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lessons learned


Catching Fire
An F-86D pilot learns how important it is to complete an aircraft final inspection when, mid-takeoff, he finds himself in a situation that is almost too hot to handle.


I had just returned from a scramble with my wingman, and I wanted to stay in the same bird. The F-86D quickly was serviced and put back on “cocked” status. I asked the crew chief whether he had checked everything after the plane was refueled, and he said he had done so. The internal fuel was supplied through a centerpoint, high-pressure, high-volume system that could pump the entire 610 gallons in three or four minutes. The 120-gallon drop tanks had to be filled with individual hoses.


Although the ground crew members usually were very thorough, it was still the ultimate responsibility of the pilot to make a final walk-around inspection. In all my experience, I had never found a loose or missing fuel cap. In this case, before I had time to conduct the inspection, the klaxons blew for another scramble, and we were getting airborne again.


On this night, the wingman had chosen to make an in-trail takeoff a few seconds behind me rather than a wing takeoff. We sometimes did that as a way to practice keeping our position on the leader with our radar. About the time I lifted off, the control tower radioed, “Kilo Papa Zero One, you are on fire!” Soon after, I heard the wingman, from behind me, say, “Lead, you are on fire!”


No one ever wants to hear that sentence, much less during liftoff — too far down the runway to abort the takeoff and too low to eject. At that time, our planes were not yet equipped with zero-level ejection systems. I looked toward the back of the aircraft, and the area was being well-lit by a huge stream of fire from each drop tank. The fuel was siphoning out of the open filler holes and had been ignited by the flame from the afterburner.


My first reaction was to jerk the throttle out of the afterburner range, but instantly I realized that was a mistake. As I started to slow down, the flames got closer to the tanks, so I plugged in the burner again. If I dropped the tanks, they might injure someone below, off the end of the runway. It was too dark to get a good look, so I decided to continue the status quo and hope things didn’t get any worse. They didn’t, and after a minute or two, though it seemed a lot longer, the tanks emptied and the fire went out. The scramble turned out to be a practice, which was shortened because of my wasted fuel, and no great harm was done, except to my pride.
MO


— Hal Wade is a retired Air Force captain. He lives in Summerville, S.C. For submission information, see page 6.


 


 


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92 MILITARY OFFICER NOVEMBER 2013

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