I talked to Osans current FCF pilot today. He told me that pilots do Man Rev once in initial pilot training. He said it was like his 4th flight ever in the Hog. He said you will never do it again, unless you are in combat getting shot at and need it, or you just become an FCF guy.

OK, I'll bite. What the hell is Manual Reversion? Be gentle with me, I was a load toad.

It is a backup flight control system for total hydraulic failure. I didn't like doing them on FCFs because you are supposed to do it in a near max airspeed dive. It can be scary. Before the war it was only landed that way at Edwards by test pilots. One young OA10 jock killed himself trying to land a shot up Hog with no hydraulics. He should have punched out. The jet was toast. His SOF should have ordered him to punch. Another guy pulled it off and got a DFC.

Leroy

He lost control on short final, rolled and crashed...tragic. As Leroy said, supervision should have helped make a better decision. The only man rev landings up to that point were test situations where everything was controlled. Nail 69 had no pitch control other than power...very bad situation.

I think the successful man rev landing might have been before he busted his ass. Even the Edwards boys didn't try it with battle damage, an ALQ 119, and single engine. The rudder is manual as I recall. The nose also rises and falls drastically with power changes. He tried to save a junk jet and bought it. Not smart.

Man rev was intended to get you to a safe area to eject. I wouldn't land one. Although when 2 or 3 HEI 30mm rounds went off under my butt I thought I might get to try.

Lt Patrick Olson (Nail 51) in 77-0197 tried his landing on 27 Feb 1991. This was 5 days after Capt Rich Biley landed a shot to hell 79-1081 in man rev. Biley had no brakes when he touched down. Sheared the gear after a wild ride. Said he would have punched had he known he had no brakes. Beleive or not they fixed the jet.

I think Olson thought he could do it too. They buried his jet near where it crashed.

Bileys 181 was buried next to Olsons.
One of the 'Cajuns' had a man rev landing and his jet ended up back in service and eventually in a museum.
The penultimate Hog built, 664, took a decent hit in the starboard wing and is still flying today.

The same 664 that was in the 74th at Moody and now sits here at Osan? Crewed her last week during the exercise.