f-16 fog

[CraigCantwell]

Dave, it wasn't a question of fogging the canopy, but of the entire cockpit being filled with fog. Take a close look at the Tab Z-13 picture and see how much fog is in the cockpit. If you notice, he has shed his visor in an attempt to gain some additional visability. That picture was taken after he was on the nosegear and under 140 kts groundspeed. The report states that both ships landed about 25 kts above calculated speeds. Aerobraking would have taken care of the excess speed, but when the AOA indexer and the HUD cues are no longer visable, you cannot maintain the proper aerobraking attitude. At that point you have to put the nose down and get on the nosewheel steering. As the report said, had the proper attitude been used, he would have stopped with more than 1000 feet of runway left, despite the excess landing speed. As to the speedbrakes, as the report states, it wouldn't have mattered that much. the speedbrakes are really used as a variable drag device and not used as a speed control device.
As to going around, about all I can say is that he most likely would have been getting a low fuel warning as he passed the end of the field and then the staff would have been dealing with an IFE call and possibly an ejection instead. No matter how you slice it, the pilot ws in a bad situation that could have turned out much worse.

[Flyfalcons]

Bill, it wasn't a dig on Mooneys in particular, but was just an observation on how a plane with a 151kt ref speed has a remarkably low landing distance based mostly on proper aerodynamic braking. Meanwhile, we've all witnessed a pilot or two having a tough time putting a plane with half the ref speed on the same runway safely. At least I have certainly seen some close calls.

[danielfindling]

I read the report and it seems highly plausible. The key findings appear to be:

1. Photographic evidence of fog in the cockpit immediately after landing;
2. Defective Anolog Module (which can cause a loss of warm air and reduced airflow);
3. Defective Anti-Ice Control Water Separator Modulating Valve (requiring 10 mA more that specifications typically the result of wear). The defective valve could lead to icing in the system or increased moisture downstream, leading to additional fog.

Thanks to the person who posted the link to the entire report. I found it an enjoyable read.

Landing an f16 with no visual cues immediately on landing and no one was hurt. Imagine if he chose to eject? Appears to be a lucky day after all.

Daniel

[Bill Greenwood]

Dave, if you read the whole accident report above ,it explains several mistakes in the approach, attributes it to a lower than normal ceiling when they were in the pattern, and thus a touchdown too fast. The fog came after the touchdown.

[Bill]

With the billions our mlitary (sic) has to spend they can't have this problem fixed? I find that very hard to believe.

Military and civilian aircraft are designed to have vastly different risk levels, with the civilian being orders of magnitude safer. I've working on the design of both (B-777, F-22, F-35, etc.) and, by design, a military aircraft will have more failures than than a civilian aircraft. We in the military accept that, since we're in an inherently hazardous line of work.

If you look at FAA AC 25.1309-1A, System Design and Analysis, for civilian transport category aircraft, you will find that the probability of a catastrophic failure must be less than 1 in 10^-9 (one in a billion). While I can't quote specific numbers, I can suggest that that probability is far higher for all the military aircraft that I have worked on. So we have failures and live or die with them. Its the price for having an aircraft that performs better than the bad guy's airplane and taking him out instead of him taking you out. A good example of a military-aircraft design that ignored this was the A-12. It was too heavy to land on a carrier deck and, consequently, canceled after spending more than 5 billion of our tax dollars on design and engineering.

[Dekef4]

Horse Crap! The guy has pictures of someone. Heard he was a full bird Colonel. I flew fighters in the AF for 21years, including the F16. Hesitate to make final judgement without reading the Accident Report from the Safety Board. But what I read in the EAA blurb is Crap!

[Floatsflyer]

Guess the airshow boss will have to start issuing fog advisories during the pre-show briefing.

Best line yet! Must forward to those USAF accident investigators for inclusion in prevention recommendations section of report

[fisch1221]

So...is "fog" also the likely reason for the vintage jet(a variant of the F-86 I believe) that ran of the end of the very same runway the very next day?

I think it ran off the runway later that same day.

[Hangar10]

Yep, it was later that same day and it was an FJ-4B Fury.

[RickL]

I'm still learning so forgive me for asking but as this approach and landing started going bad, shouldn't he have just added power and gone around? Isn't that rule #1?