Pucker factor 9....

YouTube - F-16 Engine Out Landing

 

Whoa. That's crazy. It was pretty smooth though. Bet he was glad to be on the ground.

 

Man as soon as he really started breathing hard, I started to breath hard.

Also, they said to drop the tanks? Those the external fuel tanks?

 

Yeah, you can tell he was definitely stressed (appropriately.) Contrast that to the almost non-chalant "thanks for the help" at the end of the recording. Unreal.

Yes, he would have jettisoned external fuel tanks since he was going in dead stick and the risk of impact is very high. You heard his wingman to tell one of the other F-16s in the flight to mark the tanks, which means he took a waypoint so a ground team could go recover them and assess any damage on the ground from them being jettisoned.

 

Man, watching that altitude drop on the right of the HUD was pretty alarming.

Great video showing why they are the best of the best!

 

Great video! Thanks for sharing!

 

Awesome. Those planes are definitely NOT floaters.

 

Some info you guys might like, he mentions an EPU running and requiring fire response. EPU stands for Emergency Power Unit, and the Viper uses a unique method for making power in the event of an engine failure (they only have one!)

"..the EPU used in the F-16 aircraft employs gas turbine powered by the engine bleed air or by hot gases generated by catalytic decomposition of hydrazine, which then drives the emergency electricity generator and the emergency hydraulic pump."

Hydrazine is also some decidedly nasty shit:

"Hydrazine is an inorganic chemical compound with the formula N2H4. It is a colourless flammable liquid with an ammonia-like odor and is derived from the same industrial chemistry processes that manufacture ammonia. However, hydrazine has physical properties that are closer to those of water.

Hydrazine is highly toxic and dangerously unstable, and is usually handled while in solution for safety reasons.

Hydrazine is mainly used as a foaming agent in preparing polymer foams, but significant applications also include its uses as a precursor to polymerization catalysts and pharmaceuticals. Additionally, hydrazine is used in various rocket fuels and to prepare the gas precursors used in air bags. Approximately 260,000 tons are manufactured annually."

 

Wow, I didn't really catch that altitude the first time I watched it, but that is crazy. I couldn't tell how fast he was coming down until I saw that. That's nuts.

 

Vipers sans flaps come down at around 6000 fpm maintaining 200-230 kts with zero thrust. They don't call it the lawn dart approach for nothing.

Very calm and collected pilot, and his buddy was top notch on the radio. Fortunately Viper drivers train on engine-go-bye-bye situations fairly frequently.

One of the very last planes I'd want to have an "unrequested gravity surplus" in, but #1 on the list of "sell any redundant organ to fly".