Warbird Information Exchange

A friend called me earlier and woke me up from my nap to tell me a T-6 had gone in near Franklin county airport in northeast georgia.
The airplane is painted yellow and the pilot is Ok, Damage apparently bad enough that engine is torn off airframe. Anybody know who yet or what airplane??

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All I did was press this red button here...

Any more on this?

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what a terrible season

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" I am a nobody in aviation, but somebody to my family."

How is running out of gas not the pilots fault ?

http://www.independentmail.com/news/201 ... s-fault-f/

Steve

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"Any excuse is good enough if you're willing to use it!"

I guess when the FAA says it's not your fault, then it's not your fault.

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Olivier Lacombe -- Harvard Mk.4 C-GBQB

I am with Steve

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

That thing was for sale at Courtesy (wonder if it was on the post-purchase flight home?).

http://www.courtesyaircraft.com/Current%20Inventory/N7435U%20AT-6D.htm

I also don't understand the running out of fuel / not your fault thing....

Bela P. Havasreti

I think Courtesy sold it last year sometime, so I don't think it was the delivery flight. If I recall, it was at OSH a few weeks ago, so he might have been heading home from that area.

That was a pretty decent SAAF airplane that we used to maintain for the previous owner. Looks totaled from an insurance perspective for sure.

Perhaps if there's a leak, and you can't find a place to put down soon enough? Or there's a leak, and your fuel gauge is broken so you don't know, even if you dipped the tank before you set out? Just a couple I can think of. I'm sure the truth will out though, it usually does.

Cheers,
Richard

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Richard Mallory Allnutt - Photography - http://www.rmallnutt.com

Was in the aircraft salvage business for many years. I have seen planes (even when operated by instructor) run out of fuel after being refueled, and the airport fuel man does not tighten the the fuel cap properly, and then some aerobatics... and then....
True, it is the pilot's responsibility to pre-flight the aircraft, after landing to refueling, and then taking off again. but...I can see where "fault" is sometimes, debatable..

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As of this point, I don't give that article much authority because of 2 reasons - 1) The NTSB hasn't issued even a preliminary on the accident yet and 2) The FAA doesn't assign blame. Also, all investigators know not to release information like that, so I have my doubts that they got the information from a credible source. Not saying it was or wasn't the pilot's fault, but between the "statement" by the Fire Chief and the other reporting, I would never say one way or another what happened because neither "source" gave much good information about what really happened. There were clues that something may not have been operating properly because of the statement about the low fuel light(s) not working, but beyond that, no real good information.

Agreed on all (good) points. Glad the pilot is OK and while the airplane looks a bit banged up,
it will likely fly again.

Bela P. Havasreti

Wonder what the insurance company is going to say about it? Lights not working, well well well.....

I am admittedly getting a little rusty with my T-6 knowledge, but if I recall, the G-models were the only ones that had low fuel indicator lights. I think the D-models only had a single low fuel pressure light. Of course, this is a former SAAF airplane so it might have low fuel lights too...I can't remember.

If it still has the SAAF system, it has one light since the fuel selector is on/off only. However, the light is no excuse for running out of fuel. You have a gauge on each tank and you should be monitoring that, and time. The light is more or less a backup. A few years ago at NWOC, someone asked during the insurance forum if a gear-up landing caused your rates to go up. The underwriter said no, humans forget. The only thing they didn't forgive was running out of fuel, because that showed a lack of judgement.

I am not saying that was the case here - no idea what happened here - and reporters usually manage to screw up airplane stories. As one who is partial to SAAF T-6's, I find this very sad.

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Rob C

Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. “

– Michael Crichton