For you pilots.. VTOL lands with no nose gear

[IRGuy]

Sent to me by my son in law who was a Navy FA18 pilot, and flys Boeing 777s today...

Not sure of the plane designation, but a pilot lands with no nose gear.. rests nose on a "stool"..

I think the pilot has big brass balls!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGAOpXKSXfo&app=desktop

[Navatech]

I think the pilot has big brass balls!

IMHO, ANY military pilot who tries to bring back a malfunctioning (or battle damaged) plane instead punching out of it (and ditching the plane in the process) must have a set of big brass ones... Highly polished brass at that!... After all, it's only equipment (i.e. money)...

Of course, civilian pilots don't have that option...

[IRGuy]

My SIL had one instance in which he landed on a carrier with only one engine (all Navy planes have two).. turned out that the engines were OK, but he shut one down because an instrument sensor was faulty.

He also had a case in which a plane had a fire and he had to punch out.. he says the next thing he can remember after pulling the handle was him swinging under the chute canopy. When he retired from the Navy and was taking job interviews he raised eyebrows because in his log book he shows he has one more takeoff than landings!

[Craig G]

I have the unique distinction of crashing the same airplane twice, and walking away both times! It was a home built plane I started building from scratch just working off a set of plans at the age of 15. Six years later, two days before my 22nd birthday, I flew it for the first time. It had a VW engine that I could not keep running reliably, so I had four dead stick landings in the seven years I flew it, two of them resulting in accidents. The first one was in 1984 when I landed in the Hauppage Industrial park in Long Island and took the right wing off after hitting a stop sign. The last flight was in 1991 climbing out of Waterbury Oxford airport in Connecticut when the engine began losing power. I made it back to the airport, but stalled the wing at about 30 feet high and hit the ground like a ton of bricks. That was the end of it. I don't really miss that plane.

[Rawleigh]

Any landing you can walk away from . . .!!