Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: Widewing on March 25, 2012, 09:08:03 AM
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If you haven't seen this before, enjoy it.
Tragically, Jeff was killed in this P-38 not long after this was filmed....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3nddCJbcdI&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3nddCJbcdI&feature=related)
A great follow-up to Jeff's video is the 1943 Lockheed video on P-38 flight characteristics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq_2UmiCoJk&NR=1&feature=endscreen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq_2UmiCoJk&NR=1&feature=endscreen)
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Very cool indeed Sir, thank you for posting
Salute
Steely
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Thank you :aok :old:
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Timeless indeed! I haven't watched them for a while, IIRC there's two or three videos. One for the startup, and one or two covering the flight.
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Actually, the olive drab P-38 belonged to Erickson Sky Crane, and was later adorned with the "Tangerine" name on the nose, which was done as a tribute to Erv Ethell, Jeff's father, as that was the name of his P-38. It is, or was, in the museum at Tillamook. Captain Stan Riochardson Jr. once told me he was going down to Tillamook about once a month, "just to give Tangerine a hug".
The plane Jeff was killed in is the twin to this one, that belonged to Bruce Pruett. Pruett gave the olive drab P-38 to Erickson in exchange for the restoration of the natural aluminum finish P-38 Jeff was killed in.
Tragically, or ironically, at around 6 minutes in, Jeff mentions the problems that killed him, one engine shutting down, and the fuel system switch.
Things to note. The P-38 had an incredible idle sound, like a big cubic inch big block Chevy high performance engine. Also, the plane will easily sit still when holding the brakes at the end of the runway, even at maximum power, you can't do that in Aces High.
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this is one of my favorite videos.
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Got the DVD :aok
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Watched it last night. I was wrong, one video covers the preflight to shutdown. Thanks for digging this out :rock
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Thank you :aok
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Tragically, or ironically, at around 6 minutes in, Jeff mentions the problems that killed him, one engine shutting down, and the fuel system switch.
The accident report is reproduced here:
http://www.avweb.com/news/safety/183014-1.html
Tough that his father watched him spin in.
- oldman
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I loved watching Jeff Ethell's work, and loved reading everything he wrote. It was a sad day indeed for the aviation world when he died. It's a sobering fact for any pilot, be they a 150 hour high wing trainer pilot or a 3000 hour Luxury jet pilot that a guy with as much experience and knowledge as Jeff can still make a mistake. What a terrible thing to happen, I remember hearing about it about a week after that crash, I'd just been reading something Tom Clancy had written about what the wealth of info Jeff had, and what a great pilot/historian he was.
Thanks for the video post, I've seen it a few times on TV, and never thought to search for it in Utube, I'm glad the OP did, that's getting bookmarked for life. I also get chills every time Jeff Ethell talks about the fuel management system and how dangerous it was to screw it up in this video. : (
And what a racket it is to get this plane started and taxiing down the runway. Everyone that cries for more realism in Aces High should take a look at this video and reconsider adding a hundred more switches and things to do, just in order to get in the air.
You really get an idea of the P38's size with Jeff standing next to the tail, with the vertical stabilizers being about the same height as he is. It reminds me of the first time I saw an F6F up close, as I'd always thought it was a little bitty F4F wildcat improvement, when in reality it was almost as big as the P47.
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I loved watching Jeff Ethell's work, and loved reading everything he wrote. It was a sad day indeed for the aviation world when he died. It's a sobering fact for any pilot, be they a 150 hour high wing trainer pilot or a 3000 hour Luxury jet pilot that a guy with as much experience and knowledge as Jeff can still make a mistake.
This is what I was thinking after I read the NTSB report Oldman posted. Granted, I will never (unfortunately) do the kind of flying Jeff did, making a mistake is easy regardless of the aircraft you're flying. Heck, I've forgotten to switch fuel tanks before, it's real easy to do. I slap a post-it on the instrument panel now to remind me.