Let loose a burst of 20mm, kill the tank and every 14.5mm and 23mm around the air field opens up on me!
Pranged my kite they did.
"Holy crap!" says I. Master Caution and Master Warning are lit and lots of systems aren't working! A moment later I realize... it's still flying! I emergency jett and it even pretends to be controllable.
It's not easy to control, but it's flying. Any amount of roll input causes a pretty impressive wallow, but if you leave it alone, it settles out. A little back pressure on the stick is needed to keep it level, but it's flying.
I grab a bunch of altitude and get a vector back to home plate.
Amazingly, it gets more controllable at lower speeds. With the gear and flaps down, it's down right placid.
I managed to land! Of course I greased it in at about 218 knots instead of the more normal 162 and came in almost flat.
Yes, I am that good.
Good thing it isn't for real---you'd have signed for that plane and be having repair bills deducted from your pay for about the next thousand years.
ReplyDeleteWhile, yes I would have signed for that bird and had to endure no end of complaints from my crew-chief; the damage was combat related and while regrettable; allowable. Wouldn't even be a board of inquiry.
DeleteActually I might have been chewed out by my commanding officer for NOT jettisoning the aircraft and going for the nylon let down.
But my pilot is a 4-star, so Nixon or the joint chiefs would be the ones doing the chewing...