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Sea Vixen Belly Landing G-CVIX


cathasatail

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oh dear. Glad to hear that the pilot is ok and walked away. A great shame considering how much work must have gone into getting her ready for the 2017 season after Eastbourne next year. Navy Wings dont seem to have much luck. I hope it can be repaired easily.

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:crying: I loved seeing her back in her proper colours.  I hope she's going to be alright :pray:  Also, hope the pilot's not too shaken up.  It's a good thing he had so much aeroplane between him and the tarmac.  Am I right in seeing no canopy during the crash-landing?  Probably sensibly jettisoned it for ease of escape, so she'll need a new one unless it landed on something soft.

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1 minute ago, Mike said:

:crying: I loved seeing her back in her proper colours.  I hope she's going to be alright :pray:  Also, hope the pilot's not too shaken up.  It's a good thing he had so much aeroplane between him and the tarmac.  Am I right in seeing no canopy during the crash-landing?  Probably sensibly jettisoned it for ease of escape, so she'll need a new one unless it landed on something soft.

 

Yeah there's a myriad of pictures online, one showing the canopy suspended in mid-air over the runway just as she impacted the ground :(

 

Edit:

Here they are:

 

Edited by cathasatail
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Hadn't seen those pics, thanks.  Caused by gear failure, I guess? :( The pilot did a good job keeping it all under control, and that pic of the canopy going for a fly on its own is quite spectacular, if a little (lot) sad.

 

If anyone's looking from the owner's company, I bet there would be a more than a few folks willing to offer up a few shekels to help get her back into the air. :)

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apparently it was a hydraulics failure. i dont normally donate since i dont have a lot to give but I'm certainly going to donate if they plan on trying again, they must be gutted to have an accident on the first display of the season after so much work.

 

you can see that the Ram Air turbine is out in the one of pictures here:

Edited by Jimbobtheflimbob
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Poor Sea Vixen, and brave pilot. I remember seeing her a good few years back when she was in the Red Bull livery. I didn't know much about the aircraft at the time but it certainly ignited something inside me (even with them daft colours at the time!). I was hoping to see the Sea Vixen fly again in the future but she seems to do all her flying in the deep South.

 

I'll certainly be donating some money to Navy Wings, it would be a great shame if she never flew again.

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Very unfortunate news indeed.

Great to see that Simon Hargreaves seems to have performed a faultless emergency landing (and jettisoned the canopy in readiness) and walked away safely.

 

Gutted that this will possibly render XP924 as grounded for the season, especially given the hard work that the Civilian and Navy teams at Fly Navy Heritage Trust have put into keeping the Sea Vixen airworthy.

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Well that's taken the shine off my Yeovilton tickets.  The only decent airshow I am going to this year.

 

Hopefully she will get going again, I wonder if this is related to the same hydraulic issue that caused partial gear deployment and a belly landing in 2012.  Maybe there is a case to improve or simplify the system which I believe has a 'cocked' function for auto retraction when unweighted.  Be interesting to see, but in the mean time I for one will be chucking the price of a decent kit in her direction because:

A- My stash is quite big enough. B) 

B- I want to see her fly again!

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1 hour ago, At Sea said:

Be interesting to see, but in the mean time I for one will be chucking the price of a decent kit in her direction because:

A- My stash is quite big enough. B) 

B- I want to see her fly again!

 

Here here :D

 

That canopy jettison is quite energetic, isn't it?  No chance of that getting caught on the tail (which I'd imagine is the whole idea).

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Yes, it uses an ejector cartridge and a sprung arm to jettison the canopy.

 

The landing incident in 2012 was a very different issue, it wasn't a belly landing, the gear partially retracted on the landing roll out.

I've never heard of it having an auto retraction system, the micro switches sense the gear is on the ground/deck and should prevent inadvertent operation of travel if the u/c is selected up normally.  

I cant image that the hydraulic system can be simplified, it is quite a complex set up using four independent systems, it was unusual in service to have a complete hyd failure.  This, along with the Sea Vixens legendary fuel management system, contributes to the type being in the complex category of permit to fly historic jets.

In the video you can see that the emergency RAT has deployed, but obviously didn't convince the gear or flaps to operate.

 

The landing yesterday looks exemplary, touching down on the tail booms (which have hydraulic sprung buffer skids at the lower rears) first looks to have made the whole run stable, and help prevent any nasty ground loop event,  blowing the canopy last thing on the landing would indicate a desire to eliminate it falling over inhabited areas.

Edited by 71chally
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As emergency landings go, it was textbook.  Just a shame it happened. :shrug: If Red Bull are planning on getting their Cobra back in the air after disembowling itself with its own rotors, I'm hopeful the Sea Vixen is going to recover. :pray:

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Looking at some other pictures in the Daily Fail, it looks as though the tanks have been modified. Just a shell with some substantial items under the pylons. I know the tanks saved damage when the nosewheel collapsed, it looks almost as though mods have been made with a belly landing in mind. Anyone confirm this?

 

A few pennies have gone into the coffers to help her back into the air.

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Airmanship of the very highest order echoing Lt Cdr Chris Gotke's recovery of the Sea Fury at Culdrose a couple of years ago.

 

Always one of the highlights of the all too short air display season, hopefully there's no hidden damage in the airframe that will prevent it from being restored to flight.

 

 

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Chuffed to find out all OK with crew, but gutted. Visited her many times whilst based at Swansea airport and missed her fly every time. Was due to fly at Swansea Airshow this year, hopefully one day.

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5 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

Looking at some other pictures in the Daily Fail, it looks as though the tanks have been modified. Just a shell with some substantial items under the pylons. I know the tanks saved damage when the nosewheel collapsed, it looks almost as though mods have been made with a belly landing in mind. Anyone confirm this?

 

A few pennies have gone into the coffers to help her back into the air.

i think they were functional as the flames the photos are from the fuel in the tanks, most likely they are made of fibreglass as they seemed to fall apart rather than denting. i watched it again and I'm still amazed by the smoothness of the touchdown. the photos of the flames really dont do justice to what was some extraordinary piloting as it makes it look far more violent than it was. 

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