I am enclosing the following not just because it is extremely interesting,
but also as a reminder that we need to be extremely careful handling our own
equipment with vintage components. There are some golden rules to follow:
1. Always have a safe way out of the situation you are in.
2. Make appropriate pre-operation checks
3. Practice safety procedures before you need to use them.
4. Always have good situational awareness.
5. Communicate with the people around you.
-----Original Message-----
From: hkuil@hotmail.com <hkuil@hotmail.com>
To: vintage-and-warbirds@yahoogroups.com
<vintage-and-warbirds@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Friday, April 06, 2001 8:09 PM
Subject: [vintage-and-warbirds] SBD Dauntless accident.
Crash Transcript for Rare Warbird
Saturday, Ralph Royce of the Lone Star Flight Museum experienced
a loss of power on the museum's SBD Dauntless dive bomber.
Ralph was unable to return to the airport and was forced
to make a wheels up landing in a muddy field.
Neither the pilot or passenger suffered serious injuries;
they were both taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure.
The aircraft did suffer some damage but the extent of the damage is
unknown.
The aircraft was being flown with other warbirds for a PBS production
at the time of the accident.
Lone Star Flight Museumıs SBD-5 Dauntless (piloted by RALPH ROYCE,
with Sony Camera man Jeff Cree in the back seat),
B-25 Mitchell camera plane [piloted by Tom Gregory ("GUMBY"), and
co-piloted by GEORGE Hartigan],
F4U5 Corsair (Piloted by Dan Blanchard), privately owned TBM Avenger
(piloted by owner BILL Hill),
camera helicopter (piloted by RICK Sharp, with camera man LARRY
Taylor) have just finished their pyro photo runs for the SONY/Honor
Squadrons International promo.
The promo will be aired at Sonyıs NAB (National Association of
Broadcasters) High-Definition exhibit in Las Vegas this April.
........
TODD HEWEY [PBS "Honor Squadrons" --ed.] is talking to GEORGE HARTIGAN
about the next shot when RALPH ROYCE breaks into the transmission.
RALPH ROYCE (TBM): Uh, something just went bang, Iıve got to go to the
runway, I need the runway.
Get out of the way, Gumby! Gumby, get out of the way!
GUMBY (B-25): Hold on a minute.
RICK (Hiller): The helicopterıs clearing the area.
UNKNOWN: Runway (engine noise) * space 1 zero9.
UNKNOWN: Does Ralph know what heıs doing?
RALPH ROYCE: Iım toast, Iım toast, and I donıt have a place!
GUMBY: Heıs going down, boys.
RALPH ROYCE: Thereıs gas all over me. Iım going straight in and Iım
gonna dump the gear.
GUMBY: No! No gear!
RALPH ROYCE: Iım going in on my belly.
GUMBY: No gear!
RALPH ROYCE: Looks like Iım going straight in, guys.
GUMBY: Kill the power, Ralph, and, uh, youıll be OK.
GEORGE: Hey, roll the trucks for the SBD. Airport, roll the fire
trucks.
AIRPORT: Hey, copy that. Roll fire trucks for the SBD.
GUMBY: OK, they are down and stopped and the airplane is stopped and
itıs not upside down. It looks like theyıre
OK.
FIRE TRUCK: Where is the airplane?
GUMBY: Uh, the airplane is in an open field, uh, a mile and a half to
the northeast of the airport. Just to the
north of this
road that crosses the freeway.
RICK: Yeah, Roger that. Yeah, the helicopter is headed towards the
aircraft.
GUMBY: Roger that. B-25ıs over top and weıre going down to have a
look. It looks like theyıre crawling out, over.
RICK: Roger that, roger that.
GEORGE (B-25 co-pilot): OK -- the fire truck -- the SBD is off in a
field, off the runway. Itıs in a field, it
appears that the uh,
the pilots are getting out all right.
GUMBY: Both occupants are out, uh, it looks like and theyıre waving
ok. Rick, go have a look.
AIRPORT: OK, can we keep the ladder truck down here?
GUMBY: OK, letıs go land this thing.
LARRY (cameraman): Itıs going to be real difficult to get a truck out
in this field where they are.
GUMBY: Yeah, itıs real wet, guys. Real, real wet. On the North end,
the north end, thereıs, uh, the closest road,
where
thereıs some houses.
GUMBY: And, weıre going to stay above them.
GUMBY: Uh, helicopterıs inbound and about to land now.
FIRE TRUCK: Air Boss, whatıs the tail number on the plane thatıs down?
GUMBY: 9-3-Romeo-Whiskey
FIRE TRUCK: Where is his location?
GUMBY: Uh, the location is a mile and a half northeast of the airport,
just to the north of the east-west road
which crosses
the 288, over.
FIRE TRUCK: A mile and a half north of the airport's location again?
GEORGE: Northeast of the airport...
GUMBY: Northeast of the airport about, oh, a mile.
GEORGE: Crosses 288
FIRE TRUCK: Give me the tail number again.
GEORGE: 9-3-Romeo-Whiskey
RICK: Ok, we got one injured, we got one injured.
GUMBY: Uh, Roger that. How bad, Rick?
RICK: Gonna need medical attention for one.
FIRE TRUCK: I need a cross road.
GUMBY: Itıs the first road North of the airport, over.
UNKNOWN: First road, thatıs going to be highway 35, going all the way
to Angleton.
FIRE TRUCK: Uh, negative. Itıs the road that goes into the airport, it
crosses 288.
UNKNOWN: OK, youıre out, youıre out in that field just north of that
road then.
GUMBY: A-firm, theyıre out in the field by the pond.
FIRETRUCK: OK, we know where youıre at.
B-25 PILOT: Very good, thank you.
RICK: Yeah, the field looks, uh, pretty soft, guys.
FIRE TRUCK: Ok, Jim, uh, what do you want to do?
GUMBY: Weıre going to go land.
GEORGE: Ok, the B-25 is coming in for a landing.
GUMBY: Ok...gear down.
BILL HILL: The TBMıs gonna follow the B-25.
DAN BLANCHARD (ATC?): TBM roll in behind the B-25, the Corsair will
land behind you.
GUMBY: I think Ralphıs hurt. Half flaps.
AIRPORT: Air boss, heıs coming in for a landing now.
GUMBY: B-25 is inbound for a landing.
AIRPORT: Air boss?
GEORGE: Three quarter flaps.
UNKNOWN: Are they closing the field?
AIRPORT: Air boss?
RICK: OK , weıve got ah, weıve got a little blood, but everybodyıs
conscious and everybodyıs OK.
GUMBY: Thank you, Rick.
GEORGE: Landing flaps.
BILL (TBM): Whoıs injured?
RICK: Ralph. It looks like he hit his head on the panel.
BILL: TBM is on the base.
END OF TRANSCRIPT
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue May 01 2001 - 07:42:39 PDT