B17 taxi incident

[CAPFlyer]

At 11:55 is when the Doc (the real Doc) starts spinning it around under high power. You get a couple of cuts, then at 12:05 you see the plane about 90* through the pivot and you see a tree in the background snap back up. At 12:29 you can clearly see the dent from the impact right where the yellow of the tip marking ends. Looks to be a 6"-8" deep dent that's at least that wide as well.

Also, I noticed that it says that Doc was supplied by "B.C. Vintage Flying Machines," so I'm guessing that's what the VFM was called in its earliest days.

Also interesting in that episode is that the "Doc" that owns/flies "Chuckie" is played by Robert Magruder, a Houston native who did a bunch of Voiceover work in later years. He also was a recurring actor at the time on the "Dallas" TV series.

[K5DH]

"B.C. Vintage Flying Machines,"

BC Vintage Flying Machines is an incorporated entity set up by Dr. William Hospers and Mrs. Charlyn Hospers (better known as Doc and Chuckie) to cover their vintage aircraft, including the B-17, Piaggio Royal Gull, Aeronca L3, and others. The "B" and "C" stood for, of course, Bill and Chuckie. Vintage Flying Museum is a separate 501(c)(3) entity started in 1990 by Doc and Chuckie. The B-17 was owned by the Hospers family from 1979 through 2010, when she was sold to Jerry Yagen. The '17 was operated by the Museum from 1990 through 2010. The name "BC Vintage Flying Machines" was lettered on the B-17's fuselage beneath the elevators right up until the day she was sold to Jerry Yagen.

The way I understand it, the TV show's director wanted that infamous u-turn scene to have more "zing", so he had Doc do another take with more speed (they were fleeing from bad guys). On that last take, as you can see in the video, the wing clipped a small tree. It left quite a dent! Doc was understandably furious over the whole thing. They had to change that left outer wing section in order to fly again. The damaged wing was in storage in the VFM warehouse and went to Jerry along with the cache of spare parts. It's a repairable wing, but there was never a need to do the work, so it just sat there with that big dent.

[CAPFlyer]

Wonder if that dented wing is now in Madras and if so, maybe someone can get a pic?

[K5DH]

Wonder if that dented wing is now in Madras and if so, maybe someone can get a pic?

I think it may still be with MAM.

[CAPFlyer]

Sending Jon PM.....

[JBrawner]

[CAPFlyer]

Yes, you.

I didn't know if you were still in "lurk only" mode or not.

BTW, I like this one better -