Jumbo Tanker Accident

Larry

The Merlin could be throttle bursted (Idle to full throttle as fast as
you could move it) and you would have full power, 3000 rpm and 61
inche3s in 1 to 1 1/2 seconds. Only engine I ever flew with that kind
of response to throttle movement.

So a pilot who slammed the throttle full open was presented with the
torque in that short period of time and unless you had some airspeed
or full rudder in, you were a goner. At cruise you could burst
throttle and you had plenty of rudder to hold the torque. You still
flew the engine smoothly however as no reason to burst throttle.

I saw one instance where a sister Sq was making a heavy weight take
off mission. 6 five inch HVAR's (high velocity arial rockets), two 110
gallon drop tanks (we also used 75 gallon tanks on some missions) and
full ammo for the 6 guns.

My tent was near the end of the R/W and several of us were out
watching the other Sq take off. This one pilot (not the sharpest both
before and after) lined up and ran up to probably 40 inches (guess on
my part from engine sound) and started roll and we could hear him go
to full throttle. He rolled about 25 feet and we saw the elevator go
full down and the tail lifted off the ground. As soon as it lifted and
the tail wheel left the runway the bird made a abrupt 90 degree left
(with torque) turn and ran off runway into a 5 foot ditch. We didn't
have time to blink as it happened.

We never lifted the tail until we had 30-40 mph so we could control
the torque with tail wheel. If you lifted tail a little bit early then
you had to be prepared to put a lot of rudder (even full if required)
in to hold the bird straight down runway.

As Dudley has said, you need/needed to know the airplane and fly it
within its limits or it could kill you.

As you can probably tell, I loved the bird back then and drool when I
hear a Merlin today as brings back many memories. )

Big John
******************************************


On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:31:47 GMT, Larry Dighera
wrote:

On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 14:31:46 -0500, Big John
wrote in :

Last one of these accidents I saw, the pilot (from a sister Sq who
made wheel landings) used to much power on go around and torque rolled
into sandy soil next to runway (did not burn).

Thank you for the firsthand information.

What puzzles me is why, when the PIC finds that he is unable to
control the torque, he doesn't reduce the power? Or is the power
application so swift that there isn't time to react to the torque
roll?

Commercial pilots are taught to apply power smoothly (slowly), it
would seem that there would be time to do that in this sort of
situation. Am I wrong?