Stoney: Question re T-28s

Tue Dec 16, 2008 4:41 pm

Can you give us some info and a brief summary re T-28 tail or stabilator items? References might be NATA Oct 95 Harrrison, and Jan 96.

1. Were there any fatal accidents re tail problems in civilian use? If so how many and when?
2. Any non fatal or non accident reports, like cracks being found at annual?
3. What was the result, any mod kit or AD or service bulletin? Was there a previous military Tech Order on this, 1969 maybe?
4. Since this was addressed, have there been anymore in recent years?

Thanks

Tue Dec 16, 2008 4:52 pm

None that I know of since the one in CO.

Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:22 pm

Hey Bill, 3 words for you...
"LET IT GO"
I would be more concerned with magnesium rivets !

Tue Dec 16, 2008 7:12 pm

T-28 pilot, I could also come up with 3 words for you, however I would rather research the issue. Two nice guys, and friends were lost in the accident in Colorado. Jack raised the issue about half the horizontal tail being lost in that military one, and it jogged my memory. Now, I never owned or maintained a 28, and I am looking back 12 years after the fact, so I surely could be wrong on the details. But as I recall one of the sad things about this accident was that the owner had ordered the parts or kit to reinforce the tail, but they had not installed it yet. This owner had already suffered another tragedy that I don't want to go into here. He was a person very active in charity work locally. The other man was a retired chief of maintenance at a major airline, and a guy who'd help anyone who needed to work on their plane.

And I don't think my opinion on this is going to affect the market value of your T-28 if that is your concern.

As for magnesium rivets, if you have some expertise or knowledge about them, or know of an accident where they were the cause, why not enlighten us?