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C-160 Close shave in Germany


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I never understand how and why people get so close to where the possible action is going to happen just for a photograph.

Rally car spectators are surely the worst, standing on the outside of a high speed corner. If any thing goes wrong the car is only going to go one way with it's momentum ,yes in their face.

baz

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Well the Maily Dail have had ten and a half weeks to polish and hone this "news" story to perfection, and still they make a bit of a dog's dinner of it!

OK, so the landing (which happened on 16th October) was fairly dramatic - especially for the photographers in its path! But do we really need the description unnecessarily embellished with "roaring" propellers, and wheels "thudding" into the road? And why only 6 wheels "thudding" into the road? The main gear has two pairs of wheels on each side of the fuselage. So which two wheels do they reckon missed?

As for the "Will it fit in my hangar" bit, somebody on the paper must surely understand that if you're going to lift the figures from Wikipedia, it's probably best not to get your descriptions confused. So the bit in Wiki where it says "Payload" is probably not the same thing as "Max Weight" - at least unless they say it's the weight of the cargo and not the entire aircraft, which they don't. As for the "Top speed" quoting the Vne figure...

Sorry, Daily Mail. 3 out of 10. Must try harder.

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No one was injured, plane wasn't broken.

Maybe those standing on a raised road so close to the runway perimeter are that part of the human gene pool I am convinced we could do without anyway!

Oh no lets blame the Luftwaffe, the police, the airport authority and anyone else in authority plus drum up what was really a fairly ho hum incident and sell newspapers.

 

Edited By David Ashby - RCME on 31/12/2012 05:17:53

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That plane is designed for rough field operation - it could certainly stand a lot rougher landing than that without damage. Other than that, there ought to have been traffic control as a matter of routine on that road for landing operations, but I agree about "that part of the human gene pool I am convinced we could do without anyway!". Safety is the concern of the airfield operators, but personal responsibility also comes into play - look after yourself having taken into consideration the risks of the situation.

Edited By Toni Reynaud on 31/12/2012 08:15:15

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A bit of Googling shows that it was at the Ballenstedt-Quedlinburg which is here.

There is a main road that runs behind the runway, that measures 34m from the start of the tarmaced portion of the runway - but 220m away from the start of the piano keys. So I could see why the authorities wouldn't have closed the road completely. I bet its normally open to traffic when there isn't an airshow there.

Just looks like a bad landing, but luckily everyone got away uninjured.

Si.

Edited By Simon Chambers on 31/12/2012 10:17:59

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Strange how we assess and mange risk, there's no way I would stand in some of the positions you see for car rallying, especially on the outside of bends where you just know that cars can run wide and the sepctators are then easy targets.

However with my plane spotters head on I'm often keen to find the vanatge point which is on the runway centre line and as close as possible to the threshold / perimiter fence. One of the best I've found is at RAF Valley, there is a public footpath which runs by the perimeter fence and very close to the threshold of runway 13, it provides spectacular views of approaching aircraft, a great place for taking pictures ... the footpath is a few feet lower than the runway so the situation with the C160 is less likely,

In fact given that it is a miltary airfield the closeness of this path and the small size of the permiter fence (3 foot high with a few brambles thrown in as a deterent) is quite surprising, however it does make for a spotters / phtographers paradise!

 

Edited By avtur on 31/12/2012 11:19:13

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Posted by SkippyUK on 31/12/2012 11:28:49:

If you want to get blown about in your car by jet wash, try going to Southend Airport when the wind is in the wrong direction...

Ah yes, I take it you mean Eastwoodbury Lane when runway 06 is in operation ... another great vantage point though !!!

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Found this on Wikipedia for the C-160 under Accidents and Incidents :-

26 December 2012 - While landing on it's final flight a C-160 a pilot could not see the runway and landed 30 yards short, coming within inches of about 1000 spectators who were present to watch the planes final flight.[3]

Doesn't sound like the same incident as this thread but it is. Funny how stories get distorted. 

Ian

Edited By Rentman on 31/12/2012 12:48:20

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Posted by Simon Chambers on 31/12/2012 10:17:31:

A bit of Googling shows that it was at the Ballenstedt-Quedlinburg which is here.

There is a main road that runs behind the runway, that measures 34m from the start of the tarmaced portion of the runway - but 220m away from the start of the piano keys. So I could see why the authorities wouldn't have closed the road completely. I bet its normally open to traffic when there isn't an airshow there.

Just looks like a bad landing, but luckily everyone got away uninjured.

Si.

Edited By Simon Chambers on 31/12/2012 10:17:59

That is indeed the airfield. It is licensed for aircraft up to 5,7 tonnes, a weight considerably exceeded by a C160, even empty. There was a special dispenstion in place for this arrival.

Because of the fairly limited length of the licensed runway, the intention was to land at the beginning of the tarmac rather than on the piano keys. therefore gaining some two hundred metres of landing run.

If you look at the videos you will see that the approach was just about perfect to touch down where the tarmac starts. The pilot was caught out by the raised road which would not have been noted on any charts because, as Simon writes, it is 220 metres away from the "keys" and would have no effect on a normal approach.

For this special event, the road was closed to traffic and spectators were kept at a safe distance. You can see where the spectators should be in the third Daily Mail picture, under the tail. It is a mystery why those photographers were in that position. They could have been official press but, looking at the equipment in use, that seems unlikely. One report claims that they disregarded instructions.

As to the DM report, the pilot did not suddenly report she could not see the runway, she said she had difficulty "making out" (ausmachen) the start of the runway. Not surprising as there were none of the usual markings.

Also,Daily Mail, isn't it a bit disrespectful to say that the Dambusters had a lucky bounce?

Incidently, this aircraft was sold to a museum for scrap value, thirty thousand euros. There should be some more coming up for sale soon if anyone's interested.

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