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T-6 Texan crash

I saw that too. Very sad. Not just the loss of a really great plane, as the SNJ's are, but what's really sad is the loss of a pilot that's familiar with them. No ejection seats for them!

My father flew those in the Navy as an Instructor. At least until he was quietly told he would never see another promotion. Little episode during a Change of Command ceremony in Pensacola. He used to have fits during movies like Tora, Tora, Tora. They would use the SNJ extensively as Japanese Zeros. Drove dad nuts.

As a side note, I saw one in a hangar at Iwakuni. Dusty, covered in cob-webs, obvious that the hangar door hadn't been opened since WWII. Could hardly even see the tracks for the doors. But it was there. Had a little plaque describing it on the outside wall of the hangar. Single plane hangar, big, domed, cement top. Kind of an unexpected little historical display, obviously forgotten by the world. Off in a little corner of the base, beside a binjou ditch. I visited it several times. Very interesting.

Anywho, I feel for the pilot's family. My condolences for their loss...
Pat☺
 
I had a chance to fly a friend's T-6 at Mid-Way Regional airshow many years ago. This is not an easy aircraft to land. They were always noted for their mean streak-ground-looping! You have to stay ahead of it. I was glad Robert was there to take the controls if I needed a guiding hand. My sympathies go to the pilot and his family. But, it is a delight to fly and I can't imagine what would have made the plane go straight down like that unless the pilot was unconscious or already dead. The T-6 does have a fair glide ratio of about two miles for every thousand feet of altitude if engine trouble develops...
Ted
 
PhantomTweak said:
I saw that too. Very sad. Not just the loss of a really great plane, as the SNJ's are, but what's really sad is the loss of a pilot that's familiar with them. No ejection seats for them!

My father flew those in the Navy as an Instructor. At least until he was quietly told he would never see another promotion. Little episode during a Change of Command ceremony in Pensacola. He used to have fits during movies like Tora, Tora, Tora. They would use the SNJ extensively as Japanese Zeros. Drove dad nuts.

As a side note, I saw one in a hangar at Iwakuni. Dusty, covered in cob-webs, obvious that the hangar door hadn't been opened since WWII. Could hardly even see the tracks for the doors. But it was there. Had a little plaque describing it on the outside wall of the hangar. Single plane hangar, big, domed, cement top. Kind of an unexpected little historical display, obviously forgotten by the world. Off in a little corner of the base, beside a binjou ditch. I visited it several times. Very interesting.

Anywho, I feel for the pilot's family. My condolences for their loss...
Pat☺
Click to expand...

The plane is always replaceable, the human isn't sadly.
 
Allen said:
The plane is always replaceable, the human isn't sadly.
Click to expand...
Exactly. A great way to say it. It's why the military went so quickly and happily to the ejection seat. Saves the pilot, usually. Usually.
Sadly, we still lose pilots, sometimes they're outside the seat's operating envelope by the time they make the decision to jettison the aircraft, sometimes they stick with the plane too long to get it away from innocents, which it's suspected the T-6 driver in this story did. Just look at how close it landed to the nearest house, but it DID miss it. A heroic act in the greatest tradition of Aviation. I can't say if he was ever military, but whether he was or not, he is still a hero.
I know they CAN wear parachutes, although they have to jump out the old-style way. IF they have the altitude/time. My father jumped out of one several times when a student got them so far beyond the plane's flight envelope it was unrecoverable. Or tore a wing or two off...
Little easier on the back than an ejection seat, but a lot less reliable. Pilot's loosing consciosness, is injured, the plane's a lot lower/faster, the list is endless for the benefits of the ejection seat.
The newer planes, with FCS systems, FADECs, AFCS, and all the rest, are more difficult to do things like that in. Not impossible, just more difficult.

Even with ejection systems, though, there are still hero's traveling the skies of the world. I submit that pilot of the T-6 was one of them...
Pat☺
 
According to a news article, the pilot was in his 50's, had been a Naval Aviator and was an airline pilot for "a major airline". In addition he was (or had been at some point) apparently serving with the Naval Air Reserve flying C-9Bs out of Willow Grove.

It sounds like he was a P-3 driver because he had had an exchange tour with the Netherlands naval air arm. The only similar circumstance was if he was an S-2 type, but they went away some time ago, before his time I project.

Structural / control problem?
 
Structural / control problem?
Click to expand...
Some witnesses said there was a lot of TFOA as it was going down. Possible structural failure, possible over-G? Only one guy knows for sure right now, but he's not talking.

That pilot that you describe could almost be my father. VERY similar life story. Biggest difference is that I'm almost 60 now, so dad is a triffle older than the pilot involved the crash :)

I still feel sorry for him, and the loved ones he leaves.
My thoughts go out to them, for whatever it's worth. Best I can offer I fear.
Pat☺
 
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