Night flight off the boat, CAT 4...half way down the stroke lost all electrical power to the cockpit. Held the stick where I thought a good spot was, BN grabbed goggles, put them on (stby gyro tumbled with loss of electrical power...not supposed to happen that way). Subconciously glommed off on the oil rig with the gas vent fire and was in a 45 degree left AOB thinking that was "up" climbing through about 150'. BN was cool hand luke the whole time. Raised the gear and climbed out through the Persian Gulf overcaste to get on top. No navaids, but had radios and external lights. Couldn't figure out why we had such funky electrical indications (NATOPS said it wasn't supposed to happen that way). Departure directed an S-3 to join and bring us down but we graciously (vociferously) declined. Asked for the recovery tanker (fellow A-6) to take us down. We had no idea on our fuel state (we were full on launch and had been flying for about 20 minutes...just guessed how long to dump to get down to max trap). At 4 miles we had to do a 360 to continue our "SWAG" dump to max trap. Instant vertigo. Lead decided to drop us off "a little high and a little lined up left on the ACLS...thougt it would help since we were flying stbd IFR parade). Didn't help. We were high and lined up left. Put a correction in at 3/4 mile at the ball call and proceeded to do my best "cougar" impersonation. CAG paddles famous call..."Level your wings" BN said "there's no level", he was still wearing his NVGs. Paddles lip locked me, BN called wings level and line-up corrections along with stby vsi calls...all in the calmest voice I'd ever heard. We trapped (taxi one wire) to an OK underline. Stopped the jet in the LA (last to recover) and shut down. Had vertigo so bad (not to mention uncontrollable leg shakes) that when I climbed down the pilot's boarding ladder I fell over. Flight deck chief helped me up and got me to the ready room. BN saved our lives by his calm and positive comm, I was scared sh!tle$$. Gave him a big hug and he said it was nothing, but he had his right hand on his ejection handle from the 360 turn at 4 miles til the trap. Found out that maintenance had been done on the nose wheel well circuit breaker panel and the electrical quick disconnect worked as advertised...it quickly disconnected on the cat stroke after not being tightened down post maintenance. The jet was 512 (the one with my name on it), maintenance never gave me the jet again that cruise (maintenance master chief had pity on this superstitious nugget). But....skipper had me back up the next night. Didn't like it at the time but the best thing for the scared pilot to get over the event.
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Scariest Day/Night Flying
- Thread starter phrogpilot73
- Start date
phrogpilot73
Well-Known Member
Holy $hit! I have two things to say. 1. You've got big balls. 2. I'd have blown the guy myself...
My palms were sweating reading this story. I guess I have a few things to look forward to at the boat
FezzCB,
It was the first and only time I ever actually verbalized (inner monologue) that I was going to die. I remember the ball call, the legs shaking and "knowing" we were going to hit the ramp.
Been flying single seat for 11 years now and I still think back to that night and know I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my BN. He was scared sh!tle$$ too, but he compartmentalized his stress and pulled us through like a champ. I've pretty much done it all and when YOU are a good NFO, the two of you make the most effective killing machine. When YOU are a bad NFO, you are less effective than a Hornet nugget on his first night mission from the boat.
It was the first and only time I ever actually verbalized (inner monologue) that I was going to die. I remember the ball call, the legs shaking and "knowing" we were going to hit the ramp.
Been flying single seat for 11 years now and I still think back to that night and know I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my BN. He was scared sh!tle$$ too, but he compartmentalized his stress and pulled us through like a champ. I've pretty much done it all and when YOU are a good NFO, the two of you make the most effective killing machine. When YOU are a bad NFO, you are less effective than a Hornet nugget on his first night mission from the boat.
We take off as a flight of 4 from an FOB (night), get about 30 minutes into the flight as WX deteriorates to about 500/1. The Flight lead calls a separation by time along the course (we're in canyons), chalk two slows to 100 kts, 3 slows to 90, etc. just as everyone reports established on course with 2 minutes separation we punch in, so it's the next 90 minutes 300' IMC on the radar. Each chalk calling in over points to make sure we have 2 minute seperation. *****in' Betty" is calling "Obstacles" every 5 seconds cuz' the radar's bouncing off the canyon walls, we're using the moving map with height above terrain symbology to cross check the radar. About 15 miles to the target we get into some low ground and make turns at a waypoint to rejoin the flight. Once we're all joined up go in drop the boys at the "X", and head off to the tanker for some gas. As we climb up and get on the hose, the tanker drags us through the same crap we just got out of on the way down. blacked out, on the hose, all you can see is the refueling pod illuminated by an IR spotlight, can't even see the horizontal stab which is 18' away from the rotor disk. So, all 4 birds cycle through on the tanker for about 20 minutes each. We were forced to stay on it as we were still IMC. The tanker agreed to drag us in formation and hooked up back to a release point where we could get into VMC to get back to the target where our customers were waiting to exfil. Myself and the co-pilot had to switch off about every 5 minutes as we were both getting vertigo. The tanker is on his radar and we're still on the hose at 500' bouncing through the mountains, and it's rough. I'm getting sick, my co-pilot's getting sick to the point where we thought we were going to have to break off and try to climb up through it on top to get ourselves together. The tanker finally broke out. As soon as we called clear of the hoses, he made a sharp break and climb. It took us about 10 minutes to regroup and head back into the target.
Not as hopeless as the dark nights on a rolling ship, but IMC in the mountains at low-level sucks! Not to mention that's just trying to get to the fight.
Not as hopeless as the dark nights on a rolling ship, but IMC in the mountains at low-level sucks! Not to mention that's just trying to get to the fight.
phrogpilot73
Well-Known Member
At least you have radar... I've punched into the goo indavertantly, and all we had to save our asses was the Natops brief, and hoping that everyone else did what they were supposed to. Luckily, they did...
That's good stuff right there, Stearmann. Thanks for sharing. Going by the description, I am assuming Afghanistan.
I was dash three of a 4 shipflight during an tng air assault. We had to fly a feet wet alternate route that caused us to execute a 180 turn at the RP. We all had sling loads and the previous eight a/c infront of us ( we were serial 3)
radioed that wx was getting worse. We went feet dry and basically hit weather, about 300 and 1/8. I lost partial sight of dash one but could see dash two. We had to fly at about 1 disc to see each other. As dash one hit the bad vis he slowed to about 60 knots. We all slowed back expect dash 4 who was very heavy. He told me to speed up. I told him I was going to go around left due to my postion in the formation and the rising terrain to the right. I thought he'd have room to follow me but he was coming in way to fast. At that point I did get that real ****ty feeling that something bad was about to happen. I saw him fly by my window at about 1 disc then lost him.
I thought he was going to go IIMC and recover to the air field. No such luck. His sling legs hit the rotor of dash one and they both burned in. I was a pretty experinced aircraft commander at the time. My co-pilot was a young 0-2. We both couldn't believe it. I got on the radio to call out the maday and things just went nuts after that. Totally confusion. We stayed in the area for a few minutes to try and help. The terrain was uneven so no luck landing and we had no hoist. We broke staion as the SAR bird called inbound. I can hardly rememebr flying the aircraft back. I knew that some good friends had just died and it was sureal. We ended up losing 6 good men that night including my roommate from a previous assingment.
As a senior aviator now I use that experince in many of the decisions that I make. That night many of us made bad decisions based of complacency and other factors. I don't talk of the incident very often unless something can come out of it. Training and combat aren't the same. If things look bad they probably are. And never be affraid to speak your mind if it just doesn't look right.
radioed that wx was getting worse. We went feet dry and basically hit weather, about 300 and 1/8. I lost partial sight of dash one but could see dash two. We had to fly at about 1 disc to see each other. As dash one hit the bad vis he slowed to about 60 knots. We all slowed back expect dash 4 who was very heavy. He told me to speed up. I told him I was going to go around left due to my postion in the formation and the rising terrain to the right. I thought he'd have room to follow me but he was coming in way to fast. At that point I did get that real ****ty feeling that something bad was about to happen. I saw him fly by my window at about 1 disc then lost him.
I thought he was going to go IIMC and recover to the air field. No such luck. His sling legs hit the rotor of dash one and they both burned in. I was a pretty experinced aircraft commander at the time. My co-pilot was a young 0-2. We both couldn't believe it. I got on the radio to call out the maday and things just went nuts after that. Totally confusion. We stayed in the area for a few minutes to try and help. The terrain was uneven so no luck landing and we had no hoist. We broke staion as the SAR bird called inbound. I can hardly rememebr flying the aircraft back. I knew that some good friends had just died and it was sureal. We ended up losing 6 good men that night including my roommate from a previous assingment.
As a senior aviator now I use that experince in many of the decisions that I make. That night many of us made bad decisions based of complacency and other factors. I don't talk of the incident very often unless something can come out of it. Training and combat aren't the same. If things look bad they probably are. And never be affraid to speak your mind if it just doesn't look right.
Here`s the short version...June 19th, 1963. Transpac from NZJ to Atsugi, stops in Hawaii and Midway. All this in three days. 5 or 6 in flight refuelings, can`t remember exactly (CRS, old age). At the first refueling I`m in a Crusader, brand new, 52 hours total time on the bird (BuNo. 150298)refueling from a GV-1 (C-130H). The Herk was putting out way more fuel pressure that advertised and way, way more than F8`s check valves could hold back. Anyway I found out later that my bird took on 250 gals. more than the tanks could hold when the fwd. aux and the wing tanks exploded, flaming out the J-57. I dropped the Rat and tried for a relight ( I knew this was hopeless) Managed to set the entire mess on fire. Last I saw was 30% rpm and 1000 degrees..that`s as far as the TPT needle would go. Wingie told me that I had 200 feet of flame coming out of the bird.I pulled the curtain...nothing, then the alternate handle..still nothing. I tried to blow the canopy...nothing. I finally opened the canopy manually, clam shell type, it went bye-bye. I unhooked and went over the port side, hitting the refueling probe, but missing the tail. Estimate about 250 kts. Pulled the D ring...nothing. Manually pulled the `chute from the pack. The pilot `chute opened, but the main one was twisted, never opened. Total fall was about 10,000 to 15,000 feet. I hit feet first, ripped off the seat pan with the raft, broke both ankles, both legs, back, neck,pelvis collapsed a lung, knocked 3 fillings from my teeth, and had a renal shut down (kidneys no workie)from the impact. My wingie followed me down and reported to the flight that I got out, but `chute didn`t deploy. A Herk came down and dropped me a raft which I couldn`t get into and after a couple of hours a Coast Guard SA 16 dropped another one which I hung onto until a mine sweeper, the USS Embattle (MSO 434) picked me up and later high lined me over to the USS Los Angeles (CA 135). They thought that the bad kidneys were gonna kill me so called for a Marine H-34 to come and get me (350 miles,a one way trip) He found the cruiser, refueled, and took me to the USS Haven, a hospital ship docked at Long Beach.Kidneys started up on their own on the trip to the beach, several operations and 6 months later, I was back in fighters.BTW, I lost a Marine Corps .38 cal pistol, which caused me more grief than losing the Crusader....Top That!
Death Rattler
I heard this story a few times in my tenure in the Corps.
I always thought it was an urban legand, you know
I knew a guy who knew a guy who dated a girl whose uncle.......
Holy **** the legand lives
Semper Fi Devil Dog
I heard this story a few times in my tenure in the Corps.
I always thought it was an urban legand, you know
I knew a guy who knew a guy who dated a girl whose uncle.......
Holy **** the legand lives
Semper Fi Devil Dog
