The Flight Deck

Wistfully, with the resigned sadness that comes from confronting a decision that comes down to what you have to do weighed against what you want to do-I have been going through all my stuff in preparation for the upcoming move. ( Destination TBA-but probably back to the land of my birth, for at least a little while).

I came across these pictures on a CD. It was in a box of my back up files I had made at work several years ago. On one of those CD’s were the pictures that follow. These are from an incident that occurred in Guam, when a VAW-112 E-2C had to land at Anderson AFB with its right Main Landing Gear stuck in the “up” position. Generally not considered a good thing on the good/ bad scale. I was involved in a very tertiary manner in the follow up operation; mostly ensuring parts and people got to Guam, and convincing people who should have known better that it was in the Navy’s best interest to get the airplane out of Guam as quickly as possible.

I forgot I had these. They do show you just what a tough airplane Grumman builds though (perhaps in contrast to its composite based counterparts).  See for yourself:

More pix below the fold!

Sideview looking towards the tail.

Starboard Prop

Looking at the starboard prop from the front.

Starboard Tailfin on the runway.

 Starboard engine nacelle and wheel well.

Underside of the aircraft.

Nose gear

Cracked Skin -starboard side

It looks bad and it obviously is a bad thing to do this much structural damage to an airplane-but if you ask me-this could have been a lot worse. A LOT WORSE. The pilots had to have done a good job bringing the aircraft in and holding the starboard side up until they had to let it drop.

Grumman Iron Works baby. Tough planes. Tough people inside them. Especially the mighty war hummer.

Cross posted at Far East Cynic