Warbird Information Exchange

Sad but true Gary.

I am going to ask this since no one else has. If he just put a engine in, what was he doing by making a take off 30 min into the first flight and after it died on landing ?
I don't know about a Merlin, but anytime I fly a new engine, I orbit the airport for a min of a hour, land, check it over, then I don't allow any touch and goes until it is broken in, anywhere from 50-75 hrs.

Was thinking the same thing matt, but with the info comming from a news reporter. I think I would hold out to better info when it comes in.

But yes, I would do the same practice as you mentioned. Lots of take offs and landings are not the greatest for a FRESH engine.

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Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005

I was a bit confused on this as well until I re-read the writers extremely poor phrasing. I believe what he was trying to say was the engine quit just after lift of for the second time, "After leaving the runway". The engine then restarted and then failed again without refiring. I do not believe any mention was made of the success of the first flight.

John

I'm going to ask a question ... because I'm a tad confused.

44-74865 (N8677E) Mormon Mustang belonged to Gene Mallette prior to 1999, he had it at Kissimmee ... he repainted it several years ago (2001?)to Sweet Mary Lou....

was this one 'Mormon Mustang' at the same time? (note that both are from ID) or repainted after Gene changed his?

Not a big deal, I suppose, since we currently have two Petie 2nd's flying here in the midwest... just unusual.

Agreed. The media report was confusing.
Hope the public doesn't take it as gospel........any chance?

Rhonda:
Different airframes, both had the same name for a short while.
Merry Xmas,
VL

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

Na...never Vlado. I'm constantly amazed at all the rumors and inaccurate information that still surround the CAF's C model crash. I hear their inaccurate "Factual" stories all the time. Makes me wonder if I was really one of the guys who did the post mortem on the engine or not....

John

WWW.redtail.org

Anyone have any more photos of the airframe other than the tiny one from the television station?

Too bad for the damage to the airplane, but bravo zulu for Mr Bagley's walking away from it!!

It is common to run in a Merlin on the test stand for only a couple of hours, just to check leaks, temps, power, etc. Both Jack and Mike use test stands, but it's up to the customer. In any case with the supercharger boost the rings should seat fairly soon, but may improve over about the first 20 hours. Engine time is so valuable that virtually no one will run up 20 hours or more on test,and of course the Merlin has a good reliability record if run at normal power and temp, not via the Reno unlimiteds.

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

Any rumors? I heard a good one.

Sure, I'll start a rumor. Rogue round-engine enthusiasts sabotaged this Merlin to point out the 'inferiority' of 'internally-lubricated V engines'.

PILOT TALKS ABOUT P-51 MUSTANG CRASH

Reporter: Andrew Del Greco
Dec 21, 2006 - KPVI

Just before 4:00 p.m. Thursday, a plane crashed on the median of Highway 20 in Rexburg.
Traffic had to be re-routed in both directions while clean-up crews cleared the wreckage.

No motorists were hurt in the accident, and the pilot walked away with only minor injuries.

Rexburg police are still investigating the cause of the accident and are waiting for the F-A-A to conduct their own investigation.

Andrew Del Greco was at the scene of the crash and has more.

For a man who had just walked away from a plane crash, pilot John Bagley was in pretty good spirits, all things considered.

Both he and officials at the scene know this accident could have been a lot worse.

Pilot John Bagley says he has a passion for flying World War II era planes. Thursday, he finished rebuilding the engine in his Northwest P-51 Mustang, and decided it was time for a test flight.

John Bagley: "As I pulled off the runway a 2nd time, the engine quit and then it started running again, and I'm going through every emergency procedure I had to try to keep it running, then it quit again and I could see I wasn't gonna make it."

Bagley says the only place he could land was the median between Highway 20. He was going too fast to land in the southbound lanes, and would hit cars head on in the northbound lanes.

Bagley made the emergency landing and somehow walked away from the accident with nothing but a few scrapes.

Lt. Shane Turman, Rexburg: "I think it's a miracle he walked out of this, we're lucky -- glad that he did."

Bagley says despite the accident, he would never consider giving up what he loves the most.

"Life has risks and rewards, and flying a P-51 Mustang is one of the great rewards in life, there's nothing cooler than flying a Mustang, not jets, not anything. I've got two of them -- I had two of them -- now I got one and a half."

But he does have one regret.

"The thing that hurts the worst is that a very historic airplane that was in really, really good shape -- the fuselage and wings and stuff -- it was a choice airplane and I feel bad about that."

Highway 20 in Rexburg has since reopened for anyone planning on traveling through that area.

Found this here:
http://www.kpvi.com/index.cfm?page=nbcs ... fm&ID=3180

I'm curious, is this a misleading bit of information from our friends in the media, or did he rebuild his own engine. No big deal either way, I had just been wondering who the overhaul facility was.

Gary