In high-stakes flying, as occurs with military flights, emergencies are not a question of if but when. Very well illustrated in 1992 was the harrowing situation during a training mission over Arkansas that F-14 Tomcat pilot Mark Vizcarra found himself in. He jammed the variable swept wings on his aircraft, simulating a Soviet Su-27 fighter, in the swept-back position.
Flying in formation alongside F-15 Eagles near Mach-1, Vizcarra sensed something was wrong. “The Tomcat had a natural tendency to buffet under high-G with the wings back, but it would always diminish as the wings adjusted to their optimum position,” he recalled. This time, the buffeting didn’t diminish. He reached down and flipped his wing-position indicator: the wings were still swept back. The first thing he did was to take manual control-but the wings wouldn’t budge.
The time had come to turn straight back toward base, Vizcarra decided. The trip to Dallas allowed him and his Radar Intercept Officer, Rick “Rico” Jordan, time to formulate a plan for what would be a very dangerous landing. The biggest problem was that without flaps and wing spoilers, the aircraft would touch down at an approximately much higher speed than usual.
But hundreds of hours of training in a flight simulator paid off for Vizcarra. He had done this scenario countless times before, even though he was told, just like all the other students, that it was an unlikely event to happen. “Thank God I did because four years later, I found myself in that position and I used the very procedures I developed to execute an emergency recovery,” he said.
Coming over the approach end of the 8,000-foot runway, Vizcarra and Jordan dumped fuel, feathered the left engine, and set the drag chute to reduce as much weight and thus approach speed as possible. The runway was fitted with arresting gear, similar to that used on aircraft carriers, which would come in handy in this high-speed landing. “Luckily, all those approaches I practiced in the trainer helped me land the Tomcat exactly where I wanted,” said Vizcarra. His hook snagged the arrestment cable at the maximum allowable speed, bringing the aircraft to a safe stop.
The successful landing showed off Vizcarra’s well-trained handiwork. His commanding officer and the emergency crew were ready, but it would be Vizcarra’s precision that would guarantee the safe recovery of the aircraft. “Man…you’re like a bullet with tires–we didn’t even have time to transmit back when you called the ball!” one of the Landing Signal Officers commented.
It is an important incident insofar as rigorous training and preparation have to be done, yet it underlines the unpredictability of military aviation. Vizcarra’s story is an intense example of the daily challenges fighter pilots face and how critical readiness can be during any possible emergency.