P-51 Mustang gear up landing

http://bangshift.com/bangshiftxl/watch-video-p-51-mustang-making-belly-landing-arizona/

A news helicopter filmed a P-51 landing wheels up in Arizona. The pilot did a nice job.

nicely done. Good to see them flying, but damn, that would have been an expensive landing.

Well, that was nicely done. (One of my favorite P-51's too). Glad he was OK and didn't ding it up too bad.

I saw Moonbeam McSwine do a dead-stick landing at an airshow at Selfridge about a decade ago. That was also a masterpiece. Always like to see an irreplaceable plane managed by a competent pilot. On the other hand, I've also seen a few people flying warbirds that are out of their depth in an ultralight.

Wowza, hope that was inpressive. Painfull to watch an old warbird take damage like that, hopefully that'll be up and flying in a few months.

I saw Hoover land his yellow Mustang with 1 wheel down and the other up. Next day he did another show with the low-side aileron and wingtip in olive drab - that's all the damage there was.

Probably a stupid question, but why wouldn't you put it down in the grass?

That was a pretty landing. The reason you don't want to put it down the grass is there are no ruts or divots to catch the plane and launch it on the pavement. It's a known commodity.

I was told once that belly landing on pavement will actually do less damage than grass due to various things found in the grass as racerdave allude too. Like rocks also the sod tends to ball up.

Toyman01 wrote: Probably a stupid question, but why wouldn't you put it down in the grass?

Stumps in the ground a divits can cause a lighter plane to flip or barrel roll .

I guess the grass issue is up for dispute...this was at a slalom event I attended.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ype4JEUrUwA

Toyman01 wrote: Probably a stupid question, but why wouldn't you put it down in the grass?

You know how much damage putting it down on the runway will do, its a real dice roll in the grass, might do no damage at all, might cartwheel and total the plane(and probably kill the pilot).

Or more likely, the grass balls up and crushes the aluminum of the lower fuselage and wings. Its easier to replace a crushed radiator scoop than the entire lower skins. WWII crew chiefs always preferred pilots land the chief's plane on tarmac.

Makes sense.

Why didn't he kill the engine after he touched down? Seems like hitting the spinning prop on the runway would be hard on the engine.

Any prop strike requires a complete engine teardown to inspect the crank. When I was in Navy Flight School, the belly-up procedure was to feather the prop when crossing the threshold. Perhaps he kept it running in case he didn't like the approach so he had the go-around option. Regardless, that prop was going to strike, and he'd have to pull that merlin apart. Also- concur with above about the grass landing- hard surface is a known quantity, grass is a crapshoot. Human life>Airplane. He can obviously afford another.

Pricey, but well done.

Well done indeed. He should be thankful he was able to get it to the airport.

There was a guy local here who was killed in his avoiding houses in suburban Chicago after an engine malfunction.

Duke wrote: I saw Hoover land his yellow Mustang with 1 wheel down and the other up. Next day he did another show with the low-side aileron and wingtip in olive drab - that's all the damage there was.

Bob Hoover is a super-human pilot.

Unless the airframe is totally fubared, I expect a full resurrection. For example, this happened to a ME 109 last year:

Here it is this year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jenWQy4Zm-w&feature=player_embedded

I saw this happen last summer (my photos):

Engine problem. He came the length of the runway downwind (i.e., the wrong way) but was too hot to land; what you see above happened just before the end of the runway. The pilot deliberately put it in the trees to avoid the road and power lines beyond the threshold. It didn't go any further into the treeline than what you see. He walked away - another vintage a/c pilot said he probably broke the prop but not much else was likely to be seriously damaged.

Coulda, shoulda, woulda; sure the grass was an option. Unless you're a pilot and have practiced or been put through emergency procedures, you can hardly fault the pilot's decision. He did what he based on information at the time.

It was nicely done.

No one got hurt.

No collateral damage.

That 109 landed on grass. See what that does to an air frame?

pilotbraden wrote: http://bangshift.com/bangshiftxl/watch-video-p-51-mustang-making-belly-landing-arizona/ A news helicopter filmed a P-51 landing wheels up in Arizona. The pilot did a nice job.

I thought the name was familiar......and it is probably cursed.

This one too was named "Big Beautiful Doll" and there was no rebuilding this one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xctYWSuwoYA

That's a pretty freaky video. Reminded me a bit of the Super Corsair crash in Phoenix:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqPPCCKAFp8

(he broke his back hitting the horizontal stab during that bailout)

One thing to note about landing a Mustang on grass, they do have a pretty prominent radiator sticking out beneath the plane. Probably just rip off, but still would make for a lot of damage.

This just happened near me:

http://ktla.com/2014/10/29/ventura-county-officials-respond-to-reports-of-military-aircraft-crash/

I have seen the plane fly over a number of times. Pretty easy to spot because of the wing shape. They also fly what appears to be a Mirage (maybe a Kfir?) which is also quite distinctive.

The sad part (maybe?) is that that plane normally has an ejection seat in it. Since it was technically a civilian plane (military contractor), I am pretty sure it was not allowed to have one.

Beer Baron wrote:

Duke wrote: I saw Hoover land his yellow Mustang with 1 wheel down and the other up. Next day he did another show with the low-side aileron and wingtip in olive drab - that's all the damage there was.

Bob Hoover is a super-human pilot.

Truth. Watch the vids of him pouring a drink during a 1-G roll, or dead-stick looping his Turbo Commander. Energy management--he understands it.

Will wrote:

Beer Baron wrote: Bob Hoover is a super-human pilot.

Truth. Watch the vids of him pouring a drink during a 1-G roll, or dead-stick looping his Turbo Commander. Energy management--he understands it.

Those are understatements. At another show, I saw him (in the Aerocommander) come into the show box flying level at about 2000 feet. He killed and feathered both engines, then dove for speed to do a good-sized loop, followed that with a hammerhead at the opposite end of the box, crossed back along the flightline in a roll, turned onto the base and final legs, landed, and coasted to a stop in a pre-marked parking slot on the apron without ever firing the engines back up. It was positively eerie to see all that and hear nothing but wind noise from an aircraft of that size.