T6pilot wrote:
I was involved in the Springtown T-6 incident, yesterday morning I was at my hangar, when my cell phone rang, my friend Brian told me he had just put his beautiful AT-6F in a field dead stick as the engine quit cold on his trip back from Midland for the big CAF show. So, I loaded up the truck with tools and drove and hour and 45 minutes out to the farm field near Springtown. Brian did a great job of getting the airplane down without a scratch. I diagnosed the problem as the carburetor. The right side of the airplane was black and using the wobble pump caused fuel to gush out of the air box. Anyway, my hangar mate and fellow T-6 owner Tom called to get a status check and said; "hey I have a spare OH carb, I'll bring it out". So, I set to work and pulled the carb off (knuckle breaking 1.5 hour job, in a farm field with chiggers and fire ants) and then Tom and wife arrived with the spare carb. We spent another 1.5 hours getting it installed and I was voted to fly the airplane out. We loaded up in Tom's truck and drove around the field to find a good takeoff path and then I loaded up in the AT-6F and blasted out, using my best short field technique. Flew up to Gainesville and topped off the airplane and flew it back to it's home base and put it away in its hangar, no worse for wear. I then waited around for another hour or so for Brian to arrive in my truck. It was a very long and tiring day. Today I dropped the offending carburator off at the OH shop for tear down to determine the failure.
Carl
Carl,
Wow! You must be tired. Glad everything went ok.
The Southern California Wing's SNJ-5 engine quit back in 1993.
The NTSB reported the following:
"On December 2, 1993, at 1615 Pacific standard time, a North American SNJ-5, N89014, operated by the pilot, experienced a total loss of engine power during cruise flight at 3,800 feet mean sea level. The pilot made a forced landing in a dry river bed about 2 miles east of Santa Paula, California. During rollout, the airplane collided with vegetation and was substantially damaged. Neither the certificated airline transport pilot nor passenger was injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed for the local area personal flight. The flight originated from Camarillo, California, on December 2, 1993, at 1545.
The pilot verbally reported to the National Transportation Safety Board that during the flight all systems appeared to operate normally, and the fuel and oil pressures were within normal operating limits. Suddenly, he detected a "very strong smell of aviation gasoline and the engine stopped running." The pilot stated that he attempted to restart the engine, but was not successful. The pilot further reported that he did not have sufficient altitude to glide to any airport, so he made an emergency landing in a nearby river bed.
At the Safety Board's request, the airplane's carburetor was examined, and a written report was received from a Federal Aviation Administration certificated A & P mechanic. The mechanic indicated that the engine stoppage had resulted from it having been flooded with excessive fuel. The cause of the flooding related to the improper functioning of the carburetor's needle valve pin. The carburetor was identified by the pilot as follows: Stromburg, model NAY 9E1; serial No. 5638362."
Eric
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