I imagine the pilot of this Russian Su-33 fighter, attempting to land on the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, was devoutly grateful that his aircraft has a better than one-to-one thrust-to-weight ratio (in other words, its engines produce more pounds of thrust than the weight of the aircraft, allowing it to accelerate straight up if necessary). His landing approach went disastrously wrong, and only the power of his engines saved him – and only just!
I imagine the ‘pucker factor’ was operating at full strength there for a few seconds! Wonder how long it took him to dislodge the seat cushion from his backside when he finally got down?
Peter
Jesus!!!!!!
It was, however, rumored that the ship's laundry refused to accept his flight suit.
Wonder what indications he saw that made him abort the landing?
He was too high off the deck, for one thing. Letting off the throttle, and dropping his tail did not catch the hook, so he would have crashed down tail first had he not accelerated as he had.
I think he ralized it about the moment the tail starts to dip (and you can hear the throttle cut back for just a second (at about the 8 second mark on the video). It was either touchdown or no go and go again.
I'm sure he uttered some fun Russian words right about then, too.
I wonder how far he was from catching a cable… That would have been a mess.
Jim
That would have been one hellva inflight arrestment, and that acft had NOT been certified for that! The next thing would have been one big explosion!
If idling Ospreys can melt carrier decking, that can't have been good for the deck surface.
Peter: Please have "Old NFO" translated what the "Boss" was saying on the frequency!!!
Nations other than the US and a couple of Allies have no tradition of carrier aviation. They don't understand that flaring at the ramp is a certain bolter. I like it that way.
Leatherneck