T-6 Down in MI on Saturday- Pilot OK

kalamazookid · **Posted:** Sun Sep 18, 2011 11:50 pm

Dan Schiffer experience an engine failure in his T-6 on take-off Saturday. Fortunately, it sounds like he escaped with minor injuries:

http://www.fox17online.com/news/fox17-plane-crash-in-crockery-township,0,3480782.story

Taylor Stevenson · **Posted:** Mon Sep 19, 2011 12:18 am

Worst time to lose it. Glad he managed to put her down.

astixjr · **Posted:** Mon Sep 19, 2011 12:36 am

Very sorry to see the plane so badly damaged but very happy to hear that the pilot will be ok. The TV news images make it look like the fuselage partly came away from the center section. Am I wrong? I see the engine departed so it must have been a hard impact, maybe with a twisting motion from the impact with the tree? I'm curious, was the pilot wearing a helmet? I hope Mr. Schiffer makes a speedy recovery!

Steve Nelson · **Posted:** Mon Sep 19, 2011 10:04 am

Terrible news about the plane..to my untrained eye it looks pretty well totalled. But at least it sounds like this time the pilot will be OK. The Schiffers are a bit of an institution around here..here are a couple of snapshots I took of the plane during a "Quiet Birdmen" gathering here in Battle Creek a couple of years ago.

SN

ZRX61 · **Joined:** Tue Jun 14, 2005 10:16 am **Posts:** 2308

Good thing he didn't do the combo take-off/low pass the others did before him:

http://www.grandhaventribune.com/conten ... -era-plane

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Mon Sep 19, 2011 1:57 pm

That a/c is done but the pilot will go on so I like the outcome.
Got the engine failure on take-off tshirt and that's one scary deal!!

astixjr · **Posted:** Mon Sep 19, 2011 3:11 pm

Ouch! Sometimes gravity really sucks. That's hard to watch. It appears that he did not have many options, no good ones anyway. Those trees at the end of the runway must have looked like Giant Sequoias from the pilot's seat when the engine quit. :shock:

After watching that video, I can see why the engine came off. That really must have been a hard twisting impact. There's something to be said for the steel tube structure of the cockpit section in a T-6/SNJ. I'm buying a helmet before I start flying our SNJ again. I'm not sure if Mr. Schiffer had one on or not but I've been watching Eric Downing and John Lohmar taxi past me in their T-6s for several years and they never fly without a helmet. I never wore one in our SNJ because I thought it looked silly, like I was pretending to be in a P-47 or a T-28 or something like that. I realize now that I was just being stupid. Again, sorry about Mr. Schiffer's airplane but I'm sure glad he will be ok.

mlenoch · **Posted:** Mon Sep 19, 2011 4:04 pm

Yes, he had a helmet.
Only body damage was an ankle.

VL

astixjr · **Posted:** Mon Sep 19, 2011 6:32 pm

vlado wrote:

Yes, he had a helmet.
Only body damage was an ankle.

VL

And there you have it. Thanks Vlado.

kalamazookid · **Posted:** Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:12 pm

I'm just glad he's ok. I've had several long conversations with him at local fly-ins and he's a great guy. He's given me lots of useful advice on how to get involved with flying, why to do it, where to get started, etc.

From the video, it looks like he was lucky the aircraft didn't flip at the end there. Thankful it didn't turn out any worse than it did.

gary1954 · **Posted:** Mon Sep 19, 2011 8:16 pm

astixjr wrote:

Ouch! Sometimes gravity really sucks. That's hard to watch. It appears that he did not have many options, no good ones anyway. Those trees at the end of the runway must have looked like Giant Sequoias from the pilot's seat when the engine quit. :shock:

After watching that video, I can see why the engine came off. That really must have been a hard twisting impact. There's something to be said for the steel tube structure of the cockpit section in a T-6/SNJ. I'm buying a helmet before I start flying our SNJ again. I'm not sure if Mr. Schiffer had one on or not but I've been watching Eric Downing and John Lohmar taxi past me in their T-6s for several years and they never fly without a helmet. I never wore one in our SNJ because I thought it looked silly, like I was pretending to be in a P-47 or a T-28 or something like that. I realize now that I was just being stupid. Again, sorry about Mr. Schiffer's airplane but I'm sure glad he will be ok.

I often wonder if Davey Allison would be alive if he'd been wearing a flight helmet instead of a headset. I tend to think he would have survived he crash of his helicopter if he had.

gary1954 · **Posted:** Mon Sep 19, 2011 8:28 pm

Glad this pilot only got a messed up ankle. Is the plane a total loss, or can she be rebuilt?
Does anyone have a photo of this airframe from someone to add to my database. Would also like to have one of her in her accident configuration for the files.

Taylor Stevenson · **Posted:** Tue Sep 20, 2011 9:34 am

Anything can be rebuild of course... but from the looks of it, if $$$ is the driving factor then you'd be better off buying another... especially in today's market.

gary1954 · **Posted:** Tue Sep 20, 2011 9:38 am

me109me109 wrote:

Anything can be rebuild of course... but from the looks of it, if $$$ is the driving factor then you'd be better off buying another... especially in today's market.

then you'd be better off picking her up as a hangar queen for cannibalization :axe:

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T-6 Down in MI on Saturday- Pilot OK

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