Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:55 am
-dp-
Last edited by Rob Mears on Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Hiway Landings
Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:37 am
Not to relish Interstate Highway landings, but it has been going on for quite some time and is relatively safe with proper execution. I thought of an old one we witnessed and is potentially a far more dangerous attempt than a relatively "harmless" Six........
Bristol Argosy. Interstate I-75. Somewhere around late summer 1966(the corn is turning yellow and look at the period Dodge state truck). Operator: Zantop. Injuries: None, Reason for forced landing: IIRC, fuel Exhaustion(note feathered props).
Note abbreviated fins and missing #4.......he stuffed it UNDER the bridge (overpass) photo is taken from. They have just unstuffed it and tied off #1 to prevent windmilling so they can partially open the roadway and then figure out how to get it out of there! Note also, the fins are clipped at a height which is juuuuuust barely above cabin roof. Lucky guys..they literally kept their heads. Must have been on the brakes compressing the nose strut.
Not sure if this is warbird material....did the British use Argosys for military pruposes? Please, don't bash me for posting "vulture" pics....it's not meant that way. This was a successful forced landing on a major high way some 40+ years ago.
Bristol Argosy. Interstate I-75. Somewhere around late summer 1966(the corn is turning yellow and look at the period Dodge state truck). Operator: Zantop. Injuries: None, Reason for forced landing: IIRC, fuel Exhaustion(note feathered props).
Note abbreviated fins and missing #4.......he stuffed it UNDER the bridge (overpass) photo is taken from. They have just unstuffed it and tied off #1 to prevent windmilling so they can partially open the roadway and then figure out how to get it out of there! Note also, the fins are clipped at a height which is juuuuuust barely above cabin roof. Lucky guys..they literally kept their heads. Must have been on the brakes compressing the nose strut.
Not sure if this is warbird material....did the British use Argosys for military pruposes? Please, don't bash me for posting "vulture" pics....it's not meant that way. This was a successful forced landing on a major high way some 40+ years ago.
Last edited by Wheels up on Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:42 am
cool pics.
B
B
Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:51 am
fuel exhaustion. http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=73708&key=0
blame it on the FEO.
blame it on the FEO.
Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:56 am
Ahh! I was a year off....1965.
Thu Jul 26, 2007 10:12 am
great photo reading Wheels up 
Thu Jul 26, 2007 1:28 pm
Fantastic pic Wheels up, never heard of that accident before. Actually an Armstrong Whitworth (or later Hawker Siddeley) Argosy, and yes, the RAF used quite a few of them for many years. There have been quite a few highway landings over the years, but that has to be the most spectacular!
Great outcome for Bill Leff, great airmanship!
Great outcome for Bill Leff, great airmanship!
Thu Jul 26, 2007 5:55 pm
Actually an Armstrong Whitworth (or later Hawker Siddeley) Argosy
Whoopsie....
...I had the Bristol Wayfarer freighter on my mind. Sorry there ol' boy.
Thu Jul 26, 2007 6:31 pm
Whoa crap. That's just up the road from me. I should try and find the bridge and see if the marks are still there.
Any idea what became of the Bristol?
Shay
____________
Semper Fortis
Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:51 am
skybolt2003 wrote:blame it on the FEO.
It doesn't matter who did what and who didn't, legally it's ALWAYS the Captains (PIC) fault, even when the FE missed something! It's a part of a Capt responsebility to make sure his crew members perform their duties accordingly!
Fri Jul 27, 2007 8:54 am
Towpilot wrote:skybolt2003 wrote:blame it on the FEO.
It doesn't matter who did what and who didn't, legally it's ALWAYS the Captains (PIC) fault, even when the FE missed something! It's a part of a Capt responsebility to make sure his crew members perform their duties accordingly!
Exactly - my point was that in the NTSB report they specifically mention the flight engineer and only the flight engineer for lack of preflight.
Towpilot, (I assume you're a towpilot by your screen name) did you happen to notice the other vid on avweb: http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/votw/Vi ... 587-1.html
A rans barely misses hitting a glider tug, but gets the tow rope instead. Complete with ballastic parachute deployment . . .
Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:37 am
Shay wrote::shock: Whoa crap. That's just up the road from me. I should try and find the bridge and see if the marks are still there.
No marks. Mile marker 79 south bound.
A few remarks about the job performed here. NTSB report states PIC 26 years with 146 hrs type. The Argosy is in the median. That's not where he landed. This bridge has a pillar in center median with an additional pillar outside each opposing lane, making it a 5 support structure: east approach berm, outboard pillar Northbound, center pillar, outboard pillar South bound, and the west approach berm. Take a look at the roadway to the left of pic...it's typical about 20 feet plus 2' berm each side. That's 24'. Compare the tread width of the Argosy to the roadwidth. Oh my! He landed smack centerline on the tarmac Southbound (toward camera). The starboard wing struck the outborad bridge pillar just outside the boom, which seperated the #4 engine. The port wing struck the center pillar in median which is farther distance from road center line thus sparing #1. Bravo!
He did this on an unlit stretch of highway at 2AM with only his lights and a few sparse cars. With all the bells and whistles going off in the 'pit....26 years old.....146 hrs in type....to get some respect of that, that's less than 4 weeks on the job at a 40 hour week. I can't get employees today to learn how to wipe their butt in that time!
What would the outcome have been if he had not chosen the interstate? It would have been an accident, not a forced landing. I, personally, see a difference.
BTW: Oh yeah, you Air Force people....look at the tire track in the soft median in foregorund. Those are military NDT's. See the tail plane of Argosy? There's the aft end of a vehicle recognize it? It is a typcal 5 ton Air Force aircraft recovery truck. 5th wheel, offset crane cab, and Air Force painted them yellow. This one's likely called in from Wright Pat. My brother has a smattering of military vehicles (including a White half track and some light tank I can't recall type) and has a 5 ton aircraft recovery truck...it was painted yellow.....now you don't suppose it was......
One comment about Bill Leff's T6 incident, this is not a criticism, just a curiousity. I know a lot of things are going thru a fellow's mind in a power out dead stick approach(did a couple myself) , but has anyone noticed the prop position? Straight up and down. In a landing config you have visibility over the nose and here's this big H-S blade smack in your face! Wouldn't you have a second to bump the starter to clear your vis? Bill left it there and worked around it, successfully. Could have been worse with blades horizontal once the tail's down on the ground tho'....now you have even less vis for ground handling. I probably would have thought to bump it, getting it out of my way for approach and then regretted it on the ground, once the tail comes down and that prop would have been like the middle wing on Fokker DrI!!...my mind doesn't look as far ahead as his must! Either way, I won't criticise. Well done.
for another twist
Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:14 pm
for another twist
Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:15 pm
Fri Jul 27, 2007 5:32 pm
Here's a little something on Mr. Leff by the way (with links to his website):
http://www.airventure.org/2007/performers/bill_leff.html
http://www.airventure.org/2007/performers/bill_leff.html