Obergrafeter wrote:
I remember that crash too Ryan,..............I was the Airboss at the show we had earlier that day at BAZ and got the call from the airport manager and Feds wondering if it was one of ours. Don't know the final outcome but my money was on "Airshowitis" Apparentley fatal when you get three teenagers in a plane right after the show.
Here's the NTSB report: http://ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20 ... 1518&key=1
I was dressed up in my WW2 uniform that day. Just before the accident had my first ever taildragger experience - in the L-4 from Burnet. That was nice. I'm pretty sure we were the last aircraft to use the runway before the accident. I remember we landed in the opposite direction (35) of the accident takeoff - because the wind favored it (it did when they took off on 17, too). There were some ultralights buzzing around - which were hard to see and avoid.
I had just gotten back to the booth we had, with Doolittle Raider books, and were packing up, when I heard an engine, and like always, I turned and watched - only to see that.
We were closer to the accident because of the ramp position and started running, an ultralight got there first (it was taking off from a taxiway in a direction towards the takeoff aircraft at the time
- which has always bothered me - they were at speed when the thing happened, and did a high-speed taxi to the accident site) but I was on the scene seconds after, and I tell you what, that almost ended my flying right there. The really scary thing initially was seeing a lot of fuel literally pouring out of the broken fuel tanks as we got closer and wondering if the whole thing was about to blow! Wish I'd never seen some of the rest. At least the rear guy survived - but it sure didn't look good when we got there. He was unconscious and in really bad shape. My dad was trying to help the pilot. All the while we weren't sure if the whole thing might blow, and with all that fuel I about freaked out when a guy standing right next to me started using one of those new-fangled (then) cell phones right in the thick of all the fumes. 
We went to the pilot's funeral and visited with the survivor in the hospital. He wasn't really sure what happened. From where we were it looked like a excessively steep pull-up, and a stall at the top. I still think that the pilot panicked as he stalled, saw the power lines ahead and didn't lower the nose like he should have. It would've been close, but they probably would've made it.
The really scary thing for me was that I'd just picked out an instructor, and he'd just flown the accident aircraft two days before, and I was just about to go over there for training. My instructor was a bit spooked about that and we ended up doing the training with a company at SAT, but did most of the training at BAZ. It was hard, but also good for a student pilot. I still can't land there without seeing the spot and getting REAL sober.
Ryan