me-109g6 3P Landing.....

[WTE_Galway]

landing a 109

http://youtu.be/zG_EIaOzoXg

[swiss]

How many people died in it because they screwed up?


I didn't say it's impossible, it just said its far from easy.

[WTE_Galway]

Originally Posted by swiss

How many people died in it because they screwed up?


I didn't say it's impossible, it just said its far from easy.

The narrow track was intentional, providing a stronger undercarriage and the ability to remove the wings while the aircraft stood on its main wheels.

Of the 36,000 total bf109 built around 5 to 6% were lost in ground accidents of all types over a 10 year period operating in very difficult conditions. Probably about 2000 in all. Not all those accidents were landings and clearly most were not fatal.

That record is actually not too bad, far better than the bf109s bad rep would suggest. Its possible the "horribly dangerous landing" rep is more a case of post war propaganda.

[jameson]

I think more of them died forgeting to lock the tail wheel on take off than when landing.

[Crumpp]

How many people died in it because they screwed up?

About as many as any other Air Force trying to fly a high performance aircraft with poorly trained and inexperienced pilots.

A very good analogy to represent 95% of the Luftwaffe pilots from late '43 would be the equivalent of a pilot with 100 hours in a Cessna 172 hopping into a P51 Mustang to fly a mission.

Under those conditions, the P51 would have a very bad reputation for its high rate of landing accidents.

Today, Insurance companies count "Hours in Type" as the major criteria for determining the probability of an accident in a pilot. The Luftwaffe was only giving its pilots ~20 hours in type before throwing them into combat.