C-47 Black Sparrow grounded

[TonyM]

The CAF Great Lakes Wing Douglas C-47B Black Sparrow suffered severe malfunction of the number-two engine a short time after take-off from Lansing, Illlinois (IGQ), last Saturday. Wing Commander Bob Bos was able to expertly guide the aircraft back to Lansing. The airplane was enroute to the 440th TCG reunion in Indianapolis when the malfunction occurred.

The Great Lakes Wing XO Tim Scott stated that the number two engine had probably "thrown a rod". The Wing had three events left for the season. Season over.

Any one willing to donate money to fix our plane should contact Gary Sprigg, Great Lakes Wing.

TM

[Obergrafeter]

Dang, know how you feel. Same thing happened to us last week on number 2 on the maiden flight. Ouch!

[Fouga23]

Since it always seems to happen to the one named "number two", why not rename them "number one" and "number one bis"? Maybe then it will behave

[Mark Cook]

There's alot of that going around. Boogie Baby is down with a bad engine, and Drag 'em oot had the same thing happen when were to jump from it in Sept. It's been a bad few months for the jump-able C-47s.

[bluehawk15]

Just as the B-25's are getting back up in the air, the C-47's are sitting on the ground for a while. Hope everyone gets the funds to get back in the air soon. I rode the Black Sparrow from Houston Hobby up to Columbus, IN, many, many years ago. Van Skiles was the pilot and flying the Texas Raiders crew and Tora pilots back up to an airshow. They took Raiders and 13 Tora birds from a show in IL over to IN and then brought the Sparrow to Houston instead of flying Raiders and all the Tora birds back to Texas, then back up north the next weekend. She's a nice plane, hope to hear of her back in the air again soon!

[F3V]

bad news