Classic Boeing crashes at DCA!

ScottM

ScottM

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iBazinga!
http://www.chicagobreakingbusiness....for-movie-on-boeing-planes-ends-in-crash.html


That is gonna leave a mark

A public relations stunt for an Imax movie celebrating the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and other iconic aircraft went awry Tuesday morning when a vintage Boeing aircraft buzzing downtown Washington, D.C., crashed after landing.

The 1940s-era Boeing Stearman PT17 biplane, featured in the film, "Legends of Flight," flipped on its back as it touched down at Reagan National Airport, a not so uncommon event in the early days of flight. A Washington Post reporter, who was a passenger in the plane, caught the incident on video and walked away unscathed, as did the pilot.

The National Transportation Safety Board dispatched a team to investigate the incident, which closed one of the airport's runways for 90 minutes.

Washington Post transportation reporter Ashley Halsey III told WJLA-TV in Washington that the plane flipped forward and "I could hear the propeller crunch as it hit the tarmac. ... We were hanging upside down on our shoulder harnesses."

The Boeing Stearman PT-17 was one of eight planes that flew into the airport to celebrate the movie's launch, said Doug Freeman, a spokesman for the film. The planes, which have open cockpits, were built between 1938 and 1943 and each carried a joy-riding journalist to help publicize the film.
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How the heck did they get into DCA in a Steerman? I thought you needed to have a FAM onboard anytime you came into DCA...
 
Why are they locking up the brakes on landing???
 
Rule #1.............. Disable the brakes for ANY passenger.
 
Stearman landing at Reagan

This was posted on AvSig. A group of either stearmans were approved to land there for a movie. This is from a helmet cam. Speculation is the reporter in back may have been standing on the brakes.

Be prepared to be ill when watching.

Best,

Dave

http://tinyurl.com/23do4ou
 
Doggtyred said:
Any wagers on if the journalist INTENTIONALLY hit the brakes to become the evening news?
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No way. :nono: That would be serious doo doo. :yikes: I don't always have much respect for journalists as a group, but I can't believe any of them would do something like that, especially with their butt in the plane. People in airplane crashes die!:rolleyes: And if he knows enough to know that this is not a forgone conclusion, he probably knows enough to respect the airplane.
 
We were watching that in class today. We have an FAA inspector in class with us...he was the first one to find the video, surprise surprise :). Our instructor has quite a bit of Stearman time; I think he almost cried when he watched that helmet cam version.

What a mess that airport must'a been the rest of the day. That was on runway 1, the big runway. Most of the jets can't use 33 or 4, I don't think. I'm a little surprised DCA tower didn't have those guys on 33, honestly. Anyone know if LiveATC caught it?
 
Teller1900 said:
What a mess that airport must'a been the rest of the day. That was on runway 1, the big runway. Most of the jets can't use 33 or 4, I don't think. I'm a little surprised DCA tower didn't have those guys on 33, honestly. Anyone know if LiveATC caught it?
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Articles said the runway was closed for 90 minutes. I think they were motivated to clear the runway!
 
And, for what it's worth, it appears the props curled backwards:

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EdFred said:
Why are they locking up the brakes on landing???
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It looked that way to me.....a wind gust would not leave the aircraft on the centerline of the runway, headed directly down the runway.
 
If the reporter was standing on the brakes - one would think the pilot would have felt their feet as he worked the rudder during the landing. The landing looked great before the touchdown so either the passenger freaked at the last second and stomped on the brakes or the brake was stuck. My dad (cropdusted in a stearman) always said the stock brakes sucked and would lock with little pressure if they got dirty.
 
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jesse said:
If the reporter was standing on the brakes - one would think the pilot would have felt their feet as he worked the rudder during the landing.
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I had heard and I have no first hand knowledge, that the brakes on that plane are heel brakes. IOW not part of the rudder pedals. Maybe someone who is familiar with that plane can clarify whether there are heel brakes or rudder pedal brakes.
 
ScottM said:
I had heard and I have no first hand knowledge, that the brakes on that plane are heel brakes. IOW not part of the rudder pedals. Maybe someone who is familiar with that plane can clarify whether there are heel brakes or rudder pedal brakes.
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I don't think there are "heel brakes" that are not part of the rudder pedals.

:dunno:

Mine are.

All heel brakes are is actuated by pushing down with your heels, as opposed to toes.

I loathed them at first -- now -- not so bad.
 
dmccormack said:
I don't think there are "heel brakes" that are not part of the rudder pedals.

:dunno:

Mine are.

All heel brakes are is actuated by pushing down with your heels, as opposed to toes.

I loathed them at first -- now -- not so bad.
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Interesting....can you post a picture? The only heel brakes I have ever used were on a Champ and Citabria and they were completely separate from the rudder pedals.

It's been a long time since I got a ride in a Stearman, but pretty sure they were toe brakes. Alot of Wacos have heel brakes, but I don't think I've seen a Stearman with them.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Interesting....can you post a picture? The only heel brakes I have ever used were on a Champ and Citabria and they were completely separate from the rudder pedals.

It's been a long time since I got a ride in a Stearman, but pretty sure they were toe brakes. Alot of Wacos have heel brakes, but I don't think I've seen a Stearman with them.
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The "Flying characteristics" section of this Stearman page indicates it has toe brakes, as you suspected.

http://www.ch2a.ca/Stearman.htm
 
Fearless Tower said:
Interesting....can you post a picture? The only heel brakes I have ever used were on a Champ and Citabria and they were completely separate from the rudder pedals.
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I'll try to remember -- should be able to fly tomorrow.

But this Aeronca Chief has Cleveland brakes -- heel brakes, all in the same pedal. These are very common on Aeroncas (Champs and Chiefs)
 
dmccormack said:
I don't think there are "heel brakes" that are not part of the rudder pedals.

:dunno:

Mine are.

All heel brakes are is actuated by pushing down with your heels, as opposed to toes.

I loathed them at first -- now -- not so bad.
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Fearless Tower said:
Interesting....can you post a picture? The only heel brakes I have ever used were on a Champ and Citabria and they were completely separate from the rudder pedals.

It's been a long time since I got a ride in a Stearman, but pretty sure they were toe brakes. Alot of Wacos have heel brakes, but I don't think I've seen a Stearman with them.
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I have little to no experience with heel brakes and the only ones I have ever seen were separate. They were on the floor in front of the rudder pedals.
 
Check out this unique video of a PT-17, taken by an R/C chopper with video cameras attached. Who's gonna bring that rig to Gaston's??

 
Did the passenger know about the brakes? As far as journalists being filled with integrity, that is stretching the blanket.
Some certainly do, but some do not.:incazzato:
 
ApacheBob said:
Did the passenger know about the brakes? As far as journalists being filled with integrity, that is stretching the blanket.
Some certainly do, but some do not.:incazzato:
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I have heard, FWIW, that the journalist admitted to have stood on the brakes to see over the nose better on final... that seems possible, but it seems incredible that he wasn't warned, before the flight and during the approach, to stay off them.
 
rottydaddy said:
I have heard, FWIW, that the journalist admitted to have stood on the brakes to see over the nose better on final... that seems possible, but it seems incredible that he wasn't warned, before the flight and during the approach, to stay off them.
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I've flown with photographers before and while I don't want to presume the journalist is guilty, I wouldn't want to presume that the pilot didn't give a briefing, either. It's easy for a passenger to forget in the excitement of the moment and move around to get that perfect shot... At that point, and particularly on landing, it may have been impossible to correct the situation.

Ryan
 
RyanShort1 said:
I've flown with photographers before and while I don't want to presume the journalist is guilty, I wouldn't want to presume that the pilot didn't give a briefing, either. It's easy for a passenger to forget in the excitement of the moment and move around to get that perfect shot... At that point, and particularly on landing, it may have been impossible to correct the situation.

Ryan
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I watched the video shot from outside the plane a few times and it sure doesn't look like the pilot made any kind of attempt to arrest the upset by pulling back on the stick. I could be wrong because the view isn't all that good but if I'm right it either happened so quickly that there was no time to react of the pilot simply failed to notice the rising tail until it was too late. In all the taildraggers I've flown, there's plenty of elevator authority to override locked brakes at the moment of touchdown but that option goes away rather quickly as the plane losses speed. That said, many of the taildraggers I have time in didn't have very effective brakes either. The StardusterToo I used to fly had very effective and touchy brakes which were involved in a few nasty swerves caused by one shoe barely leaning on a toe brake and while I must have been pretty busy just staying on the runway, I don't remember loosing the ability to keep the tail down, just a lot of burnt rubber.
 
Stearmans are top heavy and their tails can come up easily. The tail started up so fast and would have a produced momentum that no amount of elevator or power could have done anything about. Normally, you're not exactly spring-loaded to try to correct for this sort of thing the instant the wheels touch...especially if it WAS the passenger who was on the brakes. The pilot would have been in shocked disbelief throughout the whole episode.
 
gismo said:
I watched the video shot from outside the plane a few times and it sure doesn't look like the pilot made any kind of attempt to arrest the upset by pulling back on the stick. I could be wrong because the view isn't all that good but if I'm right it either happened so quickly that there was no time to react of the pilot simply failed to notice the rising tail until it was too late. In all the taildraggers I've flown, there's plenty of elevator authority to override locked brakes at the moment of touchdown but that option goes away rather quickly as the plane losses speed. That said, many of the taildraggers I have time in didn't have very effective brakes either. The StardusterToo I used to fly had very effective and touchy brakes which were involved in a few nasty swerves caused by one shoe barely leaning on a toe brake and while I must have been pretty busy just staying on the runway, I don't remember loosing the ability to keep the tail down, just a lot of burnt rubber.
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Sur,e but what if you were trying to do a nice wheel landing and were already in the process of pushing the stick forward when the wheel was locked up! Not much time to make any corrective action. :eek:

Ryan
 
Stearman on our field had a landing 2 years where the brakes had locked up... Same results, over on the back in 2 seconds...

denny-o
 
Unexpected control inputs by passengers are a scary thing. I'm personally aware of two accidents that were caused by passengers.

One was a Cub where the adult passenger had his ~3 year old daughter in his lap. It was a hot day and the Cub was well loaded and didn't have a lot of margin to clear the trees at the end of the runway. Once the daughter shifted her legs, hit the stick, and ballooned the aircraft to well below Vx, the Cub wasn't gonna clear the trees. The pilot set it down hard, incurring a prop strike, etc.

The other was a fatality in an Ercoupe. The airplane was in the process of making a forced landing in a field and the passenger apparently braced for impact, and got into the elevator mechanism, causing the airplane to nosedive sharply into the ground. If the accident aircraft hadn't been an Ercoupe, everyone would have presumed the accident was due to a low altitude stall.

The point is... Brief, brief, brief, then monitor to the best of your abilities.

This is one of the reasons I rarely install the stick on the passenger side of my RV-6.
 
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