Warbird Information Exchange

Here is a shot that Bill gave to me c1970 of his Grumman G-32A (F3F-2). The photo is dated June 1967.

He was very fond of the aircraft but, from memory, I think it had an in flight fire due to a misplaced fuel cap and the occupants bailed out.

Anybody know any more of the story?

PeterA

Weren't parts of that aircraft used in the G-32 rebuild that was accomplished by Herb Tischler at the TAF? That plane is now flying as part of Friedkin's collection.

There was an inflight fire and they did bail out. I read an article about it in Air Progress where they had done the flight for the article and shot pictures of it the day before it happened.

I do not know the cause of the fire.

Mark H

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We dubbed it the "Hanger Queen" because most of the time we couldn't get it to run right. It shared a hanger with a 1930's Auburn boattailed roadster.
I thought it became part of the Planes of Fame museum.

Steve

It happened at Oshkosh, 1971:

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=61349&key=0

Has I recall Gene Chase was the pilot and Randy BeLof was on his first ever airplane ride

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Is the current G32-a a data plate rebuild or was there enough to rebuild after the crash ?? I had heard a rumor the oil cap wasn't put on tight causing it to crash.

Steve

I believe it was pretty much a data plate rebuild. I don't believe there were too many parts left after the crash and what was left, was only good for patterns. Perhaps someone more familiar with the TAF recreations can pipe in here as to exactly how much of the original G-32 was used in the replica.

I remember reading a lot about the F3F's when they were underway. I think Doug Champlin owned the G-32 at the time of the crash and always wanted to see it rebuilt. He sourced as many parts and wrecks as he could in order to start the rebuilds. I think there were four of them and each has some data plate from one of the wrecks. In the end the F3F didn't fit in with the Champlin Fighter Museum and Champlin didn't keep his.

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"I can't understand it, I cut it twice and it's still too short!" Robert F. Dupre' 1923-2010 Go With God.

I used to talk to Bill Ross a lot when I was a kid. He always had some fold out lawn chairs under the wing of the P-38 and later the Goose and Twin Bonanza and he was somewhat of a "warbird intellectual" if there is such a thing. He was a Yale graduate and a lifelong airplane enthusiast.
As a kid I remembered seeing the Al Williams F3f (whatever the civil designation) when it was at the EAA museum at Hale's Corners. It was the last remaining example when the Smithsonian took it back for display.
Bill said that what happened on the G-32 is that he restored it and flew it to Oshkosh and the buyer was to take delivery and fly it home after the convention. On it's flight home, it had a fuel leak with an ensuing fire that could not be extinguished. The pilot(I had assumed the new owner) was at altitude, so no real other choices but to bail out. It spun in and was on fire at the time. That's the story as he told me.
Gene Chase, used to be one of the EAA's "pretty boys." He flew their Spirit of St. Louis replica on tour, the P-64 and the XP-51 and many other aircraft they had at the time.