HD Yak 50 Engine Failure, April 2010, UK

[rakinroll]

Wow!

[Fltlt_HardBall]

Yak-50s have semi-retractable undercarriage (like an IL-2!), which IIRC is designed for just such a situation - the ability to do a belly landing with minimal damage to the aircraft. That helmet cam was great, wasn't it? Very immersive

[The Kraken]

Originally Posted by Fltlt_HardBall

That helmet cam was great, wasn't it? Very immersive

Indeed - 6DOF at its best

Very interesting video, thanks for sharing it!

[Fliegenpilz]

Sorry if I might sound a bit harsh... Just my 2cent...

This was NOT a "perfect" landing in one simple way: The Pilot did not fly a traffic pattern before landing, and made steep turns right above the ground! Surely he was lucky not to stall in that 45° turn, but he nearly had a fatal crash with that stonewall - just because from the beginning on he had no clue where to land, and constantly changed his mind right up to the end...

If I did a no-motor-practice-landing like this during my flight training, my flight instructor would have torn my head off!

Of course this is quite theoretical, and bearing in mind how stressfull such a situation can be (especially when there aren't such big flat fields like here in northern Germany ), the pilot did an excellent job! The wheel-up-decision was the best he could have made, and "every landing you can walk away from is a good landing", so: Well done!

Just wanted to relativise the "couldnt be better landing"-posts

Greetings, Fliegenpilz

[swiss]

[mazex]

Originally Posted by Fliegenpilz

Sorry if I might sound a bit harsh... Just my 2cent...

This was NOT a "perfect" landing in one simple way: The Pilot did not fly a traffic pattern before landing, and made steep turns right above the ground! Surely he was lucky not to stall in that 45° turn, but he nearly had a fatal crash with that stonewall - just because from the beginning on he had no clue where to land, and constantly changed his mind right up to the end...

If I did a no-motor-practice-landing like this during my flight training, my flight instructor would have torn my head off!

Of course this is quite theoretical, and bearing in mind how stressfull such a situation can be (especially when there aren't such big flat fields like here in northern Germany ), the pilot did an excellent job! The wheel-up-decision was the best he could have made, and "every landing you can walk away from is a good landing", so: Well done!

Just wanted to relativise the "couldnt be better landing"-posts

Greetings, Fliegenpilz

Yes, there was a bit to much turning on low altitude for me too, but heck - when you sit there i a real situation it's a completely different business than when watching a video... There was a ravine below him on his "base line" for the landing and not knowing how the heck a Yak with no engine behaves I understand that he came in a bit too close, too high and too fast

The only similar "sharp" incident in an aircraft I've had was 25 years ago in my first flight in a single seater glider after 25 lessons or so (a Pilatus B4-PC11). The tow pilot did his first tow in Sweden after many years living in Australia where they tow below the prop wash - and in Sweden we tow above it... That's a big difference where the glider is in your mirrors and when we took off and he looked in his mirrors and saw me "high above" and he thought I was going to pull his tail up and make him crash so he pulled his handle and released the line from the tow plane...

There I was at 125 meters seeing the line drop away to the ground with a railway and an industrial area in front of me and the airfield downwind behind me with a nasty ravine in the end... The instructions in this case naturally says land right ahead on the least nasty place - but what did I do? I felt that I had rather good speed (like the guy in the video) and did a steep 180 degree turn back (first turn in the Pilatus after flying Bergfalkes it felt rather good I remember ) to a downwind landing where I passed the ravine in the end of the field at about 30 meters. Avoiding to break to much I rolled up to a stop near the spot from where I had just started with my hart running wild and the instructor said: "are you OK?" (an old veteran from finish winter war). "Well... yes" I said and they turned the plane around and connected the line again for a new take off again and we took off with no problems. "You both would have started thinking about how close it was and thats no good..." his answer was... Get back in the saddle etc...

The conclusion - we all know we shall not turn steeply to low - but when you are there with a heart running wild the brain does bad things to the school book solutions we all know about. In both his and my case it went well - but I think twice before making statements about pilots actions in "life or death" situations after that...

[BadAim]

This is why training (and practice) is sooooo important.....how does the saying go? "you will not rise to the occasion, but sink to the level of your training". When your heart is pumping and you can taste the adrenaline, you'll make all kinds of mistakes, the only question is will you do enough things right to balance the equation? (at least enough to survive)

[blades96]

It was a wheels up landing. It's standard procedure to do wheels up in emergency landings in fields as there is a big risk of the plane flipping if it encounters any sudden dips or bumps in the terrain.

[Trumper]

Originally Posted by blades96

It was a wheels up landing. It's standard procedure to do wheels up in emergency landings in fields as there is a big risk of the plane flipping if it encounters any sudden dips or bumps in the terrain.

Proves a point
http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/bf109g2.html

[engarde]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The plane wasnt wrecked, he walked away despite injuries, the farmer kept his wall....

Seriously, given the random collection of certain death options waiting for him, I think he deserves a quiet nod for his efforts.