Warbird Information Exchange

What an absolute tragic thing to happen. I know planes can be repaired but after all the blood sweat and tears that went into that magnificent restoration I hope she can be repaired...

_________________
Cheers,
Peter

________

Was this one of the ex RCN Fireflys (Fireflies?) that got fished out of Ethiopia about twenty years ago?

Dan

_________________
Defending Stearmans on WIX since Jeff started badmouthing them back in 2005.

1)It's the pilot's ultimate responsiblity for the condition of the aircraft and its safe operation. He risked A couple million dollars worth of assets and did several hindred thousand dollars worth of damge.
2) Sometimes crew chiefs perform engine runs and taxi tests. The U.S. military did away with crew chiefs taxiing aircraft decades ago. Probably because of loss of assets (accidents.)

Indeed...PP462

The other Ethiopian bird donated to Canada was DK545

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/fireflyr ... dk545.html

_________________
It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

Never heard about this story can you provide some details?

Some details (and photos) here: http://issuu.com/mtaye/docs/the_long_li ... _fireflies

_________________

Some good reading! It's a shame not much has happened with the example in Ottawa. Here are some pictures I took a few years ago.

Further Update:

I happened to see some post accident pics on the weekend that were sent to me by a contact at the Museum.
It is not pretty . The aircraft has suffered substantial damage. This was a totally avoidable accident.

As is known, the Shearwater Musuem obtained and restored the aircraft to flying condition.
At this point some very poor decisons were made.
Even though, there are current Firefly pilots in Canada and their services were offered, the Museum decided to use a pilot that in the past had TPM Avenger time but none current . This was felt to be adequate
At some point someone decide that it was a good idea to c/out a high speed taxi test and as we all know this is not/never a good idea . Especially with a high performance aircraft.
I am told that during the H.S Taxi the aircraft was becoming airborne and was swinging off the runway , braking was used to counter the swing and power was chopped decreasing the torque. Unfortunately the yaw continued and the aircraft departed the runway
The one gear appears to have folded outward and the other gear leg punched thru the wing and ofcourse next there was a full belly skid and prop stike destroying the prop.
The result being that a historically valuable artifact has been destroyed and an aircraft that had the potential to be a regular flyer will now be repaired to stayic condition only
A real loss to both the Museum and to the country.

I really can't understand why they would choose a pilot that had no previous Firefly time . A TBM is quite a different animal to a Firefly.
It really does appear to be a case of a Museum that is largely made up of static displays that has no real experience in operating high performance flying aircraft.
Please note that I am not trying bash the Museum but hopefully we can all learn from an incident that was both unfortunate and also very avoidable.

_________________
...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

Bump...any news or pictures?

Have not found any......

Sad in any case!

There was an update via the Aerial Visuals page, no photos though.

https://www.facebook.com/AerialVisuals?fref=ts

Oh wow, that magazine piece on the Ethiopian birds is something else! I've never seen so much as one colour photo of any of those Fireflies, and here's this article with about a dozen...

As to the four Fireflies recovered in relatively recent years, the first pair was noticed by a Canadian military attaché at Asmara in what by now was part of Eritrea in the early 90s; actually there had been at least six Fireflies there including two T.2 dual-control trainers. Much of the Firefly fleet gathered for the EAF under the auspices of Swedish Count von Rosen in the fifties came from the recently-retired RCN stock, and ultimately (around 1995) two ex-RCN FR.1 airframes, DK545 and PP462, from the Asmara batch, went to Canadian museums, CASM/CAvM at Rockcliffe and SAM at Shearwater respectively. Two more Fireflies were recovered to South Africa three or four years later along with, iirc, some Saab Safirs and possibly a Saab 17; those two Fireflies were an FR.1 and a T.2, and they were said to have come from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia proper...I do not know whether they were two more of the Asmara batch that had been moved out, or whether in fact there were more Fireflies in Addis Ababa. Either way, there could possibly be at least two yet-unrecovered Fireflies at Asmara...

And that accident at Victoria BC during testing of CWH's then-newly-completed Firefly AS.6 was the luckiest thing that ever happened to that aircraft. It happened in 1992; the plan at the time was for the Firefly to be flown east to Hamilton after test flights finished. After its first, albeit abbreviated, show season, the Firefly would most certainly have been stripped down quite a bit for intensive winter maintenance...in the north bay of CWH's Hangar #3, where all such work was performed. That is where G-GBDG would have been, without any doubt at all, on the night of 14-15 February 1993. She would have been among the aircraft lost in the infamous Hangar #3 fire! Instead, after extensive repairs at Victoria, she returned to Mt.Hope, to the new CWH hangar, in 1996, and has been as active as her somewhat high-maintenance qualities allow ever since...

S.

Steve
That is a very good point !
I never really thought about it but you are absolutely correct

_________________
...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

That is indeed is a great point Steve T. Shearwater is a fine museum, but if fixing PP462 is going to be out of reach, maybe VWoC would be willing to take her over as a future flyer?? (knowing MY luck , I broke a few toes out there, so I 'll give a "I 'm sorry" for that). Bottom line here is that we all wish PP462 & Shearwater the Best!

I got to see the airframe first hand a few weeks ago. I walked around it in their hangar. I was asked not to take pictures... which killed me... I photograph everything with and engine and wings... but I complied. Seeking counseling.

The prop was a write off (obviously).
The engine cowl was damaged.
The port gear was the gear that went through the wing.
The inside edge of the port wing which folds, the edge that meets the inner fixed wing, was damaged by the collapsing gear.
The port underside wing tip was scraped/banged up. No surprise.
The starboard wing looked good to me.
I did not see any damage to the belly or tail.

The Shearwater Museum is a 5 minute drive from where I now live in Dartmouth now. I'll make a point of giving it a good look over the next time I am there.

I was told the tail wheel somehow locked/jammed which turned the airframe when the throttle was increased. THIS IS NOT OFFICIAL AND NOT CONFIRMED. I don't remember if that was intended to be a high speed run or a flight.

The volunteer giving me the tour indicated there would be no attempt to fly it again. Again, not an official statement.

Mike

_________________
Mike R. Henniger
Aviation Enthusiast & Photographer
http://www.AerialVisuals.ca
http://www.facebook.com/AerialVisuals

Do you want to find locations of displayed, stored or active aircraft? Then start with the The Locator.
Do you want to find or contribute to the documented history of an aircraft? If so then start with the Airframes Database.