F111 Belly Landing

[Darrell]

Wow, cool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... IyYK9oz9Go

[Yogimus]

Hope he signed his 1800.

[Rod]

I want to fly with that nav. Of course I probably forgot what to do with her.

[Yogimus]

Don't worry, she'll navigate for you.

[Flintlock Tom]

That's interesting.
In 1973-74 I was a Navy photographer on NAS Miramar in San Diego. An F-14 Tomcat from one of the squadrons lost a main wheel on take-off. The tower scrambled the crash trucks including two photographers, one with a still-camera and one (me) with a 16mm movie camera.
The Tomcat landed with the nose wheel and the one main wheel down. The left (port) wheel pylon was worn down almost to the fuselage, but all else was in tact.
I shot some good footage of the whole landing from the grass beside the runway.
This brought back some good memories.

[SoupOrMan]

Ah, C-models. The only production model on which I never worked. The D-model was the closest I got to it, and then all we did with those was cannibalize parts. If only we could have swapped out the translating cowls for blow-in doors my life would have been made easier...

[Darrell]

The best I can contribute--I once watched an F111 take off on full afterburner, shock diamonds in the exhaust and all. Very impressive.

I was in a 727 once, waiting our turn to take off, and an F111 took off just ahead of us. Again, at full afterburner. It must have been the second loudest thing I ever heard, the 727 shook like a wet dog.

The third--I've told this story before, no doubt, I was driving north on I-25 in northern New Mexico, and got buzzed by an F111 practicing low level flight. He snuck up on me, never saw him until he passed right over the top of my car and flew off to the east, still hugging the ground. If the second mention above wasn't the loudest, this was. I like ta crapped my pants.

[Netpackrat]

The third--I've told this story before, no doubt, I was driving north on I-25 in northern New Mexico, and got buzzed by an F111 practicing low level flight. He snuck up on me, never saw him until he passed right over the top of my car and flew off to the east, still hugging the ground. If the second mention above wasn't the loudest, this was. I like ta crapped my pants.

A B-2 did that to me on the Parks Highway heading south from Fairbanks. Not loud. My first clue was the big shadow passing over my truck.

[Dinochrome]

Long ago, I was stationed at Boardman Bombing Range(NavalWeaponsSystemTrainingFacility) in Oregon. F-111s were frequent visitors from Mountain Home AFB in Washington. The usual daily participants were A-6 Intruders from Whidbey Island, dropping MK-76 practice bombs. The F-111s carried 500-lb practice bombs and used a high-loft maneuver that had the bombs coming straight down while the bomber hastened away the way it came. Nuclear delivery,.... bullseye was anything inside a thousand-foot circle.

It was always a treat to see the 'Varks on the range because they would do a close identification pass with after-burner and wings back. One hell of an airplane.

[SoupOrMan]

The third--I've told this story before, no doubt, I was driving north on I-25 in northern New Mexico, and got buzzed by an F111 practicing low level flight. He snuck up on me, never saw him until he passed right over the top of my car and flew off to the east, still hugging the ground. If the second mention above wasn't the loudest, this was. I like ta crapped my pants.

The Vietnamese called the F-111 "Whispering Death" for a reason.