Sea Fury Crash Landing At Culdrose Airshow

[Hooky722]

RNHF Sea Fury T.20 Crash landed after Engine problems during its display at RNAS Culdrose air day pilot Ok aircraft not so much... http://m.bb.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-28594569 but noone was injured which is a blessing

[glh]

Ouch !! Glad pilot is OK. Don't like to see this. Hope the damage is fixable.

http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Plane-crashes-RNAS-Culdrose-air-day-Cornwall/story-22046456-detail/story.html

[Bradburger]

Sorry to hear this.

Still, at least there is no damage to the pilot, and the Sea Fury is repairable, albeit at a cost - both in time and money!

Here's a video which includes the part of the display when the engine lost power, and the whole of the landing: -



Looks like the pilot, Chris Gotke, retracted the gear after the right leg folded which was a smart move, as I guess there was potential for more damage in the resultant ground loop, and the possibility of the aircraft turning over.

Cheers

Paul

[Bushpounder]

That gear collapsed. He didn't raise it.

Don

[Blackbird686]

That gear collapsed. He didn't raise it.

Don

Hmmm... strange the gear didn't stay locked after it was extended. Obviously there were more failures that occurred with the aircraft besides the engine loosing power. Glad the pilot was OK, and any landing you can walk away from is a good landing. The plane didn't fare so well tho. Complete TBO on the engine, repairing the airframe, the landing gear, a new prop, and whatever else... will be very expensive.

BB686

[Daveroo]

makes me wonder if they will box it up and send it to the Sanders brother at Eagles Nest for repairs,.....btw,i have them (the frequency) on my scanner...hear some interesting radio traffic at times.

[Dev One]

Looking at that video, the undercart doors were open long before the legs dropped - I wonder if he had to use the Emergency lowering system - not sure how that operates though - compressed air? Unfortunately the downlocks didn't seem to work. Must have been change of underwear moment having got it onto the runway with an almost dead engine, only to find them collapse! After that he was just a passenger.
Keith

[stansdds]

On an aircraft that size, emergency gear extension is usually by a CO2 bottle. Glad no one was seriously injured or worse.

[Bradburger]

Just seen this posted on the Flyer forum: -

Post by Delta Juliet » Fri Aug 01, 2014 5:01 pm

We were displaying at Culdrose just before the sea Fury and had just landed and were watching it and spoke to the pilot afterwards.. we also bought him a beer.

He felt the engine go rough during his display so he closed the throttle, climbed and put the gear down. He put out a PAN call. Then as he headed for the runway he opened the throttle and nothing happened.

He then realised he wasn't going to make the runway so he raised the gear to improve the glide. He made it to the threshold and then put the gear down. Both wheels made it down and he landed on them right at the numbers. Unfortunately the right gear hadn't had time to lock and it collapsed on roll-out. which caused the right wing to hit the runway. This then made it slew round and it was then going sideways which caused the left gear to fail. It then went off onto the grass and stopped. The pilot go out unaided.

It was a fantastic piece of airmanship. Having the presence of mind raise the gear and then lower it saved it from being a much more serious incident. Obviously the engine was going to need looking at, the prop was wrecked but most of the airframe was saved.

That gear collapsed. He didn't raise it.

Don

Indeed, that does seem to be the case, after reading the above.

Cheers

Paul

[stansdds]

So it is a setback for the aircraft, but had the pilot not had the presence of mind to raise the landing gear in order to get back to the runway it would have been far worse for the aircraft and possibly the pilot. I'd say the pilot did a fantastic job.