Warbird Information Exchange

Just seen on AAFO forum, merlin's magic race 22 had a bottle blow in the tail, major damage no one was hurt.

Was that the O2 bottle?

Lynn

Not sure, sound like it , the damage is said to be just in front of the horizontal stab, Happened in the pits from what others have said

Just got a call from one of my "sources" in the pits. They apparently had "overserviced" the oxygen bottle and it exploded. The fuselage was quickly covered with a tarp, but was reportedly essentially broken apart, just ahead of the tail, with only the fuselage stringers holding it together. They also said there was talk (pronounced rumors) that it even blew the radiator out of the bottom of the airplane. Nobody was hurt.......physically.

This is a big blow to the Eberharts. They had just completely trashed an engine ( http://www.aafo.com/hangartalk/attachme ... entid=5699 ) and now this. I'm told they are taking donations and there is a line of folks doing just that. I wish them good luck in getting that airplane back in the air someday.

Gary

Reminds me of the accident with Tom Dwelle's Sea Fury. As I remember
it was a low psi bottle with a high psi gauge.

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Don't touch my junk!!

2251D (now in France) was blown up in the same manner in the mid 1970's at Oshkosh while mistakenly filling it's low pressure Oxygen system with high pressure.

Low pressure Oxygen systems are supposed to have a completely different type of filler valve than high pressure systems so this type of thing doesn't happen.

I don't have the details on the Eberharts accident and am not speculating that this was the case with their accident, but it was with N2251D.

It's been an expensive week for the Eberharts, I wish them better luck soon!

Glenn

I saw pics of the blown motor on another site too. What a drag for them.

Thanks for the link Gary.

Check out image 20 of 2251D here. Just change the paint scheme........

http://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/survivors/pages/44-74427.shtml

Here's the real story about what happened to MM, from one of the Eberhardts themselves. Just found it on the AAFO website...



Race 22 Mishap

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Jim Eberhardt writing - I just met Wayne Sagar - this is the first I have known about the aafo forum. I must say that the reaction to our lousy week has been amazing and heart felt. Thank you.

Special thanks to those of you who have stopped by and purchased a shirt or piece of the engine - all of this goes a long way.

Dad (Stu Eberhardt) turned 70 this year - Reno 2006 was to be a much better year. Race motor was finished and flying early in the year - it ran smoothly. Power settings would be conservative so we could keep it in the air for many race seasons to come. But Monday afternoon at about 400 MPH on the first qualification lap the engine blew - dad brought Race 22 down for a perfect landing. 36 hours later, we had the stock motor back in.

On Saturday the plane was being serviced with O2. When the on-board tank exploded, pieces of the plane were scattered throughout the pit area. The back end of Merlin's Magic was pushed high into the air and the pin holding the tail-wheel pulled - it came crashing down and severely bent the back half of the fuselage and tail section. Miraculously, no one was badly hurt. Bill Haskin (known to us as "Truck-Driver Bill") was standing the closest to the tanks - he lost some hearing and was sent to the hospital - he was released last night and seems to have recovered.

We are not sure exactly what happened - but at this point, it appears that the system was over-pressurized.

Now we begin the process of recovering the airplane. Today (Sunday) we are disassembling the plane (engine, wings, control surfaces, etc...).

The budget to get Race 22 flying again may be beyond our means. So a potential donation fund sounds like a wonderful possibility. I will work with Wayne and get a web site going. As we move forward, I will forward Wayne / AAFO the updates.

I can't believe how fast they disassembled that airplane. By about 12pm Sunday it was over at the hangar near the start of the T6 pits, and when I exited the facility out the pit entrance near the media area at 5pm it was completely disassembled! People were saying this week's damage toll cost the owners 500 grand.

JH

heres the pics I promised.Always remember,"high pressure oxygen in a low pressure system is bad!"

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"WHAT ME WORRY?"

What a run of bad luck for them, really great people and hope they are able to git it done.....

Lynn