Tiger331 Posted August 11, 2017 Share Posted August 11, 2017 Hi Folks Another action packed day out at the Jagala austere landing site here in North Central Estonia. The Maryland ANG were out in full force during the day completing their annual re-certification for road landings. Unfortunately all did not go to plan with the last wave (see below) BEFORE: The 'Ill fated' '108' (first aircraft of the last wave to complete road landing qualification) completes a low flyover prior to conducting a go around for the qualifying road landing - note the red/white barriers in the background....... AFTER......Unfortunately the pilot of '108' miscalculated his approach for landing and took out several of the aforementioned barriers with his main undercarriage and a round road sign with the lower flaperon....Note the large 'bite' !. This incident put paid to the rest of the landing procedure. After safety checks the aircraft departed four hours later, making the short flight back to Amari AB with the undercarriage lowered Anyway, I hope you enjoy my attempts to record the days activities. Postscript: It's interesting what one can pick up after a deeper analysis of photos.....I've noticed the rather pronounced 'circles' on the forward fuselage of '718' (no doubt caused by oily RBF tags attached to the inlet bungs).....these are a lot more evident than those on '719' or '682' which are barely discernible. I suspect it would be a challenge to reproduce these on a model but it would be very satisfying. 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon382 Posted August 11, 2017 Share Posted August 11, 2017 Some amazing pics, thanks for sharing. Loving that after colliding with ground furniture and taking a fair size chunk out of the wing 4 hours later it flew home!!!! Try doing that with an F35! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Latinbear Posted August 11, 2017 Share Posted August 11, 2017 Those are cracking photos and not something we ever see here in the UK. Thanks very much for posting these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Laidlaw Posted August 11, 2017 Share Posted August 11, 2017 Excellent photos - thank you for sharing them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanandjuanunited Posted August 11, 2017 Share Posted August 11, 2017 Wow I'm totally jealous Great pics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger331 Posted August 12, 2017 Author Share Posted August 12, 2017 Thanks for your comments, chaps. Yes, this is the third year that US ANG A-10s have conducted these road landing exercises here in Estonia. There are a number of Soviet-era road runways, originally designed to handle the MiG-23s that were previously based here, including the one at Jagala some 40km East of Tallinn, the capital. The Maryland ANG are twinned with Estonia (there is a similar system in the other Baltic States) and they initiated the road landing exercises in 2015; they were, of course, regular events in Germany during the height of the Cold War but like many other skills, tailed off with the advent of expeditionary operations elsewhere. Last year two different ANG A-10 units conducted the landings. This year, and having grown with confidence, the Maryland ANG started to put the jets down in quick succession, with two on the ground at any one time, having opened up one or two of the adjacent dispersals to enable the turnaround checks to be done to the side rather than at the end of the runway. The roadway signage on this section of the highway is, of course, removable although Murphy's Law intervened this year with the pilot of '108' taking out the only sign that had remained up (granted it was just outside the authorised landing zone so it was not an oversight on the part of the local highway authorities). The other notable thing this year was that the jets carried more ordnance.....last year they were largely sans stores of any type. Anyway, I'm pleased you like the photos. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spruecutter96 Posted August 12, 2017 Share Posted August 12, 2017 A great set of images, my friend. The mission markings on one of the Hogs tells a story on its own. Looking at the shot of the damaged A-10 reminds me of a photo of a Hog that crashed in Iraq some years ago. The impact of the wheels-up landing had caused the barrels of the cannon to come loose and they were sticking out by one or two feet from the front of the aircraft. That landing must have rattled the pilot's dentures a little... Thanks for sharing with us. Chris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hairystick Posted August 12, 2017 Share Posted August 12, 2017 Those are excellent photos of the exercise. Great skills being in the right place at the right time too! I wonder what the sign read... "Danger: low flying aircraft" perhaps? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger331 Posted August 12, 2017 Author Share Posted August 12, 2017 Here's a few more, including a close up of the tail and nacelle markings on the Maryland ANG jets. I've also noticed, having gone through a few more photos today that some (including some of those in this thread) are sporting 'low visibility' moustaches on their noses. Thanks again for your comments 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nachtwulf Posted August 13, 2017 Share Posted August 13, 2017 Excellent pictures! Thank you. I was waiting for an ebay auction to wind down so I could snipe it at the last moment until I got distracted by your photos! I missed bidding on the item. Anyway, love the Hog can't resist any pictures of them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheezi Posted August 15, 2017 Share Posted August 15, 2017 Excellent shots. Miss these in the UK, used to see them when i was a teen as I lived near Manston and they seemed to be fairly regular visitors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted August 23, 2017 Share Posted August 23, 2017 Very cool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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