Sea Fury picture question

wow !!!!, and no injuries !!!

TNZ

Just found this shot of WG655, post accident.

Anyone who has’nt seen it should get a copy of the excellent RNHF Sea Fury video.
There is a film of John Beattie attempting to land TF956 followed by the crash.Also John gives a full explanation of the crash and shows the viewer various parts of TF956’s wreckage.

Hi

Maybe the alsymers again but I am sure there were a couple of hidden tree stumps that contributed to the breakup before it even got to the trees – I will search my photos as I am sure I have some of the stumps with mashed Sea fury wrapped around them.

Regards
John P

As I remember the Fury was bellied in. The field had a slope running across the landing direction. This is not immediately obvious if you are flying and not your first concern when you have a dead donkey up front. This was a big field that had just two trees in it, and was a good choice for a landing. The slope and circumstances conspired and the Fury hit both trees. The fuselage broke immediately in front of the rear seat, leaving the passenger hanging over nothing. Very unlucky to hit the trees, very lucky to walk away.

I am pretty sure it was ‘bellied’ in.

Yep that is my recollection too

This is really interesting.
It’s great to have a Sea Fury pilot to add an expert opinion to the whole thread.
Thanks.

TNZ

There was a pic of this in an ’80s issue of Flypast – not a pretty sight, but amazing that they got away OK from it!

Do you know, stringbag, if the undercarriage was down when WG655 made the forced landing in the field?

From memory he bellied in and it was all was looking good for a while but the aircraft drifted towards a large tree and clipped it spinning it into another tree or something like that. I think the field may have been on a slope.

I am pretty sure it was ‘bellied’ in.

That’s what I thought as well, but in the RNHF Sea Fury video it leaves the impression that he rolled down the hill toward the two trees. I find no fault either way, as other warbirds have made off field landing both with and without gear, but I am curious to know.

I don’t think anyone could ever criticize John Beattie for doing what he did as neither of us were in his position, but interestingly a former FAA Sea Fury pilot(who wrote a page or two in ‘Fly Navy a view from the cockpit’) said to my father he couldn’t understand why the aircraft was abandoned – ‘it never would have happened when I flew the things’ he said.

Brave words of course from the comfort of ones’ armchair!!

I am pretty sure it was ‘bellied’ in.

Do you know, stringbag, if the undercarriage was down when WG655 made the forced landing in the field?

I think the remains are in storage with the RNHF. Not sure how much though, although don’t take my word for it, other people probably know a lot more than me!

The remains of the airframe, or what was left, were all scrapped after the Investigation.

What some people may not realise is that John tried for over two hours trying to get the wheel down. I have heard someone in the past slating someone who I consider a good friend, viciously for *getting out as fast as possible*.
He exhausted every avenue of recovery, with ditching being the last option available.

Sadly bad luck struck again, a year later with WG655.
I still can’t quite work out how John and his crewman avoided serious injury in the accident.

As a civilian you have to decide under what conditions would you abandon the aircraft. For me I brief passengers that “If we have an uncontrollable fire, a loss of the control system of the aircraft or an engine failure over mountains or other very rough terrain, then we will abandon the aircraft. Otherwise we fly her down.”

There is ONE bolt that keeps the gear leg on the Sea Fury from folding under a side load. It’s about 1″, and due to it’s being critical to keeping the airplane on her gear, is subject to yearly magnaflux inspection. This bolt would not stand up to a 5 ton airplane slipping at 110 knots with a decent sink rate. Catch a wing tip? Well, anything’s possible, but you usually only catch a wingtip in a stall or ground loop situation, and that’s not what I would envision for this scenario. Fly her down and slam her on. New prop, overhaul the engine, some sheet metal…go flying again.

I’ve meet John Beattie, and he’s as good as they come. Unfortunately he’s been involved in two Sea Fury accidents that resulted from a total hydraulic failure and a massive engine failure. In both cases John (and his passenger) walked away with minor injuries. My hat’s off to him.

What about the BBMF slant on this kind of thing?

I do remember Paul Day having to carry out a belly landing with MJ627 a few years ago (all due to some loose bolt jamming the gear, IIRC) – he jettisoned the forward canopy (the rear is non-jettisonable) and carried out a safe belly landing which resulted in moderate damage to the radiators, prop and engine.

The pilot in question was Lt Cdr John Beattie who now as a civilian runs the flight at Yeovilton. Difficult question to answer – John tried all sorts of manouevers to get the undercarriage uplock to disengage but it didn’t want
to. Therefore he took the decision to bale out . It’s a good one to call with hindsight and if you get it right you take the leg out and land the aircraft
on it’s belly. However if you get it wrong and the wingtip digs in or the aircraft cartwheels you might be unlucky. Simply put he was flying her on the day and I am sure he didn’t want to abandon her but that’s what happened.

Okay thanks.

If it happened today to any of the present RNHF Aircraft am I assuming it would be exactly the same as before, Naval SOP’s or have things changed since then?

TNZ

The pilot was ordered to bail out. The RNHF is an active service squadron in the Royal Navy. All RNHF pilots are on active duty with the FAA, and as such follow SOP concerning aircraft operations. In this case the pilot did not have a choice after the emergency checklist was completed and the problem was not resolved. Most importantly, the pilot completed a safe bailout and was recovered uninjured.

To answer your real question though, no, I would not have bailed out of this aircraft. Sea Fury landing gear is very strong, but not to side loads. It would have been possible, in my opinion, to side slip in and take out the gear leg.

Thanks AJ.

Such a crying shame to see this beautiful aircraft about to be lost.
Was it ever recovered?

TNZ