Out of fuel, Out of Time and One Chance to Land

Boy were these guys lucky!

The aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower was finally in sight.
The pilot of the F/A-18 Super Hornet hurriedly flipped switches and pushed levers. The aviator in the backseat leaned forward, straining to see the flight deck floating in the distance. The jet's right engine had locked up, its landing gear jammed, the main fuel tank almost empty.

www.military.com...

Where they? they were 11 miles from the aircraft carrier and in trouble. They could have popped out then, But instructed to fly some 200+ miles before turning around again.

Maybe that does make them lucky but reading that story makes my heart beat increase. My old chevy has engine trouble is one thing,

reply to post by nighthawk1954


I'd love to get my hands on the full report and see all the different ways they came up with that the pilot screwed the pooch. I saw a bunch just from what was in the article. The GIB was damn lucky he didn't get hurt bad when he was punched out while leaning forward.

reply to post by nighthawk1954


WOW! I love stuff like this. Murphy's law was hard at work with the pilot and WO. I would think that they should have known about the fuel probe shutting down the fuel transfer pumps. I also would think there should be an override procedure to use them in the case of a fueling accident like the one they encountered. I would think that this has had to happen quite a number of times due to turbulence during the refueling cycle.

Anyway, the pilot knows a lot more now. And I wonder if he got another $41mil plane to fly? Do they give you the boot in a situation like that?

I had a friend that had a turbo helicopter, like the Magnum PI helicopter if you have seen it. He had a midair engine failure and managed to see a brief spot open in the forest below. Using auto-rotation he got to the field with a hard landing. The passenger got out with a cut on the head and he was uninjured. Prepared for the insurance company to ditch him and not being able to get insurance again he thought he might have a real problem. Surprisingly the insurance told him he would stat insured and no premium increases. The agent told him anyone that has a engine failure in a rotatory wing aircraft and gets it on the ground with out serious injury or death is an amazing pilot and they were happy to insure him.

Anyway, thanks for the read. A joke I once saw that comes out of a military flight manual:

"If you have to use full thrust to make it to the hanger, your landing gear is not down."

They sure where lucky with the pilot pulling the ejection rope with out the REO knowing he could have ended up like Goose in Top Gun.