scared and didn't worry. All I knew was as long as the sucker lies, I'm gonna stay inside. I started to decrease the airspeed, but at that point one wing was not enough. So I went into a spin down and to the right. A second before I decided to eject, I pushed the throttle and lit the afterburner. I gained speed and thus got control of the aircraft again. Next thing I did was lower the arresting hook.. A few seconds later I touched the runway at 260 knots, about twice the recommended speed, and called the tower to erect the emergency recovery net. The hook was torn away from the fuselage because of the high speed, but I managed to stop 10 meters before the net. I turned back to shake the hand of my instructor, who had urged me to eject, and then I saw it for the first time - no wing!"

 

[Guest EVIL-SCOTSMAN]

its true, it landed with only 1 wing...

[Force_Feedback]

Oh, it's only the 357th time I hear about this story, keep up the good work, and you might hit the magic 500 number :\

[Pilotasso]

At least 1 of the pics above is photoshoped. The F-15 couldnt possibly land with wing(s) leveled when 1 one of them is missing.

[Guest EVIL-SCOTSMAN]

also in the pic of it landing, in the story it claimed he landed with emergency hook down, the hook is up in the pic of the 15 landing...

[Gazehound]

Anyone in that situation would have ejected, no question. If not they would not have landed anyway.

[Pilotasso]

No, the story is true only that the picture wont convince me.

[JaBoG32_Prinzartus]

Do F-15s (F-15Ds) have a landing hook at all? And if, what for? They are not Carrier based, right?

[504 Wolverine]

Yeah at least 3 pics are photoshopped. They show nothing on the right hand side where as two pics on the ground show large stumps where the wing spars have sheared off.

 

Also it was reported that the emergency hook was ripped from the aircraft so that might explain the lack of one in the real (if any) pics. I only rmember the pic with the 2 pilots being published

 

Prinzartus: the emergency hook is used on land based USAF fighters such as F-15C/D & F-16C/D. The system needs a runway with the propper emergency equipment (a slightly raised wire across the runway with a complicated weight system attached to it). Instead of stopping the aircraft immediately like a carrier based system the land based system gradually slows the aircraft down. Land based aircraft cannot take the stress of a carrier style trap system.

[Force_Feedback]

I thought the story always featured a f-15c (or I, whatever), and that the pilot in question didn't realize he was missing a wing, and landed the aircraft. And that if he would have known he was missing a wing he would've ejected.

[504 Wolverine]

The story I heard was like the story above in a f-15D on a training flight. Pilot was IIRC a Major with the instructor being a captain. I think that was the ranks but anyways the pilot pulled rank when instructor told him to eject.