Well, we made it back from the Nellis Air Show yesterday afternoon. The show went well, but seemed to run long. There were some great airplanes there though and it is certainly something that we'd like to participate in in the future. It was cool to be able to meet fellow WIXers, Roger Cain and Mike Shreeve. There were a few others that came up to say they lurked on WIX, but I simply cannot recall their names.....sorry.
The Nellis folks ran out of the engine oil that we needed for the B-24, so our friend, Bob DeFord, stepped in to help. He's got a simply fantastic full scale Spitfire replica that he built and flew in the show as well. He lives in Prescott, AZ, which was on the way home for us, so we stopped in there to get the oil we needed to complete the trip.
While putting the oil in the airplane, we let the local airport folks go through the airplane to check it out. When we were finally ready to depart, all of our crew gathered around the entry door to have our preflight brief. Once that was done, everyone climbed aboard and I stayed outside to remove the tail stand from the airplane once everyone was in their seats. I eventually removed the stand, but moments later, the tail of the airplane started creeping towards the ground. Initially my thoughts were that this wasn't too uncommon, as the B-24 is notorious for teetering back and forth, depending on where the weight of the airplane is inside. But this time, the tail didn't stop. It just kept creeping lower and lower. I heard someone with a somewhat concerned voice say, "GARY, GARY!!!", but there was no way in heck I was going to put my back under the airplane to try to keep it from hitting the ground...which it eventually did. With a solid "thunk" the tail became firmly rested on the ground. You can probably imagine how stupid and embarrassed I felt about now.
But why did this happen? Why did I take the stinkin' tail stand out too soon? Why did it go on it's tail after everyone was seated? Well, I found out soon enough. I told everyone to walk towards the front of the airplane, which they did. It very gently came back to rest on it's nosewheel and I then told everyone to get out one at a time. What I saw then was five tourists making their way out of the airplane! Nobody in our crew knew they were still on board. So when we started to enter the airplane, all five of them made their way towards the back of the airplane after I'd removed the stand. It was just one of those things I reckon, but I was sure pretty dang mad at myself about it.
Oh, and what about damage? Well, it's not horrible, but again, it's enough to p*ss me off a bit. The tail skid was simply pushed right up into the fuselage and the tunnel gun door was shoved open. Our entry door was touching the ground and was nearly level, but only received a few scratches. We were going to beef up the tail skid area this winter anyway, so having to rebuild that section doesn't hurt my feelings too much. But something is tweaked in my tunnel gun door, as we couldn't get it back open once we closed it. I had to open it by taking the hinge pins out and removing the door completely.
Here are a couple shots of the damage........
I looked everything over real well and determined that the damage was nothing that would be a safety hazard for our remaining flight home. It's similar to damage done by an aircraft jack that's missed the jack point. Embarrassing, but nothing that caused airworthiness concerns, so we pressed on.
There was one glimmer of coolness on the flight home, however. Bob DeFord escorted us out of Prescott with his Spit and I was able to get some pretty decent air to air photos of him from the tailgunner's position and the tunnel gun position, along with a few shots from the waistgunner's spot. And yes, before anyone asks, Bob does have a formation card, along with Paul, who was flying our plane. The flight was thoroughly briefed and we flew it as briefed. I may see about posting some photos from that flight later, but I need to sort through them first.
So anyway, once we're allowed back into the hangar (they've got more events going on in it right now), I'll get started on the winter maintenance of the B-24. I reckon I'll keep y'all posted on how that goes as well.
Gary
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Glad it wasn't serious.
