Warbird Information Exchange

Oh darn I can't believe it I was just thinking about Zeuschel's crash today. I arrived at the show just after his crash.

John

Very sad...I met Mr Fuller one time...nice guy.

Prayers go out to his friends and family.

I never realized that Patrick had survived this accident. What an awful thing to have to live with. Viewing the pics of the memorial it is just gut wrenching to see so many victims with the same last name.

Penn Patrick was not the pilot in that accident. The guy was a lawyer named Bingham!

T J

_________________
Make my day, punk!

Not that its the cause with this accident, but are most of the flyable F-86's today still equipment w/1950's tech J47-GE-17 engine? Is this engine pretty sound relative to todays engines?

I know the ME-262 stormbirds were reequipped with more modern U.S. built engines (J-85/CJ-610), obviously due to the unavailability of the Jumo 004 but also for reliability too.

What would be an acceptable "more modern" equivalent?

regards,

t~

I would guess that most flying Sabres are equiped with Orenda 14 engines.

Jim

My condolences to the families and friends of Mr. Fuller and Mr. Guilford. THey both had great passion for this hobby and by all accounts were two of the "good guys" in aviation.

Thanks for the correction. I notice that the accident report shows 22 fatalities yet the memorial at the site has 23 names on it.

Ah yes, the ice cream parlor incident. We had a couple of guys here in Nashville , Roland Coles, Neil Quinn, etc. rebuild a T-33 that had been on a pole for Jesse Stallings the founder of Capital Airlines. He was going to use it as a cheaper alternative to flight training in the DC-8 for his pilots. IT was around that 1970-72 time frame and they had heck getting it licensed and approved to fly. After the F-86 incident, the FAA pretty much squelched civilians flying military jets for fun. Stallings finally sold it and it was given a one time ferry permit to depart only Berry Field (BNA.) It was sold to someone out west. It took them a couple years after it was finished to even get the FAA to do that.
That was a different time period and era. You could buy military surplus equipment for the price of a used dumptruck or mobile home. Most of these airplanes were not restored, but cobbled together from surplus parts. I think the safety record has dramatically improved over recent years.
The F-86 is supposed to be very easy to fly and is Bob Hoover's favorite aerobatic mount. THe Hawker Hunter has a very advanced wing with much more sweep to it. We had one here in Nashville last year for several months after it ran off the end of our longest runway. It might be better to think of the Hunter in a class of difficulty as the Mig 21's and the F-104. The F-104 had a very high accident rate in Air Force service when flown by the Reserves and Air Guard. The accident reports will be very interesting.

just found this on the NTSB web site
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20060725X01009&key=1

Here's an article from Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper:

Our condolences to the family and friends of the Fuller's. As an operator of a F86F Sabre, we'll wait to hear the findings from the crash investigation. We have great interest as we wish to continue to operate our Sabre safely. These are old jets with old technology. That's not to say that they can not be operated safely. Great care is taken before each flight to make sure this single engine jet is ready to fly.
The pilots flying these airplanes are truly professionals having witnessed our recent ETR's in the F86 as well as our T2. Safety is the prime concern for the public and the crew.

I was very saddened for Wyatt Fuller and his family when I just learned last week of the tragic July 24 accident.

Wyatt was a true gentleman and a great warbird enthusiast and pilot. I was privileged to meet him and see him fly his Sabre at Winston-Salem, NC in September 2005. I exchanged perhaps 4 to 5 e-mails with him between then and late May/early June of this year. Wyatt was very friendly and very sharing of information and his experiences.

This is a great loss to the warbird community. And in my opinion, his restored Sabre had to be the most beatiful jet warbird that was out there.

Does anyone have any idea what may become of Wyatt's Flying Fossils organization and his other warbirds?

Jim C.