Warbird Information Exchange

This is interesting, so I thought I'd start a new thread with the facts concerning the accident.

Kleeman's landing may not have been sufficiently firm enough to actuate the squat switches to the FBW system. In the F-18 the flight control surfaces move at a certain "inflight" rate of movement, giving it the excellent maneuverability it has. On landing, squat switches on the main drag links engage, and any movement of the stick moves the control surfaces in the "ground" mode, or about 3/4 less than the flight mode. If one makes a soft touchdown in the jet to where the squats don't engage, and then deflects a control surface (countering a crosswind for example), the resultant control surface movement is enought to roll the jet over at touchdown speeds, that's what happened in Kleeman's case.

One of his mistakes was that by "habit" he utilised rudder for runway alignment corrections. In the F18 this is a Grave mistake to make, even conducting an aerobrake procedure to bleed airspeed before putting the nose down. Floating the runway surface and the High Lift of the Flaps and wing configuration will keep the FLCS in the Hi YAW,PITCH/Roll Config. But the aircraft is not flying it is Creating drag in the Air Compression between the Wings and the Runway surface. on crosswinds this is deadly. this is why in the F18 Aerobrakeing is a Mistake in Cross wind or direct into the win component landings. It should only be used in the event of a Brake Failure. In a non cable equipped airfield. Miramar is not far from the San Diego Coast and the airfield always has a 10-30 knot wind comming across the west runway.

The flight leader's fuel quantity was significantly higher than his wingman's so he elcted to circle again and follow his wingman in the landing sequence. This he did.
The leader seemed to flare ever so slightly on an approach that was slightly fast then the main mounts touched down. After rolling a thousand feet or so the nose wheel was lowered onto the runway. The rest of the landing was normal untill about three thousand feet feet down the runway when braking was apparently initiated and hydroplaning ensues immediately. The airplane began to drift right, departed the runway at a speed of about 72 knots whereupon the right mainmount settled into the soft, wet earth. The airplane began to swerve farther to the right as the left mainmount entered the earth and the right wingtip dug into the ground. The airplane flipped inverted and came to a halt upside down and heading in a direction roughly 320 degrees with the engines running and the canopy seperated from the fuselage. All of this occured very rapidly, and the tower operator immediatly went into action issuing the warnings over the radio and telephone and rolling the crash trucks. The first crash truck arrived at the airplane at 9:11. They found the pilots helmeted head jammed into the soft earth with a mixture of rainwater and jet fuel filling up the depression it had made. There were several serious concerns which the crash crews needed to consider. There was the presence of leaking jet fuel and two engines still running, an ejection seat which had been arrested in mid ejection sequence and still ready to explode as well as an injured pilot whom they had to extricate from an airplane which was crushing him into the earth. But, they determined that the pilot was alive after the ambulance reached the scene at 09:22. The crane arrived at 09:30 to lift the airplane and axtricate the pilot. Meanwhile, being unable to reach the engine throttles, the crash crew extinguished the engines with water. By 10:00 the seat was saftied by an escape systems technician. Six minutes later the airplane was lifted clear of the ground and the pilot removed. At 10:31 the pilot was pronounced dead. Cause of death was determined to be a transected spinal chord which occurred at impact with the ground.

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Don't touch my junk!!

Jack, thanks for the research, do you know which squadron was this bird attached to? I can't remember if it was China Lake or Pt. Mugu based

While I was at Miramar two other accidents made News headlines, an A3D that crashed shortly after t/o just beyond the end of the runway, and a F-14A that crashed shortly after t/o next to I-15 Poway off-ramp.

The A3D accident happened during night ops, we found out the details after mustering for the day shift. The F-14 accident happened during day vfr and I was heading out the east gate in my car, saw the parachutes, and thought what the heck, don't those guys know theres a navy base here. I later learned that it was an ex-124 bird that we had given up to the fleet and the parachutes were two successful ejections from a powerless bird.

Warren

I don't see the connection between the flight control ratio and the accident. From the narrative, it seems to just say that he hydroplaned off the side of the runway, then flipped over.

I understand that not actuating the squat switches via a soft landing would cause the flight controls to not switch into their ground gain. I don't follow how the pilot's "habit" of using rudder to maintain runway alignment is a bad habit, nor how that contributed to the accident.

From the distances and speeds mentioned, it doesn't seem that the pilot did anything grossly wrong, although it's smart to touch down firmly on a wet runway, not only to scrub off airspeed but also to break through the surface tension of the standing water and reduce hydroplaning. 72 knots at 3,000 feet down the runway seems reasonable.

FWIW, in the Hornet's big brother, the F-15E, the flight control gain (pitch ratio and roll ratio) is controlled by the flight control computer based on airspeed. The only thing changed by the WOW switches is the interconnect between the aileron and rudder -- once the aircraft is on the ground, the "auto coordination" is removed, allowing upwind aileron to be applied if needed to counteract crosswinds without moving the rudders. I can't imagine the systems in a very similar McDonnell Douglas product would be significantly different.

I believe Capt Kleeman was CO of VX-4 ar Pt. Mugu.

If I understand what I'm reading here (and that's highly questionable) Natops warns against using aerodynamic braking in a high cross wind situation and Capt Kleeman had a habit of doing this. I believe he was fairly new to the F-18 (checking out when he assumed command of VX-4)having flown F-4s & F-14s during his career.

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Don't touch my junk!!

Ahh, okay...that makes more sense.

Just for the record Cdr Hank "the Tank" Kleeman was my Cdr onboard the Nimtz with VF-41 Black Aces....he was and will remain the
most exceptional fighter pilot I have ever observed. The things he could do with the F-14 would make anyone's jaw drop... if they could
fathom how he could do those things ( I, not being a pilot, couldn't). In the records of Navy aviators anyone who wishes to excell in their
aircraft handling abilities should take notes from this aviator's accomplishments (including shooting down the Lybians as well as being
a Vietnam aviator). Take notes, learn from his accomplishments, and do not let this tragic accident diminish his greatest s a Naval
Aviator. Toast to his memory as I am sure his fellow aviators have many, many times since 1985. I once observed him take off from
the flight deck and immediately do a upward 180 degree inverted turn and spin his F14 around upright and go straight backwards all within a few seconds.......no pilot I knew of could perform that feat before __or__ after that ( just one example) in the F-14. In fact
it is my favorite story to tell about F-14 aviators...."Hank the Tank" was the best pilot I have ever observed!!! Top notch, bar none.
Anyone who was with him please attest to this confirmation of his extraordinary aviation skills. I was shocked when I discovered he
died, however, he was a aviation leader, and a remarkable flyer of the Navy's best warcrafts.