F-18 Crash, page 1
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reply posted on 8-12-2008 @ 04:15 PM by cluckerspud
Yikes. I certainly hope that everyone in the area is ok.


reply posted on 8-12-2008 @ 04:34 PM by DarrylGalasso
Originally posted by waynos
Some shocking news is breaking at the moment as an F-18 coming in to land at Miramar has crashed onto a residential area. There are reports that the crew got out ok, not heard anything yet about casualties on the ground

news.bbc.co.uk...


If the crew of this aircraft ejected over a populated area they are going to be court marshaled. Navy protocol strictly states that a pilot is not to eject over a populated area but to guide the aircraft to the area of least possible harm. If this is true it is considered to be an extremely severe offense and they will be punished very severely. I am going to keep up on this. Thanks for the info.

I have seen this played out in Mississippi when our X.O.'s plane went down, he did eject, but not until the last possible minute and only after he had the aircraft in an unpopulated area. After the incident there was meetings on all levels about the protocol and what the consequence was for non-compliance.

[edit on 12/8/2008 by DarrylGalasso]


reply posted on 8-12-2008 @ 04:46 PM by DarrylGalasso
reply to post by DarrylGalasso


Actually, I don't think even an electrical problem could cause a flame out. I was a hydraulics and structural mechanic so engines are not my forte, but I believe they work in the same manner as a diesel engine and the glow plugs or ignitors as they are called on aircraft are only used to start the engine and afterward it works completely on compression.


reply posted on 8-12-2008 @ 05:39 PM by DarrylGalasso
Originally posted by FredT
The whole reason the navy went with the F-18 is the two engines. I beleive that during qualifing the airframe was required to make carrier landing with one engine out.

That being said: It possible that a bird strike may have induced the airfraft into afatal spin if the pilot was not quick to correct or there was no time too.



I have never worked with F-18's; however, I believe that all of the advanced aircraft incorporating onboard computer control systems would make an automatic compensation to avoid any fatal spin. But more importantly the thrust ratio of an incoming bird (unless it is a pterodactyl) would not be sufficient enough to over enhance the thrust of the remaining engine in order to upset the aircraft's yaw enough to cause a spin. This would be easily countered with a slight application of the opposite rudder pedal and could be controlled indefinitely in flight with rudder trim. I may not have experience with the hornet, but I do have 8 years of experience working with control surfaces and yaw, pitch, and roll work exactly the same on all aircraft incorporating traditional airfoils and control surfaces which the hornet does incorporate. This is applicable to all aircraft whether they are of a fly by wire design or traditional hydraulic assisted control cable designs so long as traditional control surfaces are incorporated in the design. This would not hold true with the stealth planes as some of them have either altered horizontal stabilizers or no horizontal stabilizer at all and they could in fact be very susceptible to aggravated yaw influences.


reply posted on 8-12-2008 @ 05:54 PM by Zaphod58
reply to post by DarrylGalasso


ANY fighter sized aircraft is vulnerable to a bird strike. Even a twin engined aircraft. More fighters were lost to bird strikes on take off or landing than just about any other cause for many years. On approach there is a lot happening very quickly depending on where you are in the approach. If you lose an engine suddenly then you can lose the aircraft quickly. They don't have any kind of automated anti-spin on fighters. The F-15 used a stick center system to help combat spins, where you let go and the stick will go to center. But any of those systems, even if they're on the aircraft need time to react and recover. On approach time is the one thing that you don't have. As for how easy it is to recover from losing an engine, it's not nearly as easy as you say. When you lose an engine the plane immediately pulls to that side. If you aren't expecting it, then it's very fast, and you are very quickly in a bad situation. If you're at 500 feet or less, you don't have anywhere near enough time to get out of it.

I've never heard of any service court marshalling a pilot for ejecting over a populated area, unless it was a situation where they COULD have saved the plane and ejected. The services WANT them to try to ride it to an unpopulated area, but they also want their pilots to survive.

I wouldn't be surprised at all to see that this was a bird strike. Birds have brought down bigger airplanes than an F-18 in the past, and will again in the future.
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