Warbird Information Exchange

Granddaughters off from school today, took them to South Bend, Indiana for a visit to a restored fountain from the Studebaker Motor Company. Then went to a “Mall” and entered thru the Barnes and Noble book store and found the October issue of Flypast magazine with a Bonus book of the B17G. Lots of specs and a cutaway of said aircraft. There is a photo heavy article of 909 , it brought back memories of my flight in it and conversations with Mac Macauley. I still am in disbelief that what happened, did happen. Rest In Peace.

NTSB update on B-17 plane crash

No revelations, seem to be close to be ruling out improper fuel though - Or at least, from what they have found out so far, improper fuel was not a factor in this crash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19vJ27Q5WSg&t=909s

The date on the video says October 3.
EDIT
Xray, I believe your link is from a different camera than the one we saw on the first report. It is also missing the onsite walkaround.

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He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

Thanks so much for posting this. I never had the pleasure of meeting Mac, but this interview definitely struck a chord. His recounting of listening into conversations of WWII vets hits close to home. While volunteering at Yankee, this was one of my favorite memories...listening to the inter-service banter between volunteers who are vets and the stories told by visitors who were WWII vets. The fact that it made such an impact on him makes him that much more relate-able to me personally having never met him. He truly "got" the importance of what he was doing and from the interview, you could tell how much he enjoyed being a part of it. His closing remarks were a bit of a gut punch knowing his fate a week or so later. Loss of life is always a sombering event, even moreso when you put a personality to that life.

The NTSB preliminary report is out. This link is the PDF version. The HTML link doesn't seem to be working.

https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/Repor ... m&IType=MA

Edit: This link has stopped working. Will update later.

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Chris Kennedy
Peoria, AZ

Link to NTSB October accident list. Check here for working links when available.

https://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.avia ... &year=2019

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Chris Kennedy
Peoria, AZ

It worked a few minutes ago just fine.

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

In simple English, turbos are used to "Turbo-normailze" the power output of an engine. They are set up to provide boost in a certain way that the engine provides sea-level power up to a "Critical Altitude" , or an attitude chosen where performance may be allowed to drop off. After critical altitude is reached, power output begins to reduce.

In A & P school it was one of the worst concepts for most younger folks to understand, as their only experience was slapping a turbo on a Honda and turning it up until it blew the engine up.....

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all ... ash-emerge

Phil

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A man's got to know his limitations.

So Number 3 was in the process of being feathered at the time of the crash.

The jackscrew setting for the flaps is troubling as well.

That's NOT a given, props can break, things can happen during an accident sequence.

Why? Keeping them up would give a longer glide, right? If they never got above 500' they needed every inch they could glide.

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YN4QAdji7Y

Not sure if this was already posted, the latest update.


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https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all ... ash-emerge

How can there be zero time engines? Impossible, they are test run after the overhaul, and then tested on the aircraft.
Any info on who did the overhauls?

Checking my Dad's old B-17 pilot's manual, it states clearly that on one or two engines to minimize drag. You wouldn't lower them until you had the runway made.

I realize now that my post was badly worded, and everyone is right, with little to no airspeed and altitude, extra drag was indeed the last thing one needed (especially with the gear down).

What I guess I was thinking was that at some point they might have tried to "pop" the flaps just prior to landing, especially when they found they were coming in short. Not that it would have made much of a difference at that point, but that was what I was thinking in regards to lack of movement in the jackscrew.

My apologies.

The article stated "At the time of the aircraft's most recent annual inspection on January 16, three of the four engines had zero hours since major overhaul; the No. 4 engine had 838.2 hours since its last major overhaul...."

I believe you are taking it a bit too literally- it is saying that at the time of the inspection the 3 engines had just been overhauled. The inspection could be done during winter maintenance, before test flights. Could they have been fired up? Sure