Skunk Works Mailing List
Re: Iran rescue Hercules
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1999 16:03:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: Mary Shafer
Subject: Re: Iran rescue Hercules
On Mon, 30 Aug 1999, James Hart wrote:
> Tonight on ITV's 'Tested To Destruction',
> They also showed footage of the first F16 (YF16 on tailfin)takeoff (which
> occurred during a high speed taxi run)
That's usually referred to as Flight Zero and was the first flight of
the YF-16 (the actual F-16 is enough different that they're really not
the same aircraft). The plane got into a PIO during the high-speed taxi
test and the pilot decided to take off to get away from the hard
unforgiving runway. The damage included scraped wingtip and elevon and
the cause was having the pilot gains too high (they'd halved the
ground-based sim gains even though we'd told them to divide by ten; they
ended up dividing the aircraft gains by five, doing just what we'd
recommended). They also changed from a fixed force stick to a moving
force stick because the lack of proprioceptive cuing was part of the
problem, coupled with the too-high pilot gains.
> and the first F16 crash landing
> (different pilot, gear stuck up).
Where to begin? That wasn't a crash landing, it was a some-gear-up
landing, no "crash" about it at all, and only one gear was hung, not all
three. I think it was the starboard main and it hung in the gear
compartment, rather than coming part way down but not locking. The
pilot took it to the grass between the runway and the taxiway at Fort
Worth and held the gearless side up until the airspeed bled off
considerably and then let the plane down onto the wingtip and inlet. The
inlet was damaged, the engine slightly FODded, and the plane was back
flying in a couple of weeks at the most (which is proof positive it
wasn't a crash). This incident gave rise to the joke, "Q: What's red,
white, and blue and eats grass? A: The YF-16." That particular
airplane was painted in a flashy red, white, and blue livery, the one
used for the YF-16 desk models. I think Alex Wolfe was the pilot, but
may be wrong.
Mary
Mary Shafer DoD #0362 KotFR shafer@ursa-major.spdcc.com
"Some days it don't come easy/And some days it don't come hard
Some days it don't come at all/And these are the days that never end...."
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Created: Mon Aug 30 16:26:29 EDT 1999