Thu Oct 30, 2008 4:19 am
Canso42 wrote:Thanks for the replies, everyone. Palacios Texas, early seventies sounds like it but I'll ask Shirley on Sunday for more details.
If it was Charlie Liedel, was he okay?
Canso42
Charlie was fine, but no so TZ138, with one wing and most on the RHS severely damaged.
TZ138 Lasara TX. 1971
MK297 seems to have been on its back with damaged cockpit, smashed radio mast and the tail fin seriously adrift of the vertical. I would have thought that this accident would have been worthy of a NTSB report.
MK297 Palacious TX. 1981
So ten years between these two accidents 1971 -1981. For Shirley, perhaps one being in primer and the other in full RAF camouflage might be the identifier.
PeterA
Spitfire at Texas Ag Strip
Thu Oct 30, 2008 5:44 am
The CAF Spitfire ended up on it's back on an ag strip at Long Mott, Texas in the late 70's or early 80's. As I recall, the plane went out over the gulf to let down below the clouds. It then headed back to inland to low on fuel and landed at the first strip he could find. On landing it got into soft ground along the runway and went over.
Fri Oct 31, 2008 8:56 pm
PeterA, Long Mott and Palacios are less than an hour apart. I expect to see Shirley on Sunday so the info I've been given on this thread should be enough to nail down a defininite i.d. on it.
I've had trouble getting msgs to post tonight. Lets see if this goes through.
Doug
I've had trouble getting msgs to post tonight. Lets see if this goes through.
Doug
Sun Nov 02, 2008 8:54 pm
MK297 it is.
Whatley Air Services still operates dusters out of Long Mott. (Shirley's ex.) I ran all that you guys had told me by her and she just looked at me open mouthed. lol. Long Mott, Tx., 1981, full war paint and she remembered Gerald. She said he was really a nice person and he stayed at the Whatley's home the night of the wreck.
Shirley witnessed it. He came in real slow and go off the hard packed part of the strip, packed earth under more grass, got into soft ground and nosed over, "..almost in slow motion. If he'd lost a few more mph. , he might not have gone over. It just stopped on it's nose and then FLOP!"
She was quite disappointed to learn that the aircraft was later destroyed in a hangar fire.
And a hello from Shirley in Texas.
Doug
Whatley Air Services still operates dusters out of Long Mott. (Shirley's ex.) I ran all that you guys had told me by her and she just looked at me open mouthed. lol. Long Mott, Tx., 1981, full war paint and she remembered Gerald. She said he was really a nice person and he stayed at the Whatley's home the night of the wreck.
Shirley witnessed it. He came in real slow and go off the hard packed part of the strip, packed earth under more grass, got into soft ground and nosed over, "..almost in slow motion. If he'd lost a few more mph. , he might not have gone over. It just stopped on it's nose and then FLOP!"
She was quite disappointed to learn that the aircraft was later destroyed in a hangar fire.
And a hello from Shirley in Texas.
Doug
Sun Jan 11, 2009 9:57 pm
Is Gerald Martin still around and if so does he still fly?
Sun Jan 11, 2009 10:16 pm
Canso42 wrote:Is Gerald Martin still around and if so does he still fly?
Gerald is still around but, I don't believe, is flying any longer. If I'm remembering correctly he stopped flying in just the last year or two.
Chad Veich