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Old 08-17-2008 | 06:55 PM
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JCINTEXAS
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From: Smithville, TX
Default 3D With Full Scale P3 Orion

P3 Orion Flat Spin 7-G Pullout Under 200 Feet
No wonder they use these things as hurricane hunters!
Whidbey Island Naval Air Station

Last Tuesday, 22 Jul 2008, a P-3 Orion from VP-1 was flying an approach to NAS Whidbey Island with the #1 engine in a simulated failure mode. At 160 KIAS, the #2 engine started to surge, so they had to chop power to it. As all this was happening, they were still decelerating, so by the time they added power to #3 and #4, they were at 122 knots, and in the dry terms of investigators, "departed controlled flight". The P-3 did FIVE rotations in a flat spin, dropping 5500 feet, finally recovering between 50 and 200 feet AGL (above ground level), pulling a whopping 7 positive G's on the airframe after sustaining 2.4 negative G's in the spin. The rolling pullout burst 45 rivets on one wing, physically RIPPED the main spar, and bent the entire airframe... the crew could see INSIDE the fuel tanks of the wing. Source is from DC. talking with investigators in Whidbey.

Subject: P-3 Incident BUNO 161331
Here's the preliminary info I have:
At Whidbey, BN 161331 was doing a FCF and shut down #1 engine, with #1
off, #2 engine exhibited vibrations and was shutdown. With two engines
off on the same side the aircraft stalled and was recovered at 100 feet.
7 G's were reported to pull it out of the stall. The aircraft landed
safely.

I knew there was a reason I hated doing FCF's.