From: Walter Houghton (FlyN3Nvt@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Sat Dec 28 2002 - 12:15:23 PST
Yep that was a tragic shame. It hit close to a friend of mine. The Key Bird
team went looking for parts to help get the airplane off the ice. They were
short on money so they went looking for loans of either money or
parts..........Well a good friend is a very large prop collector. He has a
complete prop dissasembled for a B-29. Well they had everything but were
apparently short one prop spyder(the center + that the blades slide onto and
pivot on for blade feathering and where the engine slides onto the prop. So
harry being the guy he is, loaned it to the team. Well being a "sponser" he
was given updates of the progress. Let me say, what I had seen on the video
did not impress me at all!!!!! As a aircraft mech and a warbird flyer and
all around nut. The Airforce should have stepped in and said thanks but no
thanks. To keep this short I wont say what was on it but if anybody is
interested, post wanting me to do it and I will continue the story.
Anyway the story of the APU is correct, I was told that it was a
honda generator and it was running and that there was a spare gas can in the
back along with it. Well when daryel hit that bump while doing a fast taxi,
it fell over filling the floor and covering the honda. So there started the
fire. Another inside note, while the aircraft started to burn as everyone
was heading out, daryel could not un do the buckle that was holding him in
the seat. The flt engineer went back in and had to unbolt the belt from the
seat to get him out. The guy is a friend of my father and he is a crew with
FIFI and the CAF. Well Harry never had them insure the spyder and the
only thing he got was a letter stating that its his in case the aircraft is
ever salvaged. Which a couple of yrs back, a brittish team wanted to get
whats left. Hamilton Standard ( the mfg. of the prop) appraised the value
of the spyder at $23,000.
Jeff
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Wed Apr 23 2003 - 13:24:44 PDT