T-6 succesful forced landing

Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:18 pm

In Fon du Lac,Wi on hwy 41, the town south of Oshkosh, a T-6 made an emergency landing tonight. No injuries! It is sitting on its gear , prop looks ok, seems to be a dent in right wing leading edge. It's polished and has race type wing tips with fences? if that is the correst word on them. I have no other info.

Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:57 pm

Wouldn't be a race tip, as the T-6 race rules require all stock stuff. Some ofthe guys building Super Sixes are clipping the wings and putting three blade props on them. I have seen a few of those with fenced wing tips. No matter what it is, someone made the best of a bad situation. Glad the got it down safely!

Sun Jul 22, 2007 10:24 pm

It is Bill Leff's airplane. He performed at Peoria and then headed to OSH. Glad he wasn't hurt, he is a great guy and probably has more T6 time than just about anyone. The wing tips are used in his night pyro routine.

Website · Sun Jul 22, 2007 11:32 pm

I used to live 1 mile south of KVPZ and watched his night pyro show from my families front porch during the 2003 Porter County Air Show.

Mon Jul 23, 2007 8:36 am

Right Eric, it is Bill Leff, witnesses says seemed to be an engine problem. No injuries, son in back seat, dent in right wing leading edge from a road sign. There must have been quite a bit of traffic on the hwy at 7:30 pm, either skill, luck,or both.The prop is verticle, 2 blades, no damage ot it that I saw as I drove by. darn good to see one of these end so well. He was perhaps 200 yards off the approach end of rwy 27 at FDL. Are you here or coming Eric?

Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:12 am

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/8653861.html

Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:18 am

Bill Greenwood wrote:

Right Eric, it is Bill Leff, witnesses says seemed to be an engine problem. No injuries, son in back seat, dent in right wing leading edge from a road sign. There must have been quite a bit of traffic on the hwy at 7:30 pm, either skill, luck,or both.The prop is verticle, 2 blades, no damage ot it that I saw as I drove by. darn good to see one of these end so well. He was perhaps 200 yards off the approach end of rwy 27 at FDL. Are you here or coming Eric?

No, I'm not much of an Osh Kosh fan, I haven't been since 1999. Hope to see you soon though.

Eric

Mon Jul 23, 2007 10:31 am

Another news story, with a color photo:

http://www.nbc26.com/news/local/8652461.html

I'm always glad to hear that a potentially disastrous situation worked out well like this one did!

Cheers!

Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:10 pm

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/8653861.html
How can I save this video on to my computer??

Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:27 pm

Chuck Gardner wrote:http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/8653861.html
How can I save this video on to my computer??

Chuck,

I just saved it to my computer. I had it playing in Windows Media Player 10. As soon as the video finished playing, while it was still on the screen, I clicked on "File", then "Add to library", then "Add currently playing item". The system saved it as a WMV file. If you're not successful in saving it, PM me and I'll email it to you.

Cheers!

Mon Jul 23, 2007 10:17 pm

Holy $hit did you guys see the video?

Good lord, he almost took out a Van driving, and then he lifted over the tow truck and car and squad car!!! and to boot, landed it on a CURVE of the highway! Man, that was some great a$$ piloting, getting that baby down....I crapped my pants, just watching it.

Mon Jul 23, 2007 10:39 pm

Man that was wild, glad the pilot got it down without major damage.

Tue Jul 24, 2007 9:51 am

Did you guys hear the coincidence too... evidently he nearly hit a broken down RV... driven by his friend David Mann (who owns the NASA C-130 based at Racine, WI and flies OV-1s on occasion)... I guess the aviation world gets smaller as you get closer to OSH.

Glad to hear that everyone is OK and the plane isn't bad off...

Tue Jul 24, 2007 10:15 pm

Doo doo do doo.... Paging Mr Serling, paging Rod Serling....