Balls of steel

[Torpedo Air Cargo 0]

As a fan of russian Aviation this chilled me to the bone. A Tupolev Tu-154 on a ferry flight to Samara goes bonkers, when the ABCU (automatic control unit) goes nuts and the pilots have to try wrestle back control with nothing but differential throttle

 

 

Enable subtitles is you don't speak russian. Some heavy duty Russian swearing in this and the most unstabilized approach you'll ever see

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

Excellent bit of flying, Dutch roll can be a sod to control, especially in it's extreme form, ....but how did he straighten the thing out to land on the runway with that sort of failure? ......or was the whole thing staged?

[Torpedo Air Cargo 0]

Nope it was quite real. Was all over Russian news in spring 2011. How he straightened the thing, I don't know as it happened behind the trees. My guess is he didn't and after slamming her on the tarmac straightened her our using the front wheel steering. If the landing would've been tacked on from a different flight, we would've heard the thrust reversers. 

 

 

 

[allardjd 1,853]

Getting the wing into ground effect may have been just enough of a stabilizing influence to allow him to maintain control for the touchdown(s). I've seen this video before. I think the AC had just been taken out of some kind of extensive storage and the problem was corrosion in the hydraulics, if memory serves. Great job of doing what it takes to survive and a little reminiscent of the Sioux City DC-10 miracle/crash.

John

[Torpedo Air Cargo 0]

Yes, the Ac had been in storage since 2005 and was supposed to be ferried to the Samara factory (the one that built the last ever TU-154M in 2007) for an extensive overhaul. Capitan Rodionov earned himself a reputation in Russia with this that can be compared to Cpt. Sullenberger's in Americaland. 

 

You can see him trying the first approach at around 4:50, which doesn't work out and he has to 'fly' another circle during which (at 06:08) he actually does a 360 in the the air!!! Say what you want about Russian aviation, but Rodionov has cojones made of tritanium 

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

Blimey, even more remarkable then, He had to have been an extremely experienced pilot to do it. That sort of thing would have killed many a lesser mortal. I've got a 154 on the sim, may be worth trying to replicate it and see what happens!

[Torpedo Air Cargo 0]

Most Russian commercial pilots are former airforce pilots. They sure know how to wrestle an intransigent aeroplane. 

[GHAO 0]

I was going to make a witty comment about how familiar I am with unstabilised approaches, but then I watched the video... wow! What's making it do that? Would ground effect straighten it out? Is it possible to soften the landing enough to not smash into the ground?

[allardjd 1,853]

I don't know if ground effect had anything to do with it or not - just speculating on the fact that his sink rate seemed to diminish just a little when he needed it most. SOMETHING softened the landing enough to not smash into the ground; ground effect, blind luck, God, skill, rugged Russian landing gear... or some combination of all the above.

As for what's making it do that, as I recall from the accident report a while back, the hydraulics that operated the control surfaces were full of corrosion products and the valves were not operating properly or at all.

John