exhaustgases wrote:
......it needs to be shown that most all of them now flying are likely almost factory new aircraft. Since many of them have been close to totally rebuilt - remanufactured, also that they are more highly maintained than the average airliner, and by much more experienced technicians.....
On the flip side, there have been several high profile incidents where improper maintenance/safety practices (to state it politely) were contributing factors (EE Lightning in South Africa, B-17 Nine-O-Nine, Swiss Ju-52) and a few others where improper maintenance were likely part of the swiss cheese.
While the vast majority of warbirds are highly maintained, we can not ignore the outliers. We hope they are well maintained, but we have been proven wrong before. To be clear, I am not inferring any procedural or maintenance problems or causes for this past weekends incident, just a caution that we can't always say that aircraft are "factory new" or "more highly maintained than the average airliner..." Many operators recognize that their aircraft are not "factory new" and fly them safely and sedately. Hate to be that guy, but parts of the Nine-O-Nine report left me gutted.