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by WalterBright 99 days ago
My dad was an AF pilot for a couple decades. There were four non-combat incidents that nearly killed him. And he was a very, very careful man.

1. P-51 engine swallowed a valve and failed completely (the P-51 flies like a rock when the engine isn't turning) but fortunately he was over the airfield at the time

2. a total failure of an F-86 engine (F-86 is a decent glider and he was able to glide in on the airfield)

3. his P-51 rear fuselage crumpled after a turn. The mechanic told him he was amazed it didn't come off completely

4. flew into clear air turbulence that was so violent the wings were bent and were scrapped
1 comments
throwawaytea 98 days ago
Cool stuff. Im actually a decent mechanic and it's what makes me dislike airplanes even more, especially the smaller private stuff. I had a friend invite me over and over into his ultralight running a rotax motor. I never agreed to go because all I think about when I hear Rotax are all the jetskiis I knew in the 90s and early 2000s that would give you problems at least once every few lake outings. No thanks for that in the sky.
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WalterBright 98 days ago
An acquaintance of mine was a private pilot. Took off one day, flew into a storm, crashed and died. Another friend took a chance and flew into icing conditions, and nearly crashed. He said he'd never make that mistake again.

My dad flew F-180s in the Korean War. It was the first operational US jet fighter. It had straight wings (not swept) and had a powerful engine.

He related to me that if you exceeded a certain speed, the airplane would suddenly "pitch up" and fold the wings back. You had to be very careful not to overspeed, which (of course) was very difficult to do in a diving attack. (He said he kept one eye on the target, one eye on the altitude, and one eye on the airspeed.) Anyhow, mission one of his buddies had a Mig on his tail and could not shake it. He decided that he'd deliberately induce the pitch up, and hope that would get him out of the jam. He did, pitched up, the Mig couldn't follow it, and miraculously the wings stayed on.

He carefully flew it back to base. The wings were bent up, and the airplane was scrapped.

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