RNHF Sea Fury T.20 Crash Landing

[Jason S.]

RNHF Sea Fury T.20 Crash Landing:
Looks like she was having engine trouble and the gear were very slow to extend, he held in the air just about as long as he could, just not enough time. Glad he’s ok and the plane is repairable

Jason

[supercub]

Re: RNHF Sea Fury T.20 Crash Landing

I know nothing about the systems of a Sea Fury and I'm not pointing fingers or finding fault with the pilot..........but I do have a question and hopefully a knowledgeable Sea Fury person will weigh in here.
It appears he was holding off on extending the gear trying to minimize drag, I assume trying to make it to the runway........why would he have the flaps down. Typically full flaps.......which that's what it appeared to be, creates more drag then the landing gear. I'm just wondering why the flaps weren't kept up and the gear extended earlier, and then once the field was made, extend the flaps? Again, I'm not arm chair quarterbacking, just curious if there's a reason for that in a Sea Fury. Thanks
Brian

[Dudewanarace]

Re: RNHF Sea Fury T.20 Crash Landing

Also not a Sea Fury expert, but..

Notice the inner gear doors are extended at the start of the clip where it is already on final. I suspect the gear down sequence of events started earlier then you might think.

[Jason S.]

Re: RNHF Sea Fury T.20 Crash Landing

Also not a Sea Fury expert, but..

Notice the inner gear doors are extended at the start of the clip where it is already on final. I suspect the gear down sequence of events started earlier then you might think.

That's what I was thinking as well, the main gear looked to take much longer to unlock and drop. With the engine all but gone at the point, when he finally selected the gear down maybe the the pressure in the Hydraulic system was way down.
The way they just dropped and don't come out nice and slow I believe is fairly normal for the Sea Fury, when we did gear swings with September Fury in the pit while Mike Brown still owned her, they would unlock and just drop and then the pressure would finish the sequence and lock them in place, I know that's on the ground and not in the air with full system pressure but I've also seen in on other Fury's as well. it's very unfortunate as he was only a few seconds too late, I wouldn't want to guess how much that repair is going to cost, the cost just to fix the engine (if repairable) and the rare 5 blade Rotol prop is going to be huge, let alone all the airframe work..... at least he's ok!!
Jason

[GRNDP51]

Re: RNHF Sea Fury T.20 Crash Landing

When she started sliding on the ground the right wing looks like it took out a wind sock or a pole of some sort too. Wonder how much damage that caused on that wing. Glad he's alright, he probably wished it went better but it looked like a pretty well-done landing from my eyes.

[Mike51]

Re: RNHF Sea Fury T.20 Crash Landing

The gear was cycled twice. Other film of the incident shows it pulling up to altitude trailing white smoke with the gear extended. There is then film of him on short finals with flaps extended and the gear is up again. He then extends it again, but it doesn't have sufficient time (or hyd pressure in the system?) for it to lock before he touches down.

[Mike51]

Re: RNHF Sea Fury T.20 Crash Landing

Formerly Race 40 "Nuthin' Special", btw