Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site wivax.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!wivax!tackett From: tackett@wivax.UUCP (Raymond Tackett) Newsgroups: net.aviation Subject: You can't back this thing up(?) Message-ID: <19235@wivax.UUCP> Date: Tue, 28-Feb-84 10:32:05 EST Article-I.D.: wivax.19235 Posted: Tue Feb 28 10:32:05 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 29-Feb-84 02:13:16 EST Organization: Wang Institute, Tyngsboro, Ma. 01879 Lines: 28 : Sorry, ccvaxa!rmiller. They DO back up, and not just rotary wing. Two examples: A small English domestic airline was reported to be landing backwards on an island off the coast of Scotland where the wind velocity often exceeded the stall speed of the aircraft. I was at a small landing zone in Viet Nam (near Pleiku) in 1966. It was suitable for C-7 Caribous. One afternoon, a C-130 Hercules landed there. The runway was both short and narrow for the plane. On rollout, the nosewheel ran out on a dike separating two rice paddies. The main gear was about 4 feet from the end and the dike was too narrow and soft to hold the whole plane. The crew chief opened the tailgate part way. The pilot reversed propellers and taxied backwards guided by the crew chief over the intercom. They had to stop every 1/2 plane length and use forward pitch to reduce the tailpipe temperatures, but they eventually reached the beginning of the runway, unloaded and left. Having lost both cargo and fuel, they got out with almost a plane length to spare. -- /////\\\\\ \ \ / / From the brightly colored, ever opening 'chute \ / of NOID Ray Tackett