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Post by amitch on Apr 18, 2006 15:15:46 GMT 12
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Post by Damon on Apr 18, 2006 16:29:44 GMT 12
The link to the news item is unavailiable.Can anyone give more details to the damage to the aircraft.And perhaps whom was piloting at the time..
Damon
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Post by phil82 on Apr 18, 2006 18:34:39 GMT 12
The story of flying training with the Harvard was those who had ground-looped and those who were about to!
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 20, 2006 9:47:14 GMT 12
This is what is on that link (cut and paste into google)
M A R L B O R O U G H E X P R E S S S T O R Y
CRASH LANDING: The Harvard is engulfed by dust seconds after crashing on landing at Blenheim's Omaka Aerodrome yesterday.
SCOTT HAMMOND/The Marlborough Express
Drama as warbird crashes in cloud of dust at Omaka
18 April 2006
By PAUL EASTON
A classic warbird made a dramatic entry to Blenheim's Omaka Aerodrome yesterday afternoon, crash landing in a cloud of dust.
Witnesses said the Harvard appeared to lose control on landing and slew around, coming to rest facing the way it had come.
The two people on board were unhurt, but the plane's undercarriage was damaged.
The Harvard's pilot was not keen to discuss the accident.
Co-pilot Rob Filich was riding in the Harvard's back seat.
"It wasn't too bad, we got thrown around a bit and came to a grinding halt."
He said the plane had suffered what is known in the trade as a "ground loop", with the tail section slewing out of control on landing.
Mr Filich said ground looping was a hazard for planes like Harvards with one small wheel at the back, because of the position of centre of gravity.
"They are much more difficult to land than planes with a nose wheel. Basically you have two and a half tonnes of plane just waiting to play a trick on you.
Mr Filich and the pilot spent the night in Blenheim, and planned to continue to Auckland today on a commercial flight.
"We found a good pub," he said.
Mr Filich said the Harvard would probably be repaired in Marlborough.
"There's plenty of expertise around. Guys pull aircraft out of swamps in Papua New Guinea, and restore them, so I think they can fix this one."
The crash gouged a large divot in Omaka's grass runway.
The airfield was temporarily closed, however a runway was reopened within an hour.
The Harvard was one of four winging their way back to Auckland's Ardmore Airport from the Wanaka Airshow.
The group's lead pilot Frank Parker said the accident was unfortunate.
"Normally it would have just spun around on its wheels, but the problem in this case is that the undercarriage is broken."
He said the group had taken the incident in their stride.
"It's all part of the rich tapestry of life," he said.
Witness Doc Williams said the accident had happened at high speed.
"He gave the impression of almost coming up in the air again. He was lucky he didn't go right over."
The three undamaged planes continued on to Ardmore yesterday evening, with another refuelling stop in Wanganui
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 20, 2006 9:53:32 GMT 12
It is sad, NZ1078 is one of my favourites of all the flying RNZAF Harvards. It was of course not the only casualty of the event with one of the Rata's suffering an undercarriage collapse before the show, and one of the Triplanes also doing a flip before the show. Not to mention Frazer Briggs' model suffering a bit of damage on the Sunday.
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Post by turboNZ on Apr 20, 2006 11:06:35 GMT 12
The Rata's seem to have a weak undercarriage which is quite bizzare when the rest of the design appears to be extremely rugged.
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Post by amitch on Apr 20, 2006 15:16:57 GMT 12
The Rata's seem to have a weak undercarriage which is quite bizzare when the rest of the design appears to be extremely rugged. They have a very strong undercarriage, my under standing is that the I-16 may have bounced while landing and a wing tip has touched. It's a surprise that there have been no other incidents as the rough grass runway, often a crosswind and the poor forward view while landing make it very tricky to land these aircraft. The skill of the pilots who fly these aircraft shouldn't be under estimated! |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 20, 2006 18:51:12 GMT 12
Well, you know how the rumour mill was churning out a lot of nonsense over the weekend. I'd heard the wheels collapsed on a hard landing, but it may not be strictly accurate, so apologies if that's incorrect.
I certainly had a few worries about the roughness of that grass airstrip too. Rough as guts actually! Is the airfield still infested by rabbits I wonder? It certainly was in 1993 when I was on exercise there in the RNZAF, because I drove with the Duty NCO around the perimeter and there was a sea of rabbits. They must be terrible news for a grass runway.
Those Polikarpov pilots certainly have my respect too. I watched John Lanham and Stu Goldspink get out of their aircraft after the practice on Friday, pouring with sweat and John said most of the manouvres are two hands on the stick as they're so heavy to fly, and after the three days of the show he said he always has aching arms from them. It really made me think about the poor Russian pilots who had to fly them into combat against top fighters of the Luftwaffe.
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Post by Damon on Apr 20, 2006 21:12:57 GMT 12
Wow ,what a shame. I can guess who the pilot was in the front and have alot of sympathy for him in this situation. Hope HVD 78 gets the mend soon.
Damon
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Post by glenn on Apr 29, 2006 0:38:01 GMT 12
Definately Rabbit infested. I scared several Rabbits while I was there. And Nearly dissapeared down a few holes at times :-)
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