T-28 accident: St Petersburg, FL: Everyone Okay!

[Invader26]

I was taught that if you have an engine problem stay high and set up your approach to aim for around 1/3 of the way down the runway as the touchdown zone. If it goes wrong on approach you've built in some fat...

[T-28mike]

There sure seems to be alot of Monday morning experts out there.

Only a few here truly understand the situation at hand when a high performance aircraft becomes a glider. At this time no one but the guy flying (and maybe not even he) knows the chain of events and decisions that took place to arrive at this point. The good news is that no one got killed, the great news is that no one got seriously injured.

[Randy Haskin]

There sure seems to be alot of Monday morning experts out there.

Only a few here truly understand the situation at hand when a high performance aircraft becomes a glider.

Well, one day I aspire to step up to something as high performance as a T-28.

And, to be fair, it's Tuesday.

[T-28mike]

Not directed at you Randy. You are one of the few on here that understand the real situation. darn. it's Tuesday already.....

[Randy Haskin]

Not directed at you Randy. You are one of the few on here that understand the real situation. darn. it's Tuesday already.....

I was actually trying to be funny...the internet is terrible at conveying that.

And, seriously...I wanna fly a T-28 someday.

[Paul Krumrei]

Randy, I know you can at least analyse what you would do because of the hours you have in multiple aircraft and I know and respect your honest and professional opinion, but for the others with no experience, if you have none with flying an aircraft of that type, I think it is easy for arm chair pilots to say should have could have.

Looking at the video, it was brought in the best it could be brought in, sometimes you just have to pucker up with the hand you were dealt and pray that you make it. Any landing or crash you can walk away from, is a good one!

Just like people debating the plane that crashed on the hudson, and sitting there complaining that the pilot didn't close the rear on the checklist for a water ditch. I mean come on. I bet if you put anyone in that situation, it would have a different outcome 100 percent of the time. Some fatal, some making it, some ditching, some half making it, I could go on and on.

[RyanShort1]

Gear down landing in the water, I wonder how far she'd have skipped on the water gear up, and was there enough momentum to have slid onto that beach. I wouldn't know, only the PIC could make that decision,

I wasn't there, of course, but my tuesday-morning-quarterback opinion based just on watching the videos is that there wasn't enough time to retract the gear once the PIC realized he wasn't going to make the runway.

My bet is that if he'd planned on ditching from the beginning, he'd have stayed cleaned up.

This for sure. It looks like the pilot did just about everything right considering the situation.

Ryan

[Invader26]

T28Mike:

If you read a couple of comments they were not talking about the actual event but rather, as is normal on such public occasions, to make general observations.

As a matter of fact I owned and flew my T-28D for around ten years.....

She is a drag bag in the landing configuration. The normal clean best glide speed is 130KIAS.....a landing somewhere "under the nose" from low altitude is generally assured.

I'm glad all ended well for the two guys. [Interestingly, Natops manual calls for canopy open during landing.]

Obviously not applicable here.

[Holedigger]

I just wonder how much the closed runway, due to the race, played in the incident. Having two runways to pick from when your engine goes away gives you more options. The runway available had quite a crosswind because it was the only option. NOT GOOD when you are a gliding brick.

[Paul Krumrei]

I just wonder how much the closed runway, due to the race, played in the incident. Having two runways to pick from when your engine goes away gives you more options. The runway available had quite a crosswind because it was the only option. NOT GOOD when you are a gliding brick.

Did that even play a factor? Would it even matter if the runway was closed? In that situation, any flat surface, I am sure would be fair game to try to land in with the event of an engine failure. Heck if a boat deck was big enough for me to land on and I knew it was my last and only option, well..they would be picking my plane out of the boat.

[T-28mike]

I was taught that if you have an engine problem stay high and set up your approach to aim for around 1/3 of the way down the runway as the touchdown zone. If it goes wrong on approach you've built in some fat...

Pretty sure everyone that is trained in T-28 or other high performance aircraft is taught the same thing. However, as I was not able to determine from the video what altitude or distance from the airport he was when the incident occurred I can not say he did or did not follow that same principle.

T28Mike:

If you read a couple of comments they were not talking about the actual event but rather, as is normal on such public occasions, to make general observations.

As a matter of fact I owned and flew my T-28D for around ten years.....

She is a drag bag in the landing configuration. The normal clean best glide speed is 130KIAS.....a landing somewhere "under the nose" from low altitude is generally assured.

I'm glad all ended well for the two guys. [Interestingly, Natops manual calls for canopy open during landing.]

Obviously not applicable here.

There were several comments about this incident and 'how he handled it'.
None of us were in the drivers seat, so we do not know what happened, other than the crew went for an impromptu underwater egress refresher course.
I have been restoring, flying and maintaining T-28's and many other warbirds for 27 plus years. While that gives me a better perspective, it does not make me any more knowledgeable of how things transpired in this situation. It is only speculation.
I agree that the -28 is a high drag elevator ride to the landing spot, every pilot should commit 130kts to memory.
Yes, NATOPS procedure regarding the canopy may not exactly have been not followed.