IAF’s Mig-21 Bison forced to drop three fuel tanks while flying near Gwalior

[Donatello]

I think you (reasonably) misunderstood the article.


That sentence does not mean he was in approach for landing. It mean he was readying the jet for a landing, and his in-flight emergency (IFE) procedures expects him to discard his external tanks. Until more information is available, the best guess I can give is he had a serious problem pretty much after take-off, may be even right after weight-off-wheels (WOW).

Take-offs and landings are most vulnerable and dangerous for any pilot and his aircraft, whether it is a dinky little Cessna 150 or an F-16 or a B-52. It may be counter-intuitive for non-pilots, but the two most safe states for any aircraft is either parked on the ground or fully airborne. So if I have a problem during rotation, the word 'rotation' mean finally getting airlifted, I will definitely try to get fully airborne, secure the aircraft into as stable flight as possible, assess my predicament, circle around, then attempt a landing. Unlike action movies, bailing out is the least palatable, and therefore, last option.

If my procedures expects me to expend all possible external loads, I will try to do so AFTER I am in stable flight. The danger here is that whatever my problem is, it may unpredictably affect aircraft stability, and if I try to expend external loads, the discard may be asymmetrical, creating asymmetric aerodynamic issues, which may cause me to crash. Get to stable flight first, then worry about how to safely expend external loads.

The wing design on a typical fighter does not allow much slack if the engine flames out at rotation, since you might lift off, but you don't have the luxury of gliding the plane as in a big civilian airliner. So how do the pilots manage that dangerous moment, especially on a single engine fighter?

 

[gambit]

The wing design on a typical fighter does not allow much slack if the engine flames out at rotation, since you might lift off, but you don't have the luxury of gliding the plane as in a big civilian airliner. So how do the pilots manage that dangerous moment, especially on a single engine fighter?

You 'manage' from training, more training, and even more training. Then you hope you never have to meet any of the emergencies that you trained for.

With today's technology, we can break down those training into blocs of events that can be analyzed. Simulators are great tools for this. A simulator is not supposed to replace the real aircraft, but what the simulator is good for is to embed you with the physical memories of what to do in the event you meet an emergency, whether it is an engine flame-out on a single engine jet, or on a multi. The more you rehearse in the simulator on what switches to hit, or which gauges to first look at, the more those motions become natural, more instinctual, so your mind is more available to be analytical about your immediate situation.

Remember the news of the event where an Israeli F-15 got its starboard wing clipped off in a mid-air ? The pilot did note something was wrong with his jet but he was so busy with trying to control his jet that he did not spare the time to find out externally what happened to his jet. There was no way to simulate such a physical structural loss, but it was training that allowed the pilot to extend whatever knowledge he has about the F-15 into the unknown and allowed both pilots to survive. Depending on your job, you can train for at best %90 of an emergency that may occur in that job, and for the military, it is usually less than %90. But if you can be instinctual about as much of an emergency as you humanly can, your mind can be awesomely creative on how to deal with the unknown and untrained for parts of that emergency.

 

[Assault Rifle]

Not a big deal.
A USAF F 16C also had to jettison it's fuel tanks over South Korea due to emergency during flight.

F-16 forced to dump fuel tanks while flying over South Korea

We also know that Pakistani F 16s also jettison fuel tanks over NWA at least once as proven by pics released by TTP.

TTP propaganda shows drop tanks, claims to have shot down F-16. | Page 4

Best part is the Jet is safe and no one is hurt.

 

[Donatello]

Not a big deal.
A USAF F 16C also had to jettison it's fuel tanks over South Korea due to emergency during flight.

F-16 forced to dump fuel tanks while flying over South Korea

We also know that Pakistani F 16s also jettison fuel tanks over NWA at least once as proven by pics released by TTP.

TTP propaganda shows drop tanks, claims to have shot down F-16. | Page 4

Best part is the Jet is safe and no one is hurt.

As the title shows, it was propaganda.

 

[Donatello]

You 'manage' from training, more training, and even more training. Then you hope you never have to meet any of the emergencies that you trained for.

With today's technology, we can break down those training into blocs of events that can be analyzed. Simulators are great tools for this. A simulator is not supposed to replace the real aircraft, but what the simulator is good for is to embed you with the physical memories of what to do in the event you meet an emergency, whether it is an engine flame-out on a single engine jet, or on a multi. The more you rehearse in the simulator on what switches to hit, or which gauges to first look at, the more those motions become natural, more instinctual, so your mind is more available to be analytical about your immediate situation.

Remember the news of the event where an Israeli F-15 got its starboard wing clipped off in a mid-air ? The pilot did note something was wrong with his jet but he was so busy with trying to control his jet that he did not spare the time to find out externally what happened to his jet. There was no way to simulate such a physical structural loss, but it was training that allowed the pilot to extend whatever knowledge he has about the F-15 into the unknown and allowed both pilots to survive. Depending on your job, you can train for at best %90 of an emergency that may occur in that job, and for the military, it is usually less than %90. But if you can be instinctual about as much of an emergency as you humanly can, your mind can be awesomely creative on how to deal with the unknown and untrained for parts of that emergency.

Yup, agree with the training part, as in case of the miracle hudson landing in NY. However, bigger airplanes have the luxury of some lift from their massive wings. Not so much in case of combat aircraft, because in order for them to be nimble and agile, wings must be small.

 

[Assault Rifle]

@Donatello
It's propaganda because TTP claimed they shot down a F 16 by showing pictures of drop tanks.

If you go through the number two page of that thread PDF Think Tank member Munir identified it as Centre belly tank which tore off.
Several other senior members also identified it as fuel tank.