Rockwell/North American 265 Sabreliner

Aircraft Information
> Aircraft Make: Rockwell/North American Model: 265 Nickname: Sabreliner
> Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Business Jet
> FAA Category and Class: Airplane Multi-engine Land
> Engine Description: Twin jet

Aircraft Experience
> As of: 11/3/2024
> Number of Hours Flown: 15
> Number of Times Flown: 8
> Other Aircraft Models Associated: T-39

First Flown Information
> Sequence First Flown: 74
> Date First Flown: 2/20/1991
> Location First Flown: NAS Patuxent River, MD (KNHK)
> Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: Northrop Grumman flight test, training at US Naval Test Pilot School

Recollections: This aircraft spans my lifetime.  It first flew in 1958, the year I was born and, on a periodic basis, has been part of my life since.  When I was a kid, I got to fly in the North American Aviation (NAA) company business jet with my father, William.  My dad was an executive with the Autonetics Division of NAA and, with that job, came the opportunity to travel in the company jet.  In those days, I guess, the children of executives could tag along and I was lucky enough to have this opportunity several times.  My first memory of flying is sitting in a Sabreliner, thinking I was flying (for more detail, read my “About Me” section of this website).

My next exposure to the Sabreliner was when I was assigned as the Safety Officer at the US Naval Test Pilot School.  The school had brought a specially-modified T-39 out of mothballs.  This airplane had been the testbed for the F-18 radar back in the day and we decided we’d use it as a “flying systems classroom” for radar and other systems training.  It was refurbished, check flown and brought from China Lake to NAS Patuxent River, MD (the home of TPS).  At Pax it flew several successful flights but, one day, upon returning to land, the gear would NOT go down.  The handle was lowered and the crew felt only a temporary “bump-bump”.  Well, over the course of the next approximately 70 minutes, the crew ran thru the emergency procedure for unsafe gear, we had other aircraft join up (they reported that ONE of the two main gear would come part way out and then immediately retract…the other gear did nothign), we consulted T-39 and NA-265 maintenance experts across the country and, despite all those efforts, the gear would not come down.  As fuel got low the crew decided to do a gear up landing.  The landing was flawless, right on centerline and they exited safely.  Now–as is often the case in these types of situations–it was Friday afternoon.  With thoughts of hitting the officer’s club and getting a start on the weekend danced thru everyone’s heads, there I was…the young, brand-new Safety Officer who supposedly owned the scene of the accident.  Accompanying me was some “leadership” from the Base, not too happy that “my” airplane was plugging their longest runway, and a grizzled old Maintenance Officer who thought he could get it fixed in a jiffy.  So, I relinquished my hard-line “this is my accident scene” response and let the others take charge.  Well, the base had a “Tilly” (a large crane used on the Carrier to lift airplanes in situations like this), some supposedly-universal slings, and a ticking clock for the O’Club bar.  They lifted the airplane up to put it on a flatbed but couldn’t get the slings right and it almost tumbled out of the slings.  They decided they needed to reposition the sling but, when they put the plane back on the ground, there was no space to move the sling to where it needed to be.  So, they decided they’d put a chock (a piece of wood) underneath the plane, to act as a spacer to allow the sling to be moved.  Up went the plane, the chock was placed underneath it and the plane lowered on to the chock.  CRUNCH! CRUNCH!  went the plane, because the chock had been placed in a non-structural area underneath.  Eventually the plane was lifted up, a crew was sent aboard to free-fall the gear and–just like in the air–the gear wouldn’t come down (surprise!).  So, the MO decided it was “jaws of life” time…and out came the Fire Department’s Jaws-of-Life.  CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH!!!  The gear came down with a loud bang and more components in the landing gear system were broken.  Long story short, because we’d broken dozens of gear components in the “salvage” effort, we never did figure out why the gear wouldn’t come down…we ended up with a few reasonable theories but no “smoking gun”.  The airplane never flew again and now rests at the Museum in Pax River (see picture).  That was the day I learned the lesson that Safety DOES own the airplane at the scene of the accident and I should’ve stood my ground.

I continued to fly the Sabreliner during my time with the FAA, during “flight test initial” and every time I went to “flight test recurrent” training at the National Test Pilot School (NTPS, in Mojave, CA–not to be confused with USNTPS at Patuxent River, MD) I was able to fly this ancient bird, usually with the incredible Greg Lewis.  And everytime I sit in that cockpit–full of gages, switches, dials and controls (most of which I still don’t know what they do!)–I feel like that 8 year old kid again, in awe of airplanes.