One of the absolutes in military aviation is you would much rather die than be recognized for making a stupid mistake. A classic pilot error that happens with regrettable frequency is forgetting to lower your landing gear and making an inadvertent wheels-up landing. Oh, the humiliation such a miscue will bring … if you survive.
Inexperienced student pilots are prone to such accidents, and for that reason the Navy places an observer armed with a radio and a flare gun at the end of student pilot practice fields, watching for such oversights.
A first-time solo pilot flying a T-28 trainer was making a landing at Baron Field in Pensacola when the observer noticed the plane did not have its wheels down when turning onto final. First, announcing, “Wave off, wave off, wheels not down!” he then fired the flare gun, sending a brilliant orange smoke trail into the sky before the approaching aircraft. Still, the student continued, so focused on his lineup, airspeed, and altitude that he didn’t see or hear the frantic warnings.
The plane touched down amid a shower of sparks, smoke, and flame, and slid 100 yards down the runway. Just as it appeared the aircraft might be slowing, a wingtip caught an obstruction at the runway’s edge and flipped the aircraft over on its back.
The crash trucks, responding immediately, raced down the runway to the smoking airplane. Inside the cockpit, the humiliated student, no doubt envisioning the hell he would face, had the presence of mind to remember that T-28 had a hand crank in the cockpit for lowering the wheels manually in the event of a hydraulic failure.
As the fire trucks approached the smoking hulk, to their amazement they saw two wheels slowly start to emerge from the underside of the aircrafts wings.