Warbird Information Exchange

That doesn't make any sense. How can a group of pilots flying well together one day, totally fall apart the next. Obviously, Doctor was paying attn the day before. Why would he fall down on the exact same practice?

Just remember, complacency can kill. Pilots, regardless of skill level, are human and make mistakes, some times by accident, sometimes willingly due to external factors. Flying in formation is like an orchestra, where everybody must know their part and do it exactly off the same sheet of music at the precise time. If any one person doesn't stick to the script, things fall apart rather quickly. Apparently, that's what happened here, at least according to the NTSB.

As well, one must understand that Howard taxied down that far to give plenty of room to his second element to setup and do their run-ups on the runway. I've been in proximity of the CAF Corsair during run up and several other R2800 powered aircraft doing the same thing. There is a LOT of propwash created and I imagine it's the same with the Bearcat as well. By giving everyone room, it means that they can stagger their positions so that they do not have any overlap of propwash, which can cause issues with air intake into the engine (ever see a R2800 buck and snort because it was getting inconsistent airflow into the engine?)

From the NTSB report and the video that's been released to the public, the timeline looks pretty clear and the communication too. Howard told the Air Boss he was going to take the runway and the flight do their runups there. He did that and for whatever reason, Doctor decided to skip the runup and proceed immediately with takeoff. Since I can find nothing in the NTSB files nor anywhere else, it seems that Doctor has either declined to speak as to why he began taking off when he did or it's been put under sealed order. Either way, it's not clear why it happened, but it's clear that a mistake was made on the part of Doctor and he unfortunately paid a severe price for it.

It was a few years ago now but I was within 200 yds of the incident.
I can verify that Pardue and at least one other a/c taxied further down the runway and then held position there.
At that point the Corsair started it's role.
Saying that it clipped the Bearcat is a definite understatement.
The Corsair was full power tail up when it hit.
Upon impact it became airborne then cartwheeling down the runway. I have a very vivid picture of the Corsairs engine continuing down the runway on fire all by itself.
The centre section of the Corsair came to rest on the grass left of the active. At first the Fire Crew, all in firesuits thought that the pilot was in the centre section however I believe that he was thrown clear of it .
Another thing I remember is that , not to use a cliche , that everything happened in slow motion. It just seemed really surreal that it was actually happeneing. Very tragic.

_________________
...it was a plane adrift beneath the moon moving serenely thru beams like an angel of the night .....fair as a song ........aloof from mortal dreams

I've seen the Bearcat since; what happened to the Corsair wreckage?

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/corsairr ... 97280.html

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief2.asp?ev_ ... 66A&akey=1

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?id= ... 66A&rpt=fa

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?id= ... 66A&rpt=fi

Findings
1. (C) INSTRUCTIONS,WRITTEN/VERBAL - NOT FOLLOWED - PILOT IN COMMAND <-- Ladd screwed up
2. (C) CLEARANCE - NOT MAINTAINED - PILOT IN COMMAND <-- Ladd screwed up
3. (F) VISUAL LOOKOUT - RESTRICTED - PILOT IN COMMAND <-- Ladd screwed up

I don't see anywhere in the NTSB report that said Howard or the EAA did anything wrong