darn, Greg Shelton bellies in his FM2.....

[hstandard4]

Aparently on Saturday at Hugh Robinson Memorial Airport?..

[hstandard4]

Shelton, of Collinsville, Okla., was performing aerobatics over the Neosho area. Shelton’s landing gear had failed, but no one was hurt in the crash landing at Hugh Robinson Memorial Airport.

Shelton, who declined to comment on the situation, was unhurt and walking around the airstrip after the incident. The Wildcat was in a little bit worse shape, with its front propeller damaged beyond repair.

Airport employee Ted England wasn’t there for work on Saturday afternoon — he had come out to watch Shelton’s aerobatics. He witnessed Shelton’s landing.

“He landed in a perfect landing, and it looked like the (landing) gear just folded up,” England said. “He was already landing and was ‘rolling out.’”

England said he could hear the propeller, which he called the “prop,” hit the runway. All three blades on the propeller were bent or twisted after the skid.

“There’s nothing hurt except the prop,” England said. “It just scooted on up the runway until (it stopped).”

As of press time, it was still unknown what caused the gear to fail.

“He (Shelton) thinks the gear box may have broken and caused the gear to fold up on either side,” England said.

Dennis Cholka, a weekend employee at Neosho’s airport, said there were sparks when the airplane was skidding.

“When he skidded there for a little ways, it kind of looked like there was some flames underneath,” Cholka said. “It was probably (just) sparks from sliding on his belly.”

A propeller is expensive to replace, he added, but the accident could have been worse.

“That’s the main thing, no one got hurt,” Cholka said.

England said Shelton comes out to Neosho three or four times a year. Before the malfunction Saturday, Shelton had already landed once for fuel.

The Grumman-manufactured Wildcat fighter airplane, a 1944 model, was used in World War II. It was one of the first model airplanes to fly off of aircraft carriers. According to Shelton’s website, www.gregshelton airshows.com, Shelton bought his Wildcat in 2006.

[lmritger]

Article says the gear folded up on him as he was taxiing in after finishing his routine...

http://www.neoshodailynews.com/features/x13272371/Landing-gear-failure-forces-WW2-era-craft-to-make-belly-landing

Certainly nowhere near as bad as it could've been... new prop and landing gear uplocks, a little bit of sheet metal, check the engine for shock damage, and he'll be back in business. All of which takes $$$, of course... :-/

Glad he wasn't hurt, and glad the damage wasn't too severe.

Lynn

[Steve S]

England said he could hear the propeller, which he called the “prop,” hit the runway. All three blades on the propeller were bent or twisted after the skid.

.

Thank god for clearing that one up mr newspaper man. All these years I have wondered what everyone meant by that term.

[Chris Brame]

The Wildcat was in a little bit worse shape, with its front propeller damaged beyond repair.

And the rear one was OK.

[CraigQ]

The Wildcat was in a little bit worse shape, with its front propeller damaged beyond repair.

And the rear one was OK.

Ayep, thanks to the Wildcats tail wheel not being retractable!

[oscardeuce]

The Wildcat was in a little bit worse shape, with its front propeller damaged beyond repair.

And the rear one was OK.

Hey, some of us have rear props!

Glad to hear he's OK.

[CraigQ]

That's a drag & glad to see Greg is fine. Looks like there will not be extensive damage to the airframe itself. Prop & engine will be expensive enough though.
Hard to tell from the picture if both sides folded or just the right hand side. If only one side then it may have been a broken chain, if both sides folded it may have been a failure in the cockpit crank box.

[Jollygreenslugg]

England said he could hear the propeller, which he called the “prop,” hit the runway.

Dagnammit; these crazy kids and their secret lingo. Sheesh!

[Russ Blow]

“There’s nothing hurt except the prop,” England said

Yep...its just that easy. Bolt a new one on and off you go.

[SPANNERmkV]

Sad to hear that happened, but it is good news that it was no worse than it looks like. And as long as Greg isn't hurt he can go make some more money and put it aright.
It will take a full A/C survey to determine the extent of the badness.

That A/C sitting all unloved down at LSFM was what started my Flight career. I found out later it wasn't being flown because of insurance costs, but at the time I thought all it needed was a pilot to take it on.

Months later the first time I taxi'd up to LSFM in a C-172 Airboss happened to be driving by on the ramp and came up to see me. He said something like, "Now I expect you'll want to fly the B-25." My reply was , "No... I had my eye on the Wildcat."

He was driving off with some Tiger Moth wing-parts in his car. Lordy, we were all so young, innocent back then.

[Lynn Allen]

Guess its to be seen at Nelson's soon for repairs....

Guess Not

Last edited by Lynn Allen on Thu Mar 17, 2011 9:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Robbie Roberts]

England said he could hear the propeller, which he called the “prop,” hit the runway. All three blades on the propeller were bent or twisted after the skid.

.

Thank god for clearing that one up mr newspaper man. All these years I have wondered what everyone meant by that term.

I was simply impressed he SPECIFIED the FRONT propeller was damaged... But no mention of the REAR propeller...(snerk)

Scott

[richkolasa]

Props to da prop fo takin' da impact!

[warbird2]

I doubt the original person meant anything bad but shouldn't the title of this be changed to "gear collapses on rollout"? The way it is now sounds like he did a belly landing and that is far from the case. It might be taken wrong by Greg Shelton if he was to read this.