MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY!
F-104 Hydraulic System Failure
- Night
Low-Level Instrument Tactical Check Flight over Dusseldorf, Germany by Ike
Sweesy*
I was an F-104 pilot in Europe with the NATO Training Division (DOON
Team) from 1982
– 1985 and I flew out of many NATO F-104 bases giving
Tactical Check Flights to allied pilots including Dutch pilots at Volkel AB, The
Netherlands. Before that
assignment I had been instructing in F-104s at Luke AFB from ’79-’82 and
then went to
Europe through the summer of 1985. I loved that 3-year European tour, and considered it my best assignment
in the Air Force. I got to fly with fellow F-104 pilots in Germany, Holland,
Belgium, Italy, and even Turkey. I had an
interesting experience March 8th, 1983 on a night TF-104 flight out of Volkel with me flying the
front seat giving Captain Jos Engels, a 312th
Squadron Dutch fighter pilot, a back seat, Radar Night Low
Level Check Ride via the Charlie route in Northern Germany to Nordhorn
range. That night the weather was good enough for launch and recovery at
Volkel, but was forecasted to be IMC for the low level route which snaked east
then north across the heavily populated northwestern Germany low lands.
Jos and I didn't much care about the clouds since it was a night instrument checkflight anyway,
and we were carrying plenty of fuel in the 4 external tanks for the long low level
navigation route ending with a simulated Nuclear Weapon Delivery on a practice target
such as would be assigned in Communist territory during a real nuclear war. I
did the takeoff from the front seat, and after coming out of afterburner and
starting the climb I checked the comforting
blink of small green fuel lights that told us that our fuel transfer pumps were steadily
filling our internal tanks from those 4 bags of gas hung on our tiny wings. In the glow of the
radar
screen and the dimmed interior instrument lights, Jos, my Dutch flightcheck 'victim', got his
checklists and Low Level Route book opened, and I transferred control of
the jet to him with the familiar routine. "You have the
aircraft" I said. "I have the aircraft" Jos replied
shaking the joystick, then "You have the aircraft" I repeat.
That seemingly redundant exchange has saved many a flight crew when each
'assumed' the other was controlling the jet. Now with the Dutchman at the
controls we entered the radar low level route into
Germany, but soon I noticed that Jos wasn’t doing a very good job of smoothly controlling the jet
and I mentally ascribed that to nervousness in getting a very difficult “Checkride”.
Finally he said “Ike, how about taking control -
The plane feels funny”. “OK,
I got the aircraft” I said, and soon I
likewise ‘wasn’t doing a very good job of smoothly controlling the jet’,
but of course it couldn’t possibly be my flying skills. 'Something' must
be wrong with the flight control system, so we decided to abort the low
level and head home. But soon, from just random,
uncontrolled inputs, the
flight controls rapidly increased in ‘pulsing’ in all 3 axis and it became a full
time job to keep the plane in the air. We
were having hydraulic problems with the flight controls and we could have lost
control over Düsseldorf. Bad news at 1,000 feet AGL.
Now that experience was over 20 years ago, and I had forgotten about that story for a long time
until I was reminded of it by a picture of a beautiful F-104 from Volkel
AB
that Hubert Peitzmeier
included in one of his many "memory pix". Alas,
there are no roaring F-104’s around
Boise
Idaho
to remind me of those past experiences. But
that flight was really ‘exciting’ for a few minutes as the jet bucked and
kicked from plus 2-3G’s to negative 1G and
rolling from side to side as I struggled for control at 1-2,000’ AGL.
It was night with just the glow of Düsseldorf
through the clouds below and the radar altimeter reminded us how close to the
ground we were. With our heavy fuel
weight and the tiny F-104 wings the plane buffeted with each pitch up
threatening to stall. We had considered bailing out if we couldn’t keep an
upward vector, but a fully loaded 4 bag F-104 would have made a heck of an
explosion in a city, and both of us hated the thought of
“walking home”! Finally
the contaminated hydraulic fluid caused the Utility Hydraulic System to fail
completely, and then the jet smoothed out, and we were able to climb up in
afterburner to 10M squawking and calling Emergency on Guard.
"Clutch
Radar" answered and cleared out the traffic ahead
of us then switched us over to their frequency. I asked for a Radar vector to any military
base "that could speak F-104", and we flew north toward
Jever
- an old Luftwaffe base from the ‘30’s with enough runway for us. It
had been an F-104 base and was transitioning to Tornados. Jos
and I
knew we were going to have to jettison those 4 external tanks to get down to
landing weight, but we sure didn't want to do it over populated areas. As we
descended for the approach to Jever we flew over the Jadebusen, a bay of the North Sea
just east of Wilhelmhaven, and I pushed
the "Panic Button" which cleaned the jet of those 4 bags and almost
10,000 pounds of jet fuel. I want to tell you, that’s a spectacular FLASH in the dark in the clouds
as the explosive bolts fire only 5 or 6 feet away from the cockpit!
Our lightened Starfighter almost leaped forward and we then were vectored to a 20nm final for
runway 28 at
Jever AB.
I rolled into a gentle left turn for a very long final at 240 knots and the two of us ran
through the Emergency Check List a couple of times together with me repeating
each step before we started through it.
Failed Utility Hydraulics meant an alternate gear release.
We’re ready. Now here’s
the bad part.
Mike Vivian
and Fritz Washburn will remember that we DOON pilots were dual qualified in
both the -104 and the SabreLiner, and I had just returned a couple of days prior
from an extended trip through the Med hauling ‘brass’ around.
Plus, I’d had a checkride in the SabreLiner doing, you guessed it, an
Alternate Gear Release in that T-39. Just
guess where that gear release handle is in the T-39?
On the panel ahead of your left knee.
Guess what handle is in that location on the F-104?!!!
The DRAG CHUTE
HANDLE! 240
Knots, Pull, Pop, Huge Deceleration, Shoulder Harnesses lock, RRRriiipppp as the
drag chute tore away!
Steady at 180 knots, “What was
that?!” Whew!
Uh Oh, Now what?!
Pull the real Alternate Gear Release Handle
which is 12 inches to the Right on
the panel and then Flaps Down,
On Course/On Glidepath,
Touchdown. HOOK!
HOOK! HOOK Jos yelled!
We engaged the departure end barrier and came to a stop…
Heavy Breathing on both intercoms …
Engine running (BTW, that’s singular in an F104), call for a ride to
the BAR! In those days I
could speak pretty good German (I was born in Munich to American parents) so I explained
in German to the
ground crew what happened as they looked all over the runway for the drag chute
and only found the connection and a few inches of cable still attached to the
jet. I guess some German housewife out on extended final got dozens of nylon
panties made! As I
debriefed the German ground crew, Jos was surprised that I spoke German
and commented on that, but he was
busy calling Volkel and he told them about our divert to Jever.
The GAF maintenance guys took fluid samples of everything, and as we were
debriefing one of them brought over to us a vial of hydraulic fluid.
There was visible residue already settled out to the bottom!
All jets at Volkel were then grounded until they could figure out what
happened. That was lucky because
several fighters were found with contaminated hydraulics from that same
hydraulic ‘mule’. Jos and I soon
went to the historic Jever bar (built in the
1930’s!) and several of us pilots, German, Dutch, and me the American, traded
stories well into the night. Of
course most Dutch pilots speak German (many Europeans speak at least three languages), and
since I was 'fairly' proficient also, we all had a great time.
We finally stumbled over to the BOQ and got a room for the rest of the
night. The next day we returned to
Volkel by helicopter. What
a terrible end to a Fighter Mission, but at least our Landings equaled our
Takeoffs!!
Jos and I got a nice write up in the
Dutch Flight Safety Magazine but I never got a copy - too bad. Of
course, I couldn't read Dutch anyway. However, my picture with my TF-104 at Luke is on the cover of a Japanese Modeler
Magazine and I have 3 copies of that, but of course I can't read Japanese either
- I just look at the pictures. Plus,
Bob Irwin an ex- Phantom guy, who is with the modern-day “Starfighter” Airshow
Team found a Hasegawa 1/72 plastic model of my TF with the right tail number,
and you can read my name on the decal (with a magnifying glass!). Bob
graciously gave it to me, and I’m having the model built by a
professional-quality model builder nicknamed “Blaze” here in
Boise,
Idaho.
A great adventure, but I don’t
tell too many people about the “dual-qualified” risks!
And of course, there are other flying stories I don’t tell people about
either – yet.
*Technical Assistance
and References for this story provided by Hubert
Peitzmeier, Starfighter and
Phantom pilot.
*English Translation of the Dutch Flying Safety Magazine article by a
Starfighter enthusiast from The Netherlands named Eric. Also, thanks
to Eric for
finding Jos Engels' name, squadron number, and the date of the incident.
