That was the system that was installed at SPI, when the
guard flew F84Fs. When the tower cleared them to land they
always said "The barrier INDICATES UP" which covered the
tower in case the barrier was down.



"Big John" wrote in message
...
| David and others
|
| Before Air Force birds had tail hooks we had a system
where a cable
| was raised to two/three feet in air. When bird ran into it
the cable
| caught on nose gear and the chain lengths attached to ends
of cable
| drug you to a stop.
|
| This arresting gear was normally down and could be raised
and lowered
| by the tower when required.
|
| This may have been the system in this case. It's been so
long since I
| retired not sure if they still use it?
|
| The tail hook system can be used at either end of runway
so you can
| get two chances to use it in an emergency. Approach end
and far end.
|
| Any current jocks care to comment on to days systems
besides the tail
| hook system?
|
| Oh yes, in winter the chains would freeze to ground and
had to be
| broken loose every day or they would jerk the tail hook
off the bird.
|
| On GCA. I made 999 to one ILS. Also made a full zero zero
landing on
| GCA. Great system.
|
| Big John
| `````````````````````````````````````````````````` ````````
|
| On Sun, 26 Feb 2006 11:08:20 +0000 (UTC), "David
Cartwright"
| wrote:
|
| "Dan" wrote in message
|
roups.com...
| Last night I took a quick trip to KYUM. On approach,
the controller
| mentioned that the "arresting gear was up" on the
runway
| Does anyone know what would have happened if I had
landed on it? This
| type of thing seems quite dangerous to GA aircraft.
|
| One has to wonder why they didn't put it down for you
(the fact that they
| said it was up suggests it was retractable). As for what
would have
| happened - well, it would almost certainly have damaged
your landing gear.
|
| Incidentally, even if the arresting gear was down, you
should always try not
| to land before it (assuming there's plenty of runway the
other side - which
| there should be). I did part of my PPL training at RAF
Coltishall, which has
| arrester gear that sits in a little channel across the
runway when it's
| down. If you roll over the channel, you get a hell of a
bump.
|
| David C
|
|