VIDEO: With a Harrier, who needs nose gear when a stool will do?

AggieMike88

AggieMike88

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The original "I don't know it all" of aviation.
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Harrier jet has a nose gear malfunction, but those crafty sailors still come up with something to save lots of damage.

http://youtu.be/zMes4-F2Doc
 
The nose rest apparently was purpose-built for this situation.
 
flyingron said:
The nose rest apparently was purpose-built for this situation.
Click to expand...

I'll have to wait until Monday to ask our AIMD Officer if we have the same contraption onboard.

I was talking to one of our Air Department guys who said that a similar thing happened at an air station and they rigged something similar but did not lash down the pads which consequently fodded out the engine. Looks like the BAT guys rigged this one right.
 
I think the mattress thing is SOP. They do it even if all landing gear don't come down (2010). I was told at KNBC they did it once as well. All the guys went to the BEQ, gathered mattresses and laid them in the runway.
 
Velocity173 said:
I think the mattress thing is SOP.
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That's my recollection as well. I'm also sure I've seen a picture of a Harrier with a mattress down an intake.

Velocity173 said:
All the guys went to the BEQ, gathered mattresses and laid them in the runway.
Click to expand...
Eew. I hope they washed the runway afterwards.

Nauga,
clean and green with none in between
 
Well the pilot could carry it in the aircraft, open the canopy chuck out the mattress, and then land.

One of my friends bought a Navion that had no step. The wing is high enough that absent acrobatics you are not getting aboard without one. The previous owner had a little stool that had a rope tied to it. You got into the plane and pulled the stool up behind you.
 
nauga said:
That's my recollection as well. I'm also sure I've seen a picture of a Harrier with a mattress down an intake.

Eew. I hope they washed the runway afterwards.

Nauga,
clean and green with none in between
Click to expand...

Lol! Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if the EPA didn't penalize the air station for laying toxic waste on the runway. No amount of Febreze can hide the funk of decades old mattresses from a Marine BEQ!
 
Speaking of stuck gear. I was sitting on the back porch at NKX one day watching two Hornets overflying the runway. One was aggressively porpoising up and down and the crash trucks were out by the runway. I was wondering what the heck this guy was doing. As they passed by I could see why. He had one main gear stuck up and was trying to use G force to get it down. Didn't work but seemed like a logical plan to me.
 
Velocity173 said:
Speaking of stuck gear. I was sitting on the back porch at NKX one day watching two Hornets overflying the runway. One was aggressively porpoising up and down and the crash trucks were out by the runway. I was wondering what the heck this guy was doing. As they passed by I could see why. He had one main gear stuck up and was trying to use G force to get it down. Didn't work but seemed like a logical plan to me.
Click to expand...
The pressure switches on my Lancair gear have failed numerous times. The alternate gear down is a lever that equalizes pressure in the pump allowing the gear to drop with gravity. The nose gear typically will not lock and the technique used is just that - to porpoise in order for it to snap forward. It works well.
 
FORANE said:
The pressure switches on my Lancair gear have failed numerous times. The alternate gear down is a lever that equalizes pressure in the pump allowing the gear to drop with gravity. The nose gear typically will not lock and the technique used is just that - to porpoise in order for it to snap forward. It works well.
Click to expand...

I used the same technique a few years ago when my right main on the Velocity binded in the up position. It worked but in the process snapped the cable that raises it. Still, it went down and locked.
 
Pity the Brits stop flying a few years ago, in favour of keeping the more expensive Tornado's in the air.

Always love them bowing to the crowd then just climb away .... Good old days when two harriers used to fly over the house coming into the local airfield
 
So apparently the 'stool' is a maintenance stand normally used for LG maintenance that the ACE brings aboard for deployment. We don't have one onboard right now.
 
Love Harriers,

One of my favorite jets! Who said airplanes can't do what helicopters can do! :yes:
 
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