A-10 gear up landing

[JeppUpdater]

Some solid work here...brrrrrrrt gun malfunctions (self destructs?) blowing the canopy off and damaging the gear. Well done, a breezy flight and and a tank of an airplane!

Capt. Brett DeVries was part of a four-ship on a routine training sortie from Selfridge to the Grayling Air Gunnery Range. After performing six bomb passes over the gunnery range to drop their ordinance, each A-10 took a turn firing the 30mm gun. However, on his second pass, at 150 feet AGL (Above Ground Level), DeVries’ gun malfunctioned. Simultaneously, the canopy of his aircraft blew off. After climbing to a safe altitude and outside the range patterns, in bound to the closest airfield, DeVries, chased by his wingman, tried to lower his landing gear: the gear started to come down, but the nose gear was hung up from the gun damage leaving no other option than retracting the gear and perform a belly landing.
When retracted, the Thunderbolt II’s main landing gear wheels remain partly exposed: during a belly landing, depending on the stores carried by the aircraft, the wheels that partially protrude from their nacelles can provide a cushion to absorb the impact with the runway; they can also reduce the risk of fire and generally speaking, the overall damage to the fuselage. In addition, when the gear is up, the wheels continue to guarantee the braking action, allowing the pilot to control the aircraft through differential use of the wheel brakes.

 

[MikeD]

Have personally seen two of these occurrences and their resultant gear up landings.

 

[greg1016]

Any 'hog pilots here? Why not land with the mains down and hold the nose up as long as possible?? Like literally every other aircraft I can think of

 

[milleR]

Any 'hog pilots here? Why not land with the mains down and hold the nose up as long as possible?? Like literally every other aircraft I can think of

Probably has something to do with that giant-ass gun sticking out the nose? @MikeD can probably expand

 

[MikeD]

Any 'hog pilots here? Why not land with the mains down and hold the nose up as long as possible?? Like literally every other aircraft I can think of

Hog driver here.

because the gun will dig in to the runway and cartwheel the jet onto its back, trapping or killing the pilot.

the Dash 1 states gear up landings with all up if possible, but has checklist items for nose gear only or one main down + nose down. If both mains down only and cannot be retracted, bailout is recommended.

 

[MikeD]

@JeppUpdater ironically, the two pics you have posted, are two different A-10s involved in two separate gear up landings.

The top pic was in 2017 and is a Michigan Air Guard Jet from the 107th, as is the story cited below it. The bottom pic is the jet from Moody and the 75th that recently occurred.

 

[JeppUpdater]

@JeppUpdater ironically, the two pics you have posted, are two different A-10s involved in two separate gear up landings.

The top pic was in 2017 and is a Michigan Air Guard Jet from the 107th, as is the story cited below it. The bottom pic is the jet from Moody and the 75th that recently occurred.

Well...oops. That’s what I get for just reposting an article and some associated pics. I’ll leave both up with your disclosure (mainly ‘cause the guy deserves to look like a boss).

Since you’re the resident Hog expert though @MikeD, is there no advantage to dumping the underwing ordnance prior to landing? I was surprised to see it in the second picture.


Also, totally unrelated but since I’m picking your brain, there are a lot of bombs painted on the top aircraft. Since aircraft move around and pilots move on - are those for the airframe or the pilot?

 

[MikeD]

You guys are forcing me to dig into the bookcase at this late hour. Here is the checklist section just for landing gear problems, and the many different configurations, that they are their own tab section.

 

[A Life Aloft]

For those who like/are interested in this plane, I have this video saved in my list of faves from You Tube:

This is rather entertaining though.......

 

[MikeD]

Well...oops. That’s what I get for just reposting an article and some associated pics. I’ll leave both up with your disclosure (mainly ‘cause the guy deserves to look like a boss).

Since you’re the resident Hog expert though @MikeD, is there no advantage to dumping the underwing ordnance prior to landing? I was surprised to see it in the second picture.

The stores you see on the jet are inert, ie- no explosives in them, just seeker heads for training use. With those, retaining them affords some protection on a gear up landing. If those were live munitions, they would be jettisoned for obvious reasons. Same stated in the notes/cautions/warnings, below.

Also, totally unrelated but since I’m picking your brain, there are a lot of bombs painted on the top aircraft. Since aircraft move around and pilots move on - are those for the airframe or the pilot?

The mission markers are for the jet, as multiple pilots fly the same jet. In fact, it’s somewhat rare to fly one’s own jet with their name on the side, as jet assignments for the daily flight schedule are fully dependent on the maintenance flow to inspections and hours remaining. Those markers are only kept for a little while after returning stateside, and are required to be removed when stateside. The only combat markings that can be retained are air-to-air kill markings, which are normally a star or enemy aircraft silhouette, or more commonly, a small flag silhouette of the nation the enemy jet was from.

 

[Nark]

I’ve flown with Brett. I guess that explains his landing we had in ATL the time we flew together...

He’s an awesome dude, I had no idea he had that much fun in a Hawg. The topic of “well, I destroyed a jet” isn’t really on the forefront of most conversations. I’ll have to ask him about it next time.

The Michigan guys are rough on those birds. One of his squadron mates had a catastrophic engine failure in Iraq, and had to land at an airbase surrounded by ISIS. It not my story so I can’t give it justice. Needless to say, it was a festival of poop.

 

[NovemberEcho]

Does the wheels sticking out from under the wing when retracted help at all or do they not stick out far enough?

 

[MikeD]

Does the wheels sticking out from under the wing when retracted help at all or do they not stick out far enough?

The main gear roll, and by pulling the EMER BRAKE handle, your brakes work also.

 

[fholbert]

Any 'hog pilots here? Why not land with the mains down and hold the nose up as long as possible?? Like literally every other aircraft I can think of

Are you trying to save the airplane or save yourself?

 

[FlyingAccountant]

Hog driver here.

because the gun will dig in to the runway and cartwheel the jet onto its back, trapping or killing the pilot.

the Dash 1 states gear up landings with all up if possible, but has checklist items for nose gear only or one main down + nose down. If both mains down only and cannot be retracted, bailout is recommended.

Wasn't there a hog driver lost in Desert Storm this way when the airplane flipped over on him upon landing?

 

[MikeD]

Wasn't there a hog driver lost in Desert Storm this way when the airplane flipped over on him upon landing?

that was Oly Olson. Was out of the FAC unit at DMA. Scouting for targets in his assigned control area and was hit by a shoulder-launched SAM that damaged his jet, knocking out the hydraulics. Switched over to manual reversion, he diverted to a forward operating location for an emergency landing. Was single-engine due to explosion damage and had minimal flight control during the process....no ailerons, just rudder and a lagging elevator.....and on short final touched down hard just short of the threshold where the nose gear sheared off and mains collapsed, the jet nosed down and rolled/flipped over into its back, breaking the fuselage just forward of the engines, crushing in the canopy and fatally injuring Olson.

photo credit to the photographer

 

[MikeD]

The sad part of the whole thing is that manual reversion flight had some severe lag to it, as well as very heavy stick control forces in the elevators. It is intended to allow a pilot with no hydraulics just enough flight control authority to exit a hostile area to a safe or safer bailout area, rather than having to bailout over the area where the enemy damaged the aircraft. It is very tricky to make a landing out of. And even more trickier to do when single engine or with an ECM pod installed on either of the far outside stores stations and the associated drag it causes, which cannot be jettisoned. Ejection is recommended, if able, as opposed to a landing attempt.