Duxford aircraft "crash landing"

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

I have some photographs that a friend sent me. He's in the police and keen on aviation. He asked me not to share them on social media but they show the aircraft being hoisted out of the crops onto the HGV. The damage is reasonably extensive but from a distance nothing looks to be especially serious on the fuselage. Nevertheless it all adds up to a lot of repair work.

 

Something to keep in mind as an object lesson is G-RNFH (the RNHF Hawker Sea Fury T.20) which suffered an engine failure, an undercarriage collapse and a short and fairly gentle slide along the grass albeit knocking down a marker sign beside the runway. 3 YEARS later from what was in the grand scheme of things fairly light damage it is presently undergoing engine runs getting ready to fly again. It has been worked on by a professional team and is relatively well financed. Granted, the airframe was mostly ready last year and since then they have been rebuilding a Bristol Centaurus which isn't such a problem for a Packard Merlin powered aircraft, but the point is that these "simple" repairs tend to take longer than 99% of people expect.

 

Still, it's as happy an outcome as it could ever really be. The pilot has climbed out unaided and seems fine and Miss Velma shall fly again - of that I have no doubt. In contrast N251PW - 1944 P-51D "Baby Duck" crashed yesterday claiming the lives of pilot Vlado Lenoch and his passenger Bethany Root in Kansas. What the families and friends of these two would give for Baby Duck to be sat on its belly in a field with a few dents, a bashed wingtip and a bent propeller with Ms Root and Mr Lenoch standing beside it contemplating their day.

http://www.avgeekery.com/breaking-fatal-crash-of-the-p-51d-mustang-baby-duck-in-atchison-county-kansas-kills-two/

[hairystick]

On 7/15/2017 at 3:31 PM, HP42 said:

Any news yet on the cause and the condition of the aircraft? I guess it's repairable but what's the prognosis? 

Possibly flying at this years air show.

 

104 seconds.

That's the time-span involved in this accident. For aviators, this is a very nice video analysis of the actions.

 

 

[Seahawk]

A long clip but thanks for posting it: gives us non-aviators some insight into the complexities of flying.  Impressive, objective account of what happened: who of us would have done so well?

[hairystick]

Not attempting to cross the motorway was a good decision.

The horizon coming upward at a good rate of knots is never a good thing. He is quite correct about selecting the size of field to land in too. Picking a large field isn't always needed.

Quite a few lessons to be leaned from that video.

[noelh]

Very interesting. Should be compulsory viewing for any pilot. The partial engine failure is probably the most dangerous scenario. I think that's probably what killed two friends of mine. If it had quit cold it's full emergency mode. But partial failure gives the impression you might get back. They spun in from low altitude.

 

Watching the video I felt the same stomach clenching feeling I felt on some of my luckily few emergencies. 

 

Fascinating stuff.