T-6 and T-28 down

[snj-5]

Hope everyone is OK (airplanes can be fixed).

Today's prelim accident run says a T-6 made a forced landing in
a pasture in Springtown, Texas and a T-28 crashed into a
swamp in Arcadia, FL.

Y'all be careful up there....

Bela P. Havasreti

[Eureka181]

It makes your heart sink when a warbird crashes.

Eric

Last edited by Eureka181 on Mon Oct 03, 2005 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[T6pilot]

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

[Chad Veich]

Outstanding Carl! These kinds of incidents so often go the other way it really is nice to hear of one with a happy ending all the way around. Best regards, Chad Veich.

[Steven M. Dennis]

Excellent news Carl!

Good job to Brian and yourself (and everyone else involved).

Thanks for the great report. Hopefully the person(s) in the T-28 are o.k.

Steve

[Eureka181]

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

[snj-5]

Great news!

You gotta like it when you can fix the thing on-site and fly
it on out to a safe place....

Thanks again for the report/news.

Bela P. Havasreti

[Tigercat]

Good news with a happy ending----------thanks for the information!!

Ted

[Ollie]

Excellent job!

[Oscar Duck]

Guys, anything on the T-28?

[O.P.]

Guys, anything on the T-28?

Hi Oscar!

I recieved a description in email of a T28 accident that happened last week. It sounds like the same one. Here is the text body of the message,


"Last week, a guy flew down from Miami to XXXXXX's place for some flight instruction.

He was leaving to return to Miami when he got engine vibrations and smoke and set it down in a field near XXXXX's.

No flap, gear down and bounced until the left wing came off, then slewed to right, over into a canal and tail went over top. He walked away but had wild boars chase him so he found a farm worker who took him to phone.

XXXXX and XXXXX have more.

XXXXX has the parts."


I can't find any NAA T-28's in the NTSB database for that period. I don't know how long it takes to be updated. I've X'ed out the names because I haven't seen any solid verification, although, I recieved this email before this topic was posted. So I guess more than one person has heard about it.

[Glenn Wegman]

********************************************************************************
** Report created 10/4/2005 Record 31 **
********************************************************************************

IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 176RD Make/Model: T28 Description: T-28, AT-28, TROJAN
Date: 09/30/2005 Time: 1818

Event Type: Incident Highest Injury: None Mid Air: N Missing: N
Damage: Unknown

LOCATION
City: ARCADIA State: FL Country: US

DESCRIPTION
ACFT CRASHED UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES INTO A SWAMP, ARCADIA, FL

INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 0
# Crew: 1 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:

WEATHER: METAR KFMY 301753Z 11006KT 10SM SCT040 SCT049 31/22 A2992

OTHER DATA

Departed: ARCADIA, FL Dep Date: Dep. Time:
Destination: HOLLYWOOD, FL Flt Plan: Wx Briefing:
Last Radio Cont:
Last Clearance:

FAA FSDO: TAMPA, FL (SO35) Entry date: 10/03/2005

[Chuck Gardner]

How is this T-6 painted? I saw a few there this weekend and just wanted to know which one it was. Does is have a checkerboard painted cowling?

[T6pilot]

Chuck,

Brian's AT-6F is painted overall silver, TX ANG scheme, with a blue and yellow checkerboard cowling. Very nice ground up restoration done by Joe Cragin of Riteway Airmotive at Addison Airport in the late 90's. I've maintained the airplane for the past two years, in addition to my own T-6G, a Harvard IV, Harvard 2, another T-6G and a full time job . . . . . .

I hope to post the results of the carb tear down as soon as the shop let's me know what failed. I was very surprised by the previous post in this thread with the NTSB report on the SNJ accident in CA. Glad Brian had a good field under him when things shot craps. Of course, most of North Texas is a landing field, it's pretty flat 'round here, thankfully.

I'm off to Wings Over Houston this coming weekend in my T-6G. I need the rest . . . .

Carl

[lmritger]

First of all, hats off to the AT-6 pilot for the skillful landing, and to Carl for busting his rump to get it out of the field and back home.

And second... you know you're having a sh*tty day when you try to belly land in a swamp, rip the wing off, flip the thing over, and THEN get chased by a darn wild boar after surviving all that!

Somebody find that pilot and buy him a beer, because I bet he needs it right about now...

Lynn