"Aluminum Overcast" damaged by gear collapse

Rick Durden wrote:

CAF is already saying the copilot pulled the gear up when he went for
the flaps, despite being told to keep his hands off the flap switch
until off the runway.

As of today, EAA still denies this. They state that videos indicate that the gear was
not completely down when the plane landed.

George Patterson
I childproofed my house, but they *still* get in.

In article ,
"G.R. Patterson III" wrote:


As of today, EAA still denies this. They state that videos indicate that the
gear was
not completely down when the plane landed.

I guess that's possible. Would have to be a real good quality video
since you'd have to be able to see if the scissor is overcenter.

And, if they weren't down and locked the crew either wasn't doing their
job or their procedures were bad. You can look at the gear from the
cockpit and tell if it is locked down. That was our procedure on gear
extension...a visual check that the gear was down and locked.

And again, might odd that both gear suffered the same failure at the
same time since they are separate systems....only common thing being the
switch in the cockpit. And just because one gear fails there is no
reason for the "good" gear to collapse....lots of cases of B-17s landing
with only one gear down.

--
Dale L. Falk

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing around with airplanes.

http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flying.html

James Robinson wrote:

The B-17 bomber owned by the Experimental Aircraft Assn. was damaged
yesterday at Van Nuys airport when its main gear collaped.

Discovery Wings has just had a feature about "Aluminum Overcast"'s
restoration :-(

:-(


Dima

"Dima Volodin" wrote in message
...
James Robinson wrote:

The B-17 bomber owned by the Experimental Aircraft Assn. was damaged
yesterday at Van Nuys airport when its main gear collaped.

Discovery Wings has just had a feature about "Aluminum Overcast"'s
restoration :-(

:-(

Looks like they'll be able to get another few seasons out of it...

:-(

Dima Volodin wrote:

James Robinson wrote:

The B-17 bomber owned by the Experimental Aircraft Assn. was damaged
yesterday at Van Nuys airport when its main gear collaped.

Discovery Wings has just had a feature about "Aluminum Overcast"'s
restoration :-(

Well, now they can turn it into a series. :-(

George Patterson
If you don't tell lies, you never have to remember what you said.

After discussing the incident with my father, who served as Flight Engineer
during WWII, he mentioned that part of his job as FE (at least on his crew)
was to manually check and lock the gear after they were deployed even if the
pilot's indicator said they were locked. He said that on more than one
occasion they were not locked. Also I wonder if it's possible that on the
Aluminum Overcast only one gear "really" failed and the other then collapsed
because of unusual stresses. ?

"James Robinson" wrote in message
...
The B-17 bomber owned by the Experimental Aircraft Assn. was damaged
yesterday at Van Nuys airport when its main gear collaped.

From the videos on TV, you could see its tail wheel firmly on the
ground, when the main gear retracted, and the aircraft dropped onto the
runway. The crew must had had that sinking feeling about then. It slid
perhaps 50 feet or so on its belly.

The media seems to like to say it made a belly landing, or a rough
landing, but it was apparent that it had already landed, and was simply
completing the rollout, and was preparing to turn off when it happened.

Anyway, here's a link to their web site, where they have a short
description of the incident:

http://www.b17.org/

And a typical media story:

http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1...129868,00.html

I couldn't find the video clip, but I assume it will appear online
sometime today.

I hope they can get it flying again soon.

muff528 wrote:

Also I wonder if it's possible that on the Aluminum Overcast only
one gear "really" failed and the other then collapsed because of
unusual stresses. ?

Anything's possible, but as I recall from the video, the aircraft
flopped down on the runway as a result of something happening to both
gear at the same time. You'd think if one failed, that the other would
hold things up for a time before failing itself. I don't recall that
happening. However, I only saw the video once, and might be mistaken.

I found some photos of the resulting damage. There are also some
comments at the bottom of the page that suggest the screw jacks failed,
as they are both broken in half:

http://www.beechcraft.org/b17-accident/

Also a link to the local TV station video:

http://tinyurl.com/2njqf

Thanks for the links -- sickening though they were.

Boy, both gear just COLLAPSE -- apparently without any provocation. It sure
makes you wonder what could cause such a thing.

It going to require tearing down all four engines, four 3-blade props, and
untold hours rebuilding/replacing the ball and nose turrets to get that
beautiful old bird flying again. What a shame.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"
"James Robinson" wrote in message
...
I found some photos of the resulting damage. There are also some
comments at the bottom of the page that suggest the screw jacks failed,
as they are both broken in half:

http://www.beechcraft.org/b17-accident/

Also a link to the local TV station video:

http://tinyurl.com/2njqf

In article d4dnc.7165$536.1423430@attbi_s03,
Jay Honeck wrote:

It going to require tearing down all four engines,

Are you really worried about a catastrophic failure when you've got
3 other engines?

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/