I don't want to brag but....

[FluffyKitty]

Is there anyone here has had the experience of successfully landing their plane with no elevators!  

Here is the scene....... I was in a LA7 duking it out with a spit 16.  When we both collided.  While he went down 100 pieces,  I thought I was okay until I tried my elevators and realised that I had none!  

What I did notice was that the plane naturally had a upward pitch, and with careful use of the throttle  I could Yo-Yo my way along.  This was unbelievably slow, however, and then I remembered reading about Randy Driscoll during the Vietnam war after shooting down his 5th Mig was hit by a SAM, after he lost his hydraulics heading towards the coast, his F4 would  Pich up in a similar way.  What he did was when it was at the top of the climb and close to stalling he would roll inverted, and thus would go nose down.  He was able to do this yo-yo manoeuvre to get to the coast.  So, suddenly I was inspired and tried this myself, and it worked!  So with no elevators, I climbed rolled inverted dived and climbed again for a full 1 1/2 grids.  When I got close to my airfield.  I experimented with the throttle settings and found that I could set my plane up in a moderate dissent.  So very slowly and very carefully completed a very wide circuit, and let down towards the field, only to find that was now under attack by three planes (this was not looking like it was my day).  But slowly, and unbelievably carefully, I lined up on the runway and with no elevators whatsoever was able to set my LA7 down, and best of all I got to keep my three kills!:O so is there anybody who's had a similar experience?

[zoozoo]

I tried doing it in a zeke before, I had the upward pitch but after 30 seconds  i couldnt keep control.

[Max]

I land broken planes at least once @ hour

[blkmgc]

Yup, twice in about 12 years . Both times in a 4 engine heavy.Once here, once in WB's.

[SkyRock]

not easy to do, but with throttle work very doable!:aok

[Ghastly]

Hee hee - even the seemingly impossible can be quite possible with a little ingenuity and persistence sometimes.

Last night, I took up the KI84 for the first time ever in AH (it was a monster in WB's, but I don't see it flown much here, and felt like trying something new).

First sortie, dove in on a con, ripped the elevators off... never even got a chance to pull the trigger.  Flew back home and managed to rip other parts off (gear I think, I didn't stay in to try to figure out as I was just high enough to bail successfully) while trying to get slow enough to get the gear down, so I bailed over our field.

Second sortie, dove in on a con, ripped the elevators off... never even got a chance to pull the trigger.  Said a few (OK a LOT) of bad words, laughed about it with a couple of squadmates, then flew back home and managed to get nose high long enough (bank and rudder into a zoom climb) to get flaps down, which meant I could get the gear down and not overspeed and was able to use the throttle (pretty easily, actually - as long as you stayed on the bright side of the power curve) to manage rate of descent and land it successfully - not a real pretty landing, but I've definately landed worse with a whole plane more than once.  

Edit - when egressing from a hot spot without an elevator, remember that you can roll the aircraft to turn that tendency to nose up to a nose down.   You might look like an idiot rolling your aircraft every 10 to 15 seconds or so as you corkscrew your way back to base, but you are a 300 mph + idiot not a 150 mph steadily climbing idiot.

[Shuffler]

Originally posted by P0RNSTAR
Is there anyone here has had the experience of successfully landing their plane with no elevators!  

I landed my 38J just last night with no elevators... had to fly about 1 sector to get back to the barn. You have to control speed and to keep from yoyoing you simply roll your plane gently from side to side. This will create an S pattern all the way back to base yet control your altitude. By the time you get back you may think your flying the space shuttle as they do this on re-entry to kill speed. If you start to climb just hold the turn a little longer, if you need to lose some alt just roll over slightly further, climb...  roll slightly less. Timing is of the essence on touch down of course.

[B@tfinkV]

hey! you and that spit of yours have led to my demise one too many times for this to be your first post ever. it's just not on!! i landed a spitfire V on a carrier once with no elevators, usualy most planes i dont work out the throttle in time and auger.

the most unlikely thing about landing with no elevators is that we lose them in a fight and still have a chance to attempt a landing at somepoint without having been shot down.

[humble]

As already mentioned flying a plane without elevators is not really very hard as long as you have enough air to get slowed down. The plane will "balance" without elevators. Most planes need to have flaps deployed to achieve a positive ROC at low speed...the only real problem is in managing rate of decent since it will lag and respond entirely on the power curve (unless you have multistage flaps to use). Matching decent to the landing profile can be tough in planes that glide like a brick....

This is a carrier landing minus elevators and rudder in an A-20. About the only real adjustment was in the sightly wide turn on final. Since I was using flaps/throttle to control decent I didnt want to be flying across the carrier deck from the approach side to minimize the chance of bouncing the bird of the deck if the flaps flared the land to much....

So I went wide and continued the turn into the deck but it flared perfectly so I ended up just rolling out square to the left hand edge.

CV landing minus stuff

[Puck]

Well...I landed an F4U with no wings and skidded an La-5FN to a stop on an anti-aircraft pad with no anything left attached for a successful landing.

Do those count?  I have films...

[Wmaker]

Originally posted by P0RNSTAR
Is there anyone here has had the experience of successfully landing their plane with no elevators!

When the KI-84 came out I had to land it many times with rudder being my only control surface left...then I learned the speeds you should not exceed with it.

[bcadoo]

Randy Driscoll????

Illigitimate child of Lt. Randy 'Duke' Cunningham and Willie 'Irish' Driscoll?

[beddog]

Originally posted by P0RNSTAR
Is there anyone here has had the experience of successfully landing their plane with no elevators!  
 

Uh pornstar....You were flying the easy button, what did ya expect?


PS:  lose that stupid pornstar handle, it makes you look like a dum kid.

[Jackal1]

Originally posted by beddog
PS:  lose that stupid pornstar handle, it makes you look like a dum kid.

Some things are priceless.

[Xasthur]

I will see your missing elevators and raise you a missing rudder.