BBMF Lanc Rough Landing North Weald 1993

camlobe,

Many thanks for that info.

Very interesting!

Cheers

Paul

An almost carbon copy of the Mildenhall ’92 event. I was in the press area at the time and so the Lanc was heading for us rather than the crowd in that instance. Quite hairy! I bet that JR pilot had a shock at N Weald when he turned to seeing that filling his screen!

Didnt get the actual turn in bit this is a few seconds later-

Turned almost on itslef to come to rest…

It stayed there and made possible this interesting combo!….

Ive never seen the Mildenhall incident although heard about it and seen a picture I think in an old Flypast.

Has anyone got footage that they can post?

I’ll see if I can dig it out and get it online later.

CAMLOBE
I dont doubt that the Lancaster swing was due at least in part to incorrect tyre pressure but a wheel/tyre assembly leaving a workshop is only inflated to a nominal pressure, the final setting of the pressure is down the the man when he fits the wheel and then signs for it.
That wheel may have sat around in store for a while, or been fitted to another aircraft(not likely in this case I know) operating at a different weight and needing a different pressure.

Richard

Didn’t the RAF F-4 Phantom display pilot (Archie Liggett?) also have a bit of a bounce on North Weald’s runway and burst a tyre?

Ive never seen the Mildenhall incident although heard about it and seen a picture I think in an old Flypast.

Has anyone got footage that they can post?

Was there also something not quite right with the runway at North Weald.
I recall going to a couple of Friday practice days around the same time, one which I think was the same year, involved a Dutch? F-16 nearly overshooting the runway, they had to deploy the emergency runway barrier, which he stopped just short of, much to our annoyance, terrible though it may sound, but we’d never seen one used before.
Another incident involved the Vulcan, it was the last time it displayed there.
I was right next to the runway threshold and the main wheels hit the rough ground short of the runway, seeing this huge beast hit the dirt right in front of me and bounce was something else, there were no fences in those days and I was standing on what was then an earth bank next to the runway. I was terrified at what would happen next but he made a remarkable recovery and deployed his chute and all went well.
I don’t recall seeing the Lanc problems at either NW or Mildenhall, I must have been wandering about or as matey says, ordering a Polish Sausage, sigh.
I do remember though, a very bouncy landing at DX a few years ago that caused a few intakes of breath in the crowd.

I was in the crowd right where the lanc did that at North weald, it was a little worrying at the time.

With reference Gerbs’ fretting rings, (not a medical condition, I assure you) they did what they were supposed to. Dowty checked the legs and they came back serviceable. The boss at the time, G+10 even went to the extrordinary lengths of gathering three ex-Lanc captains to pick their brains on the landing ‘incidents’. As well as passing on three copies of the original, blue covered, Lanc Pilots notes, those gentlemen responded with great encouragement to G+10’s prediciment. The unwritten experience those gentlemen passed on has no doubt benifitted BBMF Lanc pilots since.

A number of us looked at the situation to see if we could identify any additional causes, especially due to the relatively light weight the Lanc now operates at. As most of you will know, the Lanc uses surplus Shack tyres. I popped over to the station wheel bay to have a chat with the guys in there. In the ensuing conversation, I discovered that they were doing everything by the book. Exactly what you would expect from the Royal Air Force professionals. However, they were using the Shack book. Now, that might not sound like much of a difference. But the Shack AEWII operated at a weight of up to 96,000 lbs. The Lanc was considerably less. I had a chat with the boss and the riggers about the main wheels being inflated to Shack pressures. Eyes opened, pressures were dropped, and the problem has not re-occured to my knowledge.

camlobe

Yikes! Looks just like the Mildenhall incident, which I’ve got here on DVD somewhere.

She seemed to have had a run of bad landings a few years ago. Another is captured in the old Discovery channel docu on the Flight, actually filmed from the mid upper as she did the screeching about the runway thing. A sequence then follows of the undercarriage being taken apart and checked, with ‘Gerbs’ Jeffrey illustrating the damaged fretting clip from the affected leg.

I fear there’s only two things that will ever ground that beautiful old machine- some cold hearted bean-counting sod at the MOD, or a very bad crosswind one day.

I knew the big tires were pretty forgiving but look at the stress on the main gear legs!

Well had the swing continued and the pilot maintained full power, it might well have reached a primary school, convent or hospital.

Serious danger to the general public.

It’s a good job we have the press to look after us.

Moggy :rolleyes:

Indeed.

I was watching, with my heart in my mouth.

Moggy

I seem to recall that the media covered this event in their usually hysterical manner…”thousands of people were fleeing in panic” apparently as the Lanc swerved towards them!! I don’t remember that bit! Must have been buying a Polish Dog and a can of Bud at the time!

Don’t remember the North Weald incident receiving the same attention….

Regards;
Steve

Blimey,

Did she not do something similar at Mildenhall a good few years back.

Indeed.

I was watching, with my heart in my mouth.

Moggy

Yikes! 😮

A good reminder of the professionalism of all the BBMF crews that that ensure moments like that are so rare!

Its a simple fact of life that even the most benign tailwheel aeroplane will try and bite you sometime.

And I guess that the Lancaster is far from benign. Witness the number of landing and takeoff accidents when they were in service!

I guess from that lifted wing, plus the swing into what I guess must have been into wind, that there must have been a fairly spirited crosswind that day.

Mind you, I can wander around the runway like that, even when the wind’s straight down it!! 😀

Not seen the clip but if it is the same incident I was sitting in the cockpit of Sally B when it landed and started towards us, we got out of the cockpit pretty damn quick.
________
How To Roll Blunts

Looks like a combination perhaps of flaring a little too high but also a good crosswind causing the Lanc to weather **** then almost ground loop. Nicely recovered. I bet the pilot felt relieved! afterward!

Yikes!

😮

Not seen that before!

Blimey,

Did she not do something similar at Mildenhall a good few years back.

She also had a bit problem at Southend back in July 2002 when she cracked an undercarage leg.

Not the landing above but her arrival after a display at Clacton