Spitfire at Texas ag strip

[Canso42]

This is a long shot but if nobody here knows, somebody here knows who does.
A friend was recently telling me of her ex husbands escapades as a crop duster in the 1970's on the middle Texas coast in the rice country mostly. Shirley was a pilot and flew one of the PT-19 variants with the round engine. She remembered a Spitfire that showed up one day at their AgCat strip with engine problems.
The pilot made a couple of low, slow passes like he was sizing up the runway and the Merlin sounded pretty rough. It got rougher so he committed to the landing, coming in hard and rough, and going off into the shrubbery. There was considerable damage but it was soon in their hangar to be dismantled for shipping.
Shirley had never seen a Spit before and wasn't real interested in warbirds anyway but she sure noticed the Merlin..."That was the biggest engine I'd ever seen!"
To her best recollection, the pilot was okay. The aircraft soon left on a truck and she forgot about it until we got into a conversation about airplanes.
Anybody got anything on this incident? I don't have a lot of detailed info. How about you Bill?

Doug

[Eric Presten]

I have an idea on his. Shirly was flying a Fairchild PT-23.

[b29flteng]

Gerald Martin flying the CAFs Spitfire.

[Canso42]

Yes PT 23 is correct. I couldn't remember the variant. What year did this occur? Is the aircraft still flying and was the pilot okay long term?
Doug

[Tulio]

Yes PT 23 is correct. I couldn't remember the variant. What year did this occur?
Doug

During the WW-II years, when the production of Ranger engines could not keep up . . . . : )


Saludos,


Tulio

[John Dupre]

Yes PT 23 is correct. I couldn't remember the variant. What year did this occur?
Doug

During the WW-II years, when the production of Ranger engines could not keep up . . . . : )


I have read that the change to radial engines for trainers was deliberate due to the performance advantage of radials over inlines in the flight training regime. Radials were better for the repeated take offs and climbs of flight training and inlines were better suited for cruise flight. Ryan and Fairchild were given the option of installing radials on their designs or building someone else's design. If the Army really wanted more Ranger engines it would only have taken a few months to tool up an automotive factory to make them in the thousands.

[Matt Gunsch]

Yes PT 23 is correct. I couldn't remember the variant. What year did this occur? Is the aircraft still flying and was the pilot okay long term?
Doug

The plane was destroyed in a fire at Mt. Hope,

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/spitregi ... mk297.html

[PeterA]

Sounds like it could possibly be Charlie Liedel in Mk XIV TZ138.

Charlie Liedel was a crop duster. Lasara TX.

N5505A. He bent it badly in 1970.

Can any of you guys pull the US accident report?

PeterA

[snj-5]

http://www.ntsb.gov/NTSB/brief.asp?ev_id=3164&key=0

Bela P. Havasreti

[PeterA]

...another possibilty.

The CAF's Mk IX MK297 ended up on its back. My photo shows it on the recovery truck dated 15 May 1981 at Palacious, TX. This could be the accident point or the recovery point.

PeterA

Last edited by PeterA on Wed Oct 29, 2008 11:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

[PeterA]

http://www.ntsb.gov/NTSB/brief.asp?ev_id=3164&key=0

Bela P. Havasreti

That was pretty quick.

Can you do the same for the CAF Mk IX MK297.

That would be N1882 at that time I think.

PeterA

[snj-5]

There's nothing in the NTSB database for N1882 or N9BL.

Here's the link to the query form for the NTSB accident database:

http://www.ntsb.gov/NTSB/Query.asp

Bela P. Havasreti

[Canso42]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Palacios Texas, early seventies sounds like it but I'll ask Shirley on Sunday for more details.
If it was Charlie Liedel, was he okay?

[bdk]

If it was Charlie Liedel, was he okay?

According to the report, minor or no injury (M/N).

[Ztex]

There's nothing in the NTSB database for N1882 or N9BL.

Here's the link to the query form for the NTSB accident database:

http://www.ntsb.gov/NTSB/Query.asp

Bela P. Havasreti

N9BL is the Spit that was lost in the Canadian museum hanger fire...

http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/134069.html