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One Jet at Reno - Brad Morehouse, 2007. I was supposed to work on his crew during the money heats, instead helped salvage pieces of his aircraft. Since 2008 I've lost 9 close friends or acquaintances who were flying jet warbirds to include my kids grandfather who was a wonderful man and my flight instructor. Every time this happens a piece of my heart is torn away.I am very sorry to hear that. Unfortunately jet warbird/exhibition flying seems to have a very high probability of loss. I recall one year a little while back where we lost a guy in a L-39 at Titusville, a guy flying a Magister at Kissimmee, one of the Blue Angels, a Canadian Snowbird, and two jet racers at Reno.
The Fouga crash occurred during a routine post maintenance FCF, IIRC there was something going on with the speed brakes and both pilots were "not flying the jet" while trying to troubleshoot in the air. One of the people killed, Carl Vernon was a talented mechanic, pilot and good friend. A minute of inattention with fatal results.That's terrible loss. What do you think usually goes wrong? That Magister at Kissimmee went up for a local flight of just a few minutes and then dove into the ground while approaching the airport. The jet at the Titusville airshow was doing a loop and came out of the clouds straight down into the ground.
Hard to say - I have my suspicions but I won't speculate at this timeAs with all above my sincere condolences to his family. At only 50 it is very tragic. No real knowledge but could it be simply the age of these aircraft? I know that there is a strict maintenance schedule but I would suspect that it is impossible to check everything
My condolences, Joe. That's hard to take. In three years of sending F-4 crews into combat we didn't lose that many. Fly safe, brother!Since 2008 I've lost 9 close friends or acquaintances who were flying jet warbirds to include my kids grandfather who was a wonderful man and my flight instructor.
Thanks WesMy condolences, Joe. That's hard to take. In three years of sending F-4 crews into combat we didn't lose that many. Fly safe, brother!
RIP Marty.
Wes
BTW, I believe that Venom was a former neighbor of mine. I think it was one of several imported by Warbirds International in the late 80s/early 90s and was civilianized in their shop next door to the hangar where my Beech 99 freighter lived. Dean Martin (the infamous, not the famous one!) AKA Warbirds International, had a relatively short but colorful career on the "slippery" side of the warbird import business, involving aircraft parts of dubious origin and eventual disposition, contracts to fly his MiGs at Topgun and Nellis, and the unauthorized posession of a J-35 Draken assembled from parts without a valid SAAB dataplate.Thanks Wes
A T-33 with full tiptanks has got to be a bear to get out of a spin, especially if you're slow on the recovery and it gets a chance to wind up and flatten out. Their primitive ejection seats aren't good for much with a high sink rate, so if you're not "stepping out" going through ten thousand, your goose is probably cooked.I guess the thing is with jets is that they are not inherently more unreliable - they probably are inherently more reliable than prop warbirds, but things happen FAST and get out of hand much quicker.
I recall a T-33A mishap that occurred just before I left the airplane world to go into the space business in 1978. Radar data showed they stalled the airplane at high altitude and spun it down over 20,000 ft into a creek. Here locally we had a Cessna 152 disappear one day; radar and forensic data showed they spun it in from 1000 ft or less, probably while circling over a scenic lake; a brother and sister died. Stalling a jet at 20,000 ft is like stalling a Cessna at 1000 ft..