A-26 Nose gear failure, Oshkosh

Triplane102 · **Joined:** Wed Oct 15, 2014 12:55 pm **Posts:** 491

Tim, I just want to say that I met you at Midland MANY,MANY, Moons ago, when you just started Warbird Digest, & I really want to give you a BIG "THANK YOU" for all you've done to & for Warbirds ! Thank You again, SIR ! :drink3:

Matt Gunsch · **Posted:** Wed Jul 27, 2016 4:41 pm

Tim Savage wrote:

Matt Gunsch wrote:

Tim, I am sure you have all ready talked to John Lane, if not he knows Invader nose gear.

Matt: John was PIC for this flight. We have talked a bit

Tim, one thing I have to ask, Was there a little bit of adrenaline involved in the opening of the canopy ? never knew you could throw a hatch clean over the wing...

Dave Hadfield · **Joined:** Sun Sep 17, 2006 10:31 pm **Posts:** 1655

It'll be expensive, as I said before, but it's not so bad. Finding a R-2800 shop is easy, parts are available , and (I assume) the HS props aren't an issue either. The whole thing is do-able. You just get quotes, make a judgment based on reputation and reliability, and sign a contract.

At VWoC at the moment we are dealing with Bristol Mercury parts, Pegasus overhaul issues, building a MK IX Spitfire, a Hurri XII, a Fury II biplane, and overhauling a R-R Kestrel. A Pratt is easy by comparison. All it takes is funds. You don't have to scour the world for unpitted camshafts...

As to the armchair quarterbacking, that's just irrelevant noise.

Dave

CAPFlyer · **Posted:** Wed Jul 27, 2016 8:06 pm

Tim - kudos to your an John for minimizing the damage. I am glad you guys kept the springs in the canopies! I know at one time, most of the A-26s still flying had them removed because they were hard to work on (or so I was told a decade or so ago). That was one of the most awesome things to see during that landing was the hatches pop off over the wings.

Also, I do hate those who talk about pulling power off on an R2800 and an A-26 especially. You fly that plane onto the ground, cutting the engines early is asking to land hard on the nose and that's what you guys didn't do. I only hope the damage to the case isn't too bad so you guys can get them overhauled and not have to get two new ones.

L-188 · **Joined:** Sat Feb 14, 2015 11:20 am **Posts:** 142

Tim Savage wrote:

L-188 wrote:

I wondered about that myself. Saw a similar arrival of a B-25 a few years ago at a show in Manitowoc WI. He kinda dropped it in and the nose wheel strut sounded like a low frequency tuning fork.

The part that failed was going to fail...period. It had little or nothing to do with what everyone on the internet seems to consider an overly hard landing. I have seen the part that failed and it was not stress related at least anytime in the near past. We will be sharing our findings with the A-26 community as we gather them because others in the fleet may have similar issues.

I would like to thank the members of the forum WIX community for not rampantly second guessing us and creating idle speculation. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the WIX Facebook group.

If you ever wonder why operators and pilots of warbirds seem to avoid posting on that forum or here for that matter..wonder not..it is exactly that kind of stuff.

Thanks to all of you who have reached out with offers to help and well wishes. It is appreciated even if I haven't had time to reply to you all personally.

Certainly meant no disrespect. I'm only an enthusiast and really should have refrained from posting. I don't have one ounce of skin in the game, and can only wonder at the stones and $$$ it takes to operate a warbird. I don't go on faceplant/book myself so I can only imagine the armchair quarterbacking. Good luck and hope she's back in the air soon where she belongs. When you say the A-26 community, will you share those findings here also?

Champ driver · **Posted:** Thu Jul 28, 2016 8:30 am

Tim and John, I watched the video and saw the still photos. All I can say is you guys did a great job keeping everyone safe and minimizing damage.
Sorry for all the work you and everyone who helped restore her did, and will have to do to get her back in the air again.

Pogmusic · **Posted:** Thu Jul 28, 2016 8:35 am

Hats off to a bad situation handled with professionalism and finesse. Great job crew!

marine air · **Posted:** Thu Jul 28, 2016 2:42 pm

The pilots did a great job. Compare to the CAF's P-51C's recent gear up landing. It hurt to see the canopies fly off and hit the runway. Are they repairable? The A-26 and the A-20 both seemed to have issues with the nose gear being down and locked. Maybe the system can be modified. Good luck!

K5DH · **Posted:** Thu Jul 28, 2016 2:45 pm

Pogmusic wrote:

Hats off to a bad situation handled with professionalism and finesse. Great job crew!

+1

RyanShort1 · **Posted:** Thu Jul 28, 2016 6:38 pm

marine air wrote:

The pilots did a great job. Compare to the CAF's P-51C's recent gear up landing. It hurt to see the canopies fly off and hit the runway. Are they repairable? The A-26 and the A-20 both seemed to have issues with the nose gear being down and locked. Maybe the system can be modified. Good luck!

You shouldn't have gone there. Let's keep this positive and on topic.

Nathan · **Posted:** Thu Jul 28, 2016 7:15 pm

RyanShort1 wrote:

marine air wrote:

The pilots did a great job. Compare to the CAF's P-51C's recent gear up landing. It hurt to see the canopies fly off and hit the runway. Are they repairable? The A-26 and the A-20 both seemed to have issues with the nose gear being down and locked. Maybe the system can be modified. Good luck!

You shouldn't have gone there. Let's keep this positive and on topic.

Honestly, we need to stop getting so upset over little things people said. So far 99% of peoples comments are concerns over the crew, and 99.9% say the crew did a great job and did everything right. Can't go wrong with that. Sucks about the airplane, but I am sure all the skills are there to fix it up. Planes can be replaced, people can't.

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A-26 Nose gear failure, Oshkosh

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