VAC Avenger ditches at Cocoa Beach show 04/17/21 - pilot OK

[Hooligan2]

Ditched just off the beach after engine problems...

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/249862

Trust all is well with the pilot and the aircraft is back on dry land.

[mike furline]

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/avengerr ... 91188.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNRbD8MDMD8&t=19s

It's had some bad luck with landings.
Damaged when gear collapsed after landing, Cushing, OK, November 14, 1971.
Forced landing, wheels up, in swamp after take-off, Massena, NY, June 16, 1975.

Last edited by mike furline on Sat Apr 17, 2021 7:10 pm, edited 2 times in total.

[G_MAN400]

Video
https://mobile.twitter.com/kamimoffitt/ ... 8136819722

[TAdan]

Thank goodness the pilot is OK. Looks like he did a great job setting it down gently.

I hope they'll be able to get it out of the water quickly and safely.

[hurricane_yank]

That pilot deserves a medal...with all the people in the water right around him and on the beach, if he catches a wingtip there and cartwheels he kills countless people. He put that bird down about as gracefully as you possibly could in a tight window. Glad to hear he is ok and hope they get it out of the salt quick and up on to dry land.

[lucky52]

Do you all think all that salt water will ruin the airframe for future flight?

[OD/NG]

Do you all think all that salt water will ruin the airframe for future flight?

No, but it's going to be very expensive and lengthy to get it back to airworthy condition. Numerous warbirds have been exposed to salt water and flown again, but most of the time it takes, in effect, a completely new rebuild just to ensure all of the salt water is gone. Nearly every single component of this aircraft has to be broken down, cleaned, treated and removed of all contaminants to ensure no salt residue, which is extremely corrosive, remains.

The Collings Foundation Corsair ditched in the ocean a few decades back and I believe it took about 5 to 6 years to get it airworthy again. Even in that amount of time, the restoration had the strong financial backing/resources of Collings. I believe that VAC's Avenger had been undergoing restoration for about 20 years to get it airworthy. When you consider the amount of time and effort it will take to get this airworthy again, it might be cheaper just to sell this waterlogged one and buy an already restored airworthy TBM.

The former Lone Star Flight Museum F3F "Flying Barrel", which never ditched in the ocean, was exposed to salt water from the tidal surge during the Hurricane that hit Texas a while back. It ended up being a multi-year re-restoration which effectively started from scratch, even though it was an almost new aircraft with limited hours. IIRC, it went through several owners, until finally flying again. These types of projects require somebody with either deep pockets or much technical know-how in order to keep the "re-restoration" costs low. Unless the aircraft is very rare/valuable, most of the time, the cost to re-restore after exposure to ocean water exceeds the value of the aircraft.

Avengers are about the cheapest "big iron" warbird you can obtain now. From what I've observed, airworthy ones have been for sale recently anywhere from about 275K to 650K. I'm guessing that a new airworthy restoration of this ditched one will far exceed that cost, imo.

Best of luck to VAC and hopefully this aircraft can be rebuilt at some time with someone who has the resources to give it what it deserves.

[marine air]

That did seem like a textbook perfect ditching. Hopefully they got it out of the water in a matter of hours. The saltwater gets in the seams and rivets and creates corrosion in the future. There is a Corsair flying now that spent some time in the salt water. I don't know if it was two weeks or two days but the Corsair was completely submerged.

[OD/NG]

That did seem like a textbook perfect ditching. Hopefully they got it out of the water in a matter of hours. The saltwater gets in the seams and rivets and creates corrosion in the future. There is a Corsair flying now that spent some time in the salt water. I don't know if it was two weeks or two days but the Corsair was completely submerged.

It was Collings' Corsair. It was submerged in ocean water for 10 days before recovery, fyi.

[DH82EH]

Always so glad to hear thay no one was hurt.
That Avenger will be repairable, but it will require a complete disassembly, strip, engine rebuild and all the avionics will be trashed,
It will be expensive.
Kudos for such a great job, getting down safe.

[OD/NG]

I saw this on facebook. Great outcome for everyone involved:

[menards]

Always so glad to hear thay no one was hurt.
That Avenger will be repairable, but it will require a complete disassembly, strip, engine rebuild and all the avionics will be trashed,
It will be expensive.
Kudos for such a great job, getting down safe.

Restoration is a numbers game. You won’t spend $3M restoring a plane that costs $300k. That’s why the BHAF bought another DC-4/C-54 and scrapped the one damaged in the hurricane.

[DH82EH]

I agree with your sentiment for sure.
When it comes to cost effectiveness it will not be worth it.
On the other hand, someone will rebuild this Avenger.
Perhaps whomever buys it from the insurance company. They will sell it to recoup something.

[exhaustgases]

Questions, don't they limit the just one aircraft to be flying during these events? If not they should. And the flight path should only be very close to the airport, for when these sort of problems happen. Will we ever find out what the engine problem was? Since that is my main interest. I would think if the whole plane could be dipped in a fresh water lake for awhile maybe it would be easier to deal with eliminating most of the salt, then spray all areas where water can seep in with something that will disperse it like WD-40. So why is there no effort when assembling an airframe to prepare for ditching ? All seams and rivets holes should have a sealer to keep H2o out. Also there should be no skins, Al sheet metals etc that is not protected some how by either paint, alodine or both on any high value airplane. The time an effort to assemble it to keep out the corrosive water is way cheaper than a new total rebuild.

[marine air]

Before we call the guy a hero, maybe we should see what caused the engine to fail. If the engine driven fuel pump was failing and he never turned on the electrically driven standby fuel pump, then no he's not a hero in my book. He did do his best in the ditching. You can thank God that no children or swimmers were injured or killed when it hit the busy beach area.
The airplane can be rebuilt, but at what cost? Maybe the operators will take the insurance check and buy another one. Maybe someone will buy the aircraft and rebuild it. If it were me, I would put as many of the aircraft parts as possible in a freshwater swimming pool for a month or two and leach out the saltwater.