There is no way that General Dynamics designed the F-111 to fly like this. And certainly by all accounts, the flight crew of this aircraft should have bit the hard one after it struck a pelican at 3,000 ft during a mock bomb run last Friday on April 11. It sure does give you a clear picture, though, of what hitting a 30 lb bird at 340 mph can do. This Royal Australian Air Force F-111 had its nose cone completely shredded by the impact leaving an interesting unwoven fiberglass wicker Gonzo nose in it's place. The pelican then hit the leading edge of the right wing before becoming ingested in the #2 engine causing a subsequent flameout. Rough day. The crew is being heralded by the RAAF as heroes for maintaining control of this wicked shimmy after the incident, which occurred just West of Brisbane. News.com.au is reporting that the aircraft could fly again by next month. Nice job, mates.
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Saturday, April 19, 2008
Pelican shatters Aussie F-111
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49 comments:
"The pelican then hit the leading edge of the left wing..."
No, it hit the leading edge of the _starboard_ wing. Look at the photos; it's obvious.
If it hit the starboard wing how did cause #1 to flame out?
Second picture from the bottom; this shot clearly shows a trail of blood on the starboard side of the nose. The bird is not going to flip suddenly hard a-port; it _had_ to have struck the starboard leading edge. Someone got confused, obviously.
starboard... dont be a douche, use left and right
Jeez, tough crowd.
Corrected to right wing, #1 engine. I am dislexic.
Steve
"dont be a douche, use left and right"
I am not being a douche - port and starboard are the proper aeronautic terms. Learn the language.
you should see the pelican.
Port and starboard are different from left and right. Left and right are relative to the speaker or listener. If I'm standing in front of the airplane, facing it, the left wing is on the starboard side. If I am behind it, facing the airplane, the left wing is on the port side. Having unambiguous terms helps if you're in the business of flying planes or piloting ships. It's not just meaningless jargon.
couldn't you just say 'her right' or 'her left'?
Not when lives are at stake.
For some reason these photos remind me of what happens when you open a can of Pillsbury biscuit dough.
Perhaps they meant the pelican's left wing.
"The crew is being heralded by the RAAF as heroes for maintaining control of this wicked shimmy after the incident"
The term "heroes" is sure bandied about a lot. The term will become meaningless some day.
In the US Navy these F-111 pilots would have been described as saving their butts vice being labeled heroes.
The USA media tried the same stunt when an officer named Osborne after a mid-air collision with a Chinese fighter landed his spy plane on Chinese soil.
The average sailor aboard ship considered what the media called a heroic act one of cowardice.
The pilot should have ditched into the sea so the super-secret aircraft contents could have sunk in deep water.
The media can bite me. Mostly politically-correct warm fuzzy girly-boys and females who should get back into the kitchen and make the men their sandwiches.
So, what happened to the pelican?
Poor pelican :(
My condolences go out to it's relatives.
@anonymous
"My condolences go out to it's relatives."
http://www.angryflower.com/itsits.gif
In Australia, does it's have a different meaning from how we use it in England?
Here, it's mean it is or it has. It looks like you blokes are using it as a possessive.
This Royal Australian Air Force F-111 had its nose cone completely shredded by the impact leaving an interesting unwoven fiberglass wicker Gonzo nose in it's place.
Last thing on the pelican's mind? his A$$... :) Just had to add that one...
Plane one
Pelica zero
Why have Australians turned into Canadian and become pissy?
Your wrong on your usage of "it's"
"It's" is possessive meaning "belonging to" like in; it's my car, "its" without the apostrophe means "it is" like in; its a nice day.
Coming from a place where 1 in 10 people own and fly a plane and live on the ocean side; we see a lot of bird strikes, never pretty for the bird and sometimes bad for the plane.
I am happy today and I thank the USA for the 30 billion dollars that you gave my country. And don't worry about your bridges that will fall down. You are not us.
quote:Your wrong on your usage of "it's"
"It's" is possessive meaning "belonging to" like in; it's my car, "its" without the apostrophe means "it is" like in; its a nice day.end quote
You're kidding, right?
First of all, "your" is the possessive pronoun for "you". As in, "That's your dog." It appears from the context that you actually meant to write "you're" which is a contraction for "you are".
Next up is "it's", which is, similar to "you're", a contraction of "it is". As in, "It's Academic", which was the name of a popular TV quiz show from many years ago. That's in fact how I remind myself of the proper usage. In fact, you correctly use it in the sentence "It's my car", because when not in contracted form that would be the quite acceptable "It is my car." Surprised? That's because while "my" is possessive, "it's" as you have used it there, is not.
The word "its" is indeed the possessive for "it", as in, "The dog is chewing on its leg." Note how awkward the sentence would become if you rewrote it as "The dog is chewing on it is leg." You wouldn't write that as "it's" any more than you would write "his" as "hi's" in this context.
Now that you've been enlightened, go forth and exercise that new factoid. The one unfortunate side-effect of this enlightenment is that you, too, will see the pain that I see. ;-)
Next up: global substitution of "your" and "you're" by using "yore" instead.
In Britain do they not have to make subject and verb number agree?
"Here, it's mean it is or it has."
Singular subject (i.e. it's) needs a singular verb form (means).
I always find it amusing when comments pick on grammar and ingnore content; when "blokes" go and pick on someone else's grammer they tend to reveal more than they intend.
"Here (In Britain) it's mean."
I even misspelled grammar for your amusement.
I'm confused - was it a left-wing or,
a right-wing Pelican?
By the time it had exited the engine, I'd say it was circularly polarised.
daaang. I'm glad they crew made it out okay.
Did anyone get the detais for the Pelican.? I'd like to send flowers and a card.!
All of you are beginning to sound like former President Bill Clinton, when on the occasion of his impeachment hearing, he uttered the now famous: "It all depends on what your definition of is is."
Did anyone get the detais for the Pelican.? I'd like to send flowers and a card.!
He died! The next of kin would like to thank all those who have send flowers but would futhers flowers please be send to your local pelican shelter. Thank you!
How are they so sure it was a pelican? did they find its beak? I'm sure you cannot tell a goose from a pelican when flying in a jet.
The pelican did not survive. But his al Qaeda membership card did. It clearly indicates that he was trained in Afghanistan by Osama Been Laffin for Iranian terrorist runs on Australia.
The pelican did not survive. But his al Qaeda membership card did. It clearly indicates that he was trained in Afghanistan by Osama Been Laffin for Iranian terrorist runs on Australia.
The pelican did not survive. But his al Qaeda membership card did. It clearly indicates that he was trained in Afghanistan by Osama Been Laffin for Iranian terrorist runs on Australia.
The pelican did not survive. But his al Qaeda membership card did. It clearly indicates that he was trained in Afghanistan by Osama Been Laffin for Iranian terrorist runs on Australia.
Yes, you ARE being a douche...
PORT and STARBOARD are NAUTICAL terms - originated hundreds of years prior to humans ever dreaming of taking flight.
Left and right are from perspective.
You guys are nuts!!
By the way, no matter if nautical or not! EVERYTHING about aviation navigation came from maritime navigation.
Why you think it is Captain and 1st Officer or Pilot and Co-Pilot instead of "Airplane driver or conductor"??
Captains and Pilots existed long before the first plane flew.
(Hope, 'sis all grammaticologic correctly!)
Professional Airman
"Port and starboard are different from left and right. Left and right are relative to the speaker or listener."
Actually since I do work in the in aerospace field, (USAF exactly) I can honestly say that left and right are perfectly acceptable terms. When speaking of an acft you are always speaking as if sitting in the pilot's seat, regardless of your current position. Don't be so pompous next time.
I didn't know F-111's were still in service...anywhere. Good on you guys.
Seriously..who cares, left/right..starboard/port whatever. The point is, they are ok! f111's are going to be obsolete soon anyways.
I spent some years as a USAF avionics technician on f111's and F15's. The terms port and starboard were NEVER used. Everything directionally on the aircraft is referenced from the pilot's seat as was already pointed out. This was certainly a serious in-flight incident but the aircraft's flight damper systems deserve the most credit for keeping it under control, not the pilot. The real danger was losing the radome and perhaps parts of the attack radar and causing a flameout in the other engine. That would necessitate a practical demonstration of the aardvark's really excellent crew pod ejection system, which I witnessed twice during my Air Force career.
The Port/Starboard - Left Right part of the discussion is because even in the American marine sector they use left and right, so that they can be differentiated from the British from whom they rebeled back in the 1700's. They also got thier bouyage the wrong way round
I couldn't help noticing that many of you seem to have spelled the words
'pedantic mavens' incorrectly. The correct spelling is single.
/ctrl d
The #1 engine is always on the left side of a multi-engine aircraft, when one is facing forward.
U.S. Naval forces use "port" and "starboard" terms; to my knowledge, the Marines do as well.
Current regulations on Air-to-Air Refueling call for the use of "port" and "starboard." Up until the creation of the ATP-56 (B), the U.S. Air Force used Left and Right.
It's up to debate as to whether these maritime terms will be accepted in all aspects of American military flight.
Also, quit being fucking Grammar Nazis, you pricks. The article is about the aircraft, not the English language.
no fuck you! I PWN TEH ENTERNEZ
I worked in the US aerospace industry 20 years ago.
The scuttlebutt is that when the US Army Air Force was being formed, there were people who wanted to use the words "port" and "starboard". Supposedly a general said something to the effect that that they were going to have enough trouble teaching farm boys how to fly, without having to teach them a new language too.
Navy and Marine types may think and talk different, but left and right are just fine for the US Air Force.
Hate to change the subject away from 'Port' & 'Starboard' but another error not commented on in that article, was the location of the incident. It wasn't just west of Brisbane at all. It was approximately 200km SE close to the coastal town of Evans Head in Northern NSW. I live 20 km from there and I question why the crew are hailed as heroes when they could have put the machine down at the Evans Head airport runway. It is still in use and was an Air Force base during WW2. Instead they chose to fly back to Brisbane over many populated areas..heroes or ?
Oh, my GOD! The F-111 is a piece of aviation wizardry, born out of the 1960's and is STILL FLYING!! It was the first military aicraft to anywhere combine variable-geometry (sweep) wings, TFR (terrain-following radar), advanced - for its day - avionics, and will do over Mach-2.5. It'll carry and deliver pretty much anything (including nukes!) and was responsible for more tanks destroyed in the Gulf War than any other aircraft; but it was old then and didn't get the credit it deserved. There has been no other aircraft before or since that can do everything it does as well as it does or as fast as it does. And the Aussies are STILL FLYIN' 'EM!! So, how's about all you dunderheads find something better to write about (besides your banal "left-port/right-starboard", "#1/#2", gravity-defying birds nonsense) and try and show a venerable old warbird and its crew a bit of respect.
P.S. I also worked FB-111s, F-111/A/B/C/D/Fs for about a dozen years and, yes, we did use 'port' and 'starboard' all the time. And, yes, the terms did originate from maritime use... look it up.
Dan, Bellevue, NE
Wow a Still Flying F-111,thats a news story in its self,Its a gas hog one of the reasons no one flys them anymore kinda like the F-14 Tomcat,another Gas Hog,But with nose and wing damage from a pelican you want them to ditch in the water or land somewhere else??? While the damage looks Bad to the un trained eye,its really a scratch compared to what happens when an explosive round or missle hits this plane and or is shot up by most anything in wartime,And they fly them just fine back to Base after that Trust me that little pelican hit was a nick ,if it can not sustain that and continue to fly they should have been grounded long ago,They can sustain much more actual battle damage from real guns and ammo and continue to fly safely home,people on the ground were in no real danger,Had it been hit by some actual Combat rounds of cannon fire or most anything else while still looking terrible damaged it could still get the pilots home safely,that fiberglass nose was not made to protect anything ,its made to make the plane aerodynamic in flight,and will shred easily as you can see from most anything and still fly home safely,Wing Damage from a Non explosive ,non armor piercing pelican also is not a serious risk to flight unless ingested by the engine in takeoff which can mess up a flight crews day .The F-111 is built to sustain a whole lot more battle damage than what a pelican can inflict and still fly home safely ,Even if the pelican had a suicide vest on it,they are tough hardy planes to fly,If your still flying f-111,s you better worried more about metal fatigue and other factors that will bring down a very old combat aircraft that has had many years of stress to the airframe and other components that may fail an cause a catastrophic event Cherie o mates .
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