A-26 Dumped On Its Nose During Landing. Ouch!

[Vraciu]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hMctfB1SKFQ





Made me wince. 

----

From their website:


We have recieved a lot of questions about the current status of our A-26 over the past two and a half months since our incident. Here a few answers to questions and comments, which will be kept to a minimum as we really aren't interested in all the internet experts coming out of the woodwork again to lecture us on how we should have landed the airplane etc.

1) It is amazing how much chaos a relatively small rod in the landing gear can cause when it shears and wedges itself in a gear door. This was the cause of the accident.

2) Yes, we know we weren't wearing flight suits. Ironically, those that know me know that I am a huge proponent of wearing Nomex and helmets. Of course, the one time you don't wear them is when it bites you. The day of the accident was really hot and we just got lazy as our stuff was across the airport. Trust me when burning debris started hitting my legs, I learned my lesson about being lazy and complacent. That won't happen again.

3) Yes, the fire department took a long time to get us off the wing. There was definitely some confusion, and yes we should have had a way to get off the airplane stowed inside. Another lesson learned.

4) Yes, the airplane is being fixed, but it won't happen fast. She is currently still in Oshkosh thanks to the good folks at Basler. The engines are off and at the overhaul shop and we have located and have possession of the remaining parts necessary to put it back on the air. The earliest it will happen will be spring based on the engine shop's capacity. There is really only one shop that I trust with these engines and apparently I am not the only one because they have a sizable backlog.

Thanks for you interest in the Silver Dragon! We hope to back in circulation late Spring 2017.

[colmbo]

I remember that incident. I wonder why the firm landing with them knowing there was a gear problem.

As for the fireman not getting a ladder to them.....that crash truck might not be carrying a ladder.

What I once did was pull my truck up to the door of a DC-10 to get the crew off --- they were quite eager to get off the plane since we all thought there was a bomb on board.

[Vraciu]

I, too, wondered why they didn't hold the nose off longer.    One comment I saw was that doing so may have caused it to hit harder when it finally came down, potentially bending the airframe (which obviously makes things more work to fix).

Watching it skid all that way made me cringe.       Seeing that smoke billowing out was not a good feeling.    Glad it's repairable. 

[pembquist]

Glad it's repairable.

With the right amount of money a data plate is repairable. Although it helps to have a crankshaft.

[Vraciu]

With the right amount of money a data plate is repairable. Although it helps to have a crankshaft.

Yeah, that's what my Mustang buddy says, but that's a bit more than a repair.   A "re-creation" or replica perhaps.  It also sounds like for a Merlin the crankshaft is the one thing that (last I heard) nobody has fabricated.   What exists is all there is for the moment.

In this case at least they're not starting from the ground up with only a data plate--thank Gawd.

I remember talking to Reg Urschler's crew chief for GUNFIGHTER after it was rebuilt with the green and yellow nose following a crash.   They had about fifty pounds of ballast in the tail because of all the fiberglass/composite material they had to use to put it back together.    They said they'd rebuild it as many times as they had to until they got below fifty percent actual content then retire it.   "At that point it's not really a P-51 any more."   That always struck me as a profound (for lack of a better word) statement.   Then again, in 1989 they weren't seen as worth their weight in gold quite yet...

[LilMak]

I was the next plane to go in over Fisk when that happened. Put into holding.