F-15 HUD Emergency Landing

great recording from a prof pilot !!! job well done

Well, as far as ejection envelopes go, it was well within that of the ACES II, even if he would have ejected at touchdown (300 kts) he would have a full chute before his feet would contact the runway, although, it depends on the timer, if it had the upgraded one, with a logarithmic delay (the 'vanilla' delay for the ACES II is 1.17 seconds above 250 kts). In any case ejecting at 300 kts is possible with the ACES II, as rocket sled ejections have been done at up to 600 kts (but with horrible injuries measured, so it's better to punch at low airspeeds anyway) IIRC at 600 kts true airspeed at sea level, the seat has an apogee of 100 feet and a downtrack distance of 1500 ft, so it's no joyride but it will save you anyway.

when the pilot land, you can see a vibration in the hud, probably the tire is blowing out dur to the hi speed....and you can see the nose of the airplane want to go left and right, im shure the tire explode, this can explain why the jet dont have a great breaking capability, try to brake just on the rims on a fast jet on a runway....they can be the cause of the faillure to stop the plane....but, im shure the pilot make a few mistake here, but when you are in emergency, you not have a lot of chance....its all about experiance and calm...but on a fighter jet...im shure its other thing...i hope the pilot is ok....

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Naaa...sorry, I can't agree with you...esp since I'm Air Force. Both were great examples of airmanship (you must not know the definition) AND flying skill. Also, Whiteman has field gear, so now we really know how informed you are. Uncontained fire?? Sounds like its localized to the engine to me...but what do I know, I just listened to the audio. He had plenty of altitude and airspeed to bring the jet down. Doubt the fire would have burned through the firewall without a blade failure or explosion. Sorry...you just don't really know.

Well it's about risk assessment I guess.. And that guy decided he could make it, save a x million$ plane and live to fly an other day, and he almost did.. Great piloting skills I would say ! I especially like the part just before landing when he says: "come on baby, come on" :-D

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Rather than saving the jet, and potentially lives on the ground?

is there anything left from the plane?i think it got rolled over just a copule of times..

thanks for that kovacs. it all makes more sense now. high speed to keep the fire contained was no doubt the intent.... but twice the landing speed means four times the energy that needs to be dissipated by the brakes (neglecting work done by drag).... that was NOT a good decision by the pilot. seemed to be a short runway too, i give him props for trying to save the plane, but he must have known that he wouldnt get it stopped.

Anybody know where you can get a downloadable version of this?

It was an F-15A from the 110th FS (MO ANG). s/n 76%u20110061. Accident was November 9th 1995.

If you ask me, he should have ejected as soon as it was determined he had a uncontained fire. The decision to eject safely and within the envelope needs to be made early. This guy pushed it way too far. To bring a jet in at 250 knots with an uncontained fire, to a field without gear, (the list goes on), was a bad decision. Who knows when that fire could have burned through his remaining control/engine systems. There was no need for this at all.

I'm also reminded of the F-16 that dead-sticked into Elizabeth City a few years ago. Great piece of piloting skills, horrible example of airmanship. Both of these are examples of what the AF does NOT teach us to do. They really beat the whole "we can replace a/c, we can't replace you" into our crainiums from day one of our training.

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If you want to be technical, it's copyrighted by the USAF...or in this case the MO ANG. ;)

what was then . Did the plane goes behind the runway or what, the quality isn't good.
I think the pilot was in the approach too fast.

Download still not working. :(

In answer to a few issues raised here.

LIsten to the RT.. his wingman asks if the afterburner is lit. When he receives a negative, He warns that he has a fire in the rear section of the engine. After shutdown, the fire remains.

The fire is uncontained and unextinguished. 300 kts plus on approach is likely to be for 2 reasons.... first is that hi speed can sometimes extinguish a fire when the fuel is removed. His wingman recommends hi speed to stop the fire stagnating as airflow reduces and then setting fire to something else in the engine bay.

HUD is "all over the place" because of the assymetric flight coupled with a strong wind. The wind call from tower is 190 degreesat 25kts gusting 33. The w symbol in the HUD is where the jet is pointing.. the dynamic aircraft symbol on the pitch ladder is where the aircraft is going. On left base with a strong wind from the left, the w is to the left of the flight path vector. when he lines up on the runway, it all straightens out. At that time he asks if the airfield has a departure end cable.. the answer is no, so the pilot cant use the hook to engage the cable after touchdown. The cable on a military airfield is not as fierce as on a carrier but will stop the jet if brakes fail.

Brakes probably didnt fail... landing at twice the normal speed is a lot of energy to absorb by braking alone... so he doesnt make it and is fully aware of this.

Speed tape in the F15 HUD is always upside down.

I'm going to give this guy the benefit of a doubt. Under pressure, sometimes, even the best of us makes a decision that, later, doesn't make sense to those of us who are observers. The F-15 does not have a chute. Inverted speed index could be a result of quickly abandoning the pre-fire mission. I agree, it doesn't look like a 300 kt touchdown on the video but the HUD camera is like looking through a straw. In the emergency, this guy might not fly the HUD rock steady. And that second engine may not be providing full power.
There have been a lot of good comments. Until we get more info, I'm taking it at face value that it's real.

p.s. this forward speed doesnt look like 300kt when hes touching down... it loks like maybe 150 MAX... i feel like the hud was an add on somehow.

youve got it wengy... theres somthing fishy here.... the audio seems wierd.
ok, hes got an engine fire.... engines out, other engine has LOTS of power, the hud is alll over the place, if the landing gear hydraulic system is working, the brakes should too
he had lots of runway... hud showed like what, 350 on touhdown.... who the hell would do that.... i guess an f15 landing gear can handle that but hell, if your making an approach with one engine at 300 knots you know your blowing it. and why isnt he all over that "airflow" comment.... all i fly is a cessna 152 and i know the fire is going to go ape s*** when you lose forward speed. i can imagine how crazy that would be, but it just seems wrong.

I don't understand what the problem at the landing was? Why did he come in so fast, why didn't he stop the jet and jump out, rather than run it off the end of the runway and eject? Where his brakes failing too, and doesn't the F-15 also have a drag chute? He's wingman talked about the fire being dangerous once the plane stopped moving, as it would be burning inside the engine and aircraft rather than the flames shooting out the back of the jet, but the pilot in the burning jet didn't wait to find out. His landing certainly seemed ragged, especially listening to his breathing, and it really shouldn't have been too big a deal to land as the F-15's got more than enough power in one engine to fly on, and the engines are mounted closely together making the off center thrust not a big issue, certainly not a problem as in say the F-14. Did the pilot simply panic, screwing up his landing and leaving himself no option but to eject on the ground?

(c) http://au.youtube.com/user/CaptenSPARTAN

landing speed is so high! pilot ejected at last?
and one strange thing, the left speed index sequence is upside down?...