Real Top Guns F-111 Belly Landing

[3OCALM1]

Made me cringe to watch that landing.

I used to work on the F-111D model.

[JSOTAC77]

The belly landing is taught in the USAF flight school but not in the RAAF,

[RoboTekno]

What a superb landing. The cable was an excellent idea :D I'm glad the were able to walk away and even save the bird.

[avpinstarter]

great video thanks for uploading



[ab9957]

how many F111C jets are flying in Australia now, 2011?

[Hunter6213]

@ab9957 They were all retired from last year, the RAAF brought 24 Super Hornets from the US and use them until the F-35s arrived.

[pencrazypal]

@wkomar The foam path is still useful for belly landing (november 1st it was used when a jumbo jet landed on belly). If you land on tire...then it is not recommended indeed ;)!

[wkomar]

@pencrazypal I quote: "The U.S. FAA no longer recommends pre-foaming runways, chiefly due to concerns that it would deplete firefighting foam supplies which might later be needed to respond to a fire; it is also difficult to determine exactly where a runway should be foamed, and pre-foaming might also reduce the effectiveness of the aircraft's brakes, potentially causing it to slide off the runway."

[pencrazypal]

@wkomar they foam the runway with ignifuge foam...It reduces the probability of fire!

[Ulfcytel]

@metalreign1 I do wonder why they didn't put it down on the grass beside the runway, but then I suppose there's more danger of something digging in and the plane doing a "ground loop".

[ValhallaAwaitsU]

lol, the dumping and igniting of fuel is probably responsible for shit loads of UFO sightings.

[LfcGoddardENGCJG]

great landing, i am supriced they didnt dump the fuel they but hey what do i know.

[buey18]

hard to pick whether the moustache or the landing gets the 3 votes here.

[thelege95]

My god thats a good moustache.

[JAMamation]

fair play to the pilots.

[txstang84]

That is f'in awesome...way to go guys

[drguffey]

I think of the trouble I had landing a Cessna 150, then I watch these guys bring such a magnificent machine in for a precision landing !!!! Kuddos !!!

[spitfiresrule428]

f-111 i think was the best aircraft in the world before it retired

[yort002]

aussie aussie aussie

[skyethor]

some one for got to tighed a few bolts Gee i wondered what thoses extra nuts were for

[iggypop50]

I'm retired from the USAF and part of my job was catching planes with barriers. The F-111 is the heaviest fighter a barrier can catch and can stop 65,000 plus pound F-111 is less than 750 ft if they have wheel and brakes. It is a BAK-12 barrier that caught the jet

[Donnegael]

They don't cover the landing 'strip' with fire retardant slurry anymore?

[BlackhoundOne]

Kept you waiting, huh?

Third time's a charm, I guess.

[GMNoBoulder]

Well done!

[Willyvark]

Watched a similar emergency in 79 or 80 @ RAF Lakenheath. Short version - Wheel falls off on takeoff... RF 4 Wing King / no 111 experience to the rescue. Has the runway foamed, about 1500 feet (too bad it was the overrun). Crew plans gear down, approach end barrier engagement... Touch down inthe foam; one potato, two potato - no cable, full burner barely airborne, Murphy shows up - cable caught... idle, slam, hotdogs, marshmallows, beer... Back to night school (Embry Riiddel). Great job

[tmlafrance]

That bridge at night looked like Brisbane

[Antifaith29]

@tmlafrance It was, thats the dump and burn they used to do at Riverfire.

[tmlafrance]

@Antifaith29 cool, not familiar with Riverfire though.

[Antifaith29]

@tmlafrance It's an anual fireworks show put on by the government over the brisbane river. The finale used to be the low pass by the F111 followed by a dump and burn. Quite spectacular at night.

[kevincrossley]

What about the guys who trained these pilots? I would have thought that they would know the flight manual pretty thoroughly and would therefore virtually instantly know what to do with this set of circumstances.

[mocharger06]

The wheel fell off??? I didn't know Ford made airplanes...

[kimmer6]

GOOD JOB AUSSIES! I am so glad you still fly that magestic machine.

[643barnesy]

@kimmer6 We no longer opeate the F111, As of 2009 the RAAF received 23 F18 super hornets, and will be receiving 100 F35 JSF when they are reday.

[cliffclof]

Sounds like a Calvin and Hobbes jobber.

[DaylightMagic]

Awesome work of handling this aircraft.

[two401pm]

precision all the way.. I salute you gentlemen..

[Latrinesha]

I use to party with Aussie F111 drivers at McCellan AFB CA where they did depot maintenance on the F111. Dang, did we have a good time chasing women. They LOVED those Aussies.

[tcathouser]

Oh my. Certainly proves training beats luck. Amazing video.

[DROLL30]

there all retired nowdays

[gketchup777]

Hot lady in a hot machine O.O Maaaaaan I have a new dream :P

[DammitDrag]

@gketchup777 Yeah man a blowjob at 33000 feet is spectacular !!

[crissy214]

That was one hell of an emergency landing. Nice job Boys

[wellerocks]

That's one of the best emergency landings I've ever seen. Huge creds to both the pilots and the RAAF!

[Ironwulf2000]

Sounds like Sam Worthington narrating?

[wkomar]

@Ironwulf2000 You are correct, it is Sam Worthington.

[EduEnYT]

but.... why they just didn't make a "normal" soft belly landing? I think that bump after catching the cable was pretty hard

[wkomar]

@EduEnYT They probably decided it was safer to bring the plane to a stop more quickly. I'm sure the priority was the safety of the pilot and navigator as opposed to the condition of the aircraft.

[DoubleDutchBust]

4:59am Thursday (CDT) - Time in Belly

[ab9957]

what became of this jet, was it returned to service? i worked on these F-111s in california in the early 80s, the jet i was assigned to always had a fuel leak, haha. you could enter a tailwind of 500 knots into the system to make it think it was flying.

[derro1989]

@ab9957 this particular jet never flew again, while it was possible to repair the jet, it was decided not to as it was due to be retired soon anyway

[kevincrossley]

@ab9957 don't you mean "head-wind"?

[blingwatch]

great landing and well done.

guess you always need to be anticipating

the uknown.

great work

[BusterBunker]

my favorite jet ever, to bad there retired from the U.S. Air force and are almost retired by the RAAF

[MTran0708]

no doubt a moment he will never forget.

[atisone]

Thanks for this vid....a real eye opener