Tornado @ Rolla/Vichy airport

Dean

Dean

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Dean
The other night we had 9 tornadoes go from SW Missouri up through the St.Louis area. A F1 went just south of runway 22 at VIH where some old DC3s have been parked for years. He are a few pictures a buddy of mine emailed me.
 

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thats sucky, but from what i remember, those planes were pretty much junkers anyway, weren't they?
 
Ya, all the DC's are old junkers, but they were worried about the hangar with the P51 and T28 in it, but it went untouched.
 
One of 'em looks like one of the old FAA flight-check aircraft.
 
i *think* they are all burnt out skydiver drop planes. When Matt Sawhill and I stopped there for gas on the way back from Memphis in his 140, there was one on the ramp that was on its way to the graveyard.
 
I see those DC-3s sitting out there each time we drop the kids off in Rolla for summer camp. It would be great to see them stored in better manner. I must keep telling myself, I don't need another project.
 
Maybe it's Gods way of saying, "Get rid of these hanger (ramp) queens!:blueplane:
ApacheBob
 
Sad. I felt bad enough seeing them rotting away on a sunny day. With tornado damage, I'm afraid someone will end up torching them into bits and carrying them to the scrapyard. Why can't all good planes go to heaven (or Tucson)?

Matthew
 
They still carry themselves with dignity, even bent up as they are.

So sad.

Sigh.
 
According to ATDB records, five DC-3s were there and probably damaged: N486C, N47FJ, N19721 (wingless), N51938, N1350A.
/A
 
Dean,
Thought I'd join up since you talk about the site a lot. Glad you got to post my pictures!

FYI on the Vichy damage,
N1350A wasn't damaged, was sitting on the ramp. Last flew 4 years ago.
3 of the other 4 were freighters untill 1989 when they transitioned to Cessna 208's (Fed Ex Feeder operator).
The other was an FAA airway bird, still has the equipment in it. It was bought for parts years ago. Never flown on their 135.
Current plans from the owners are chop 'em up. I'd like to see the wingless one go to the museum in Lubbock, it was a glider tug during WWII. Still has brackets for the tow rope in the tail. Working on that before bubba shows up with a sawz all. Wings and cowlings are in a hangar. They started the wing AD and never finished it.
When they were flyable, they wanted an insane amount of $$$$ for them, so they sat. Even Bassler tried to buy them years ago. They were depreciated out of the business years ago, and they don't care about them. They've made their money. They've got hangars full of engines, props, and anything else you can think of for them too.
Chris
 
PT13Pilot said:
I'd like to see the wingless one go to the museum in Lubbock, it was a glider tug during WWII. Still has brackets for the tow rope in the tail.
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Well if the museum won't take it, I bet Tony will! :rofl:

Welcome to the board, Chris! :yes:
 
actually that would be an excellent addition to the silent wings museum in Lubbock.They have a CG-4A there and lots of pictures of the C-47 towplanes.
 
I'd love to have a propeller or two. Heck, I'd take an engine and nacelle if they'd let me. Who do I call?
 
Tony,
I went there in March and spent 3 days with the curator. I donated some of my grandfathers items. He was the GP who knocked out a tank with a bazooka in the Varsity Mission.
They said the C-47 currently there is on loan from a Marine museum, and they won't even let them put a decal or glider logo on it. But they expect them to maintain it to an insane level. I'd like to see them get their own. I hope to start helping them restore some of the training gliders they have stored in a hangar soon.
Chris
 
PT13Pilot said:
Tony,
I went there in March and spent 3 days with the curator. I donated some of my grandfathers items. He was the GP who knocked out a tank with a bazooka in the Varsity Mission.
They said the C-47 currently there is on loan from a Marine museum, and they won't even let them put a decal or glider logo on it. But they expect them to maintain it to an insane level. I'd like to see them get their own. I hope to start helping them restore some of the training gliders they have stored in a hangar soon.
Chris
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They have training gliders in storage? Any idea what types?

MM
 
I didn't get to go look, no one could find the keys to the hangar! LOL One of the volunteers said they had 3 or 4 in unrestored condition. Another Leister-Coffman (sp?) like the one hanging in the museum. A Taylorcraft TG-6, an Aeronca TG-5 and I don't remember the other. They also have a lot of stuff not on display, they are still trying to sort it all out. I told them I don't have room to store one, but if I could get pieces I'd be happy to retore/recover what I could and send it back, then they could send more. I just don't have the room right now to have one laying around. Wish I was closer so I could do more.
 
one of them was a navigator training ship in WWII, still has the bubble on top

re: all the comments about letting them rot, Lee and Ed are running their operation the way they see fit. If they want to let them rot that's their business.

You should be happy they bother with the one. Up to a few years ago they still pulled it out every year, did the annual, and then took it to the airshow up the road in columbia. It only flew once a year but it did fly.
 
PT13Pilot said:
I didn't get to go look, no one could find the keys to the hangar! LOL One of the volunteers said they had 3 or 4 in unrestored condition. Another Leister-Coffman (sp?) like the one hanging in the museum. A Taylorcraft TG-6, an Aeronca TG-5 and I don't remember the other. They also have a lot of stuff not on display, they are still trying to sort it all out. I told them I don't have room to store one, but if I could get pieces I'd be happy to retore/recover what I could and send it back, then they could send more. I just don't have the room right now to have one laying around. Wish I was closer so I could do more.
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Cool. Being unfortunately obsessed with old gliders I might have to drop in and check it out. This is at Rolla/Vichy?

BTW, enjoyed your post on the Crazy Ferry Pilot thread. What a disaster!

MM
 
The training gliders are part of the Silent Wings Museum in Lubbock, TX. The DC3's are at Vichy. One tangent led to another, sorry for the confusion.

And the ferry pilot thing really p#$!?d me off! I hate to see an airplane abused because you "think" you're good enough especially one I hold quite dear. There's no shame in recurrent training or finding someone competent.
 
PT13Pilot said:
The training gliders are part of the Silent Wings Museum in Lubbock, TX. The DC3's are at Vichy. One tangent led to another, sorry for the confusion.

And the ferry pilot thing really p#$!?d me off! I hate to see an airplane abused because you "think" you're good enough especially one I hold quite dear. There's no shame in recurrent training or finding someone competent.
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It was fascinating to see the whole thing from start to finish in slow motion. First the post asking for pilots... Imagine all the people who were qualified or nearly so and passed it up now thinking "hell, I could have crashed it a lot less!"

MM
 
You're right there! A few years ago I was asked if I'd fly a Champ from California to here by a mutual friend. I said I would. I learned in a Champ, bought a Chief when I was 18 and flew it from San Francisco to Missouri. And I was of course current. I offered to fly it for free, except expenses of course. And being a mechnic, offered to do a prebut. I'm not a CFI but offered to help the guy re-transition back to "real" flying ;). He was a retired airline pilot, and don't get me started on those!!! Who hadn't flown a Champ in 40 years. Eventually he decided to go get it himself. He ground looped it 4 times on the way home, doing considerable damage. He fried the little C-90 engine by overleaning it on the way home to boot. I just laughed, he spent another 20K to fix his screw ups and the plane was a POS to start with, so I would have left it there and used the return ticket to come home. He flew it a few hours after that, and it's now rotting in a hangar, unflown. Can't fix stupid!
 
He was a retired airline pilot, and don't get me started on those!!!

I've had a few glider transition students with that backround and I know what you mean. It seems really tough to get back to real stick and RUDDER flying if you haven't done it in a long time and you are past 50.

Don't get me started is right.

MM
 
Yeh, I have met a lot of them coming back to small airplanes after retirement, and you're better off to just ignore them. The best part of the Champ ordeal was I could see it in his eyes before he left, he didn't have the balls to say it, but his eyes said "what are you gonna teach me kid?". I still see him occasionally, and he won't even look me in the eyes now. LOL! I don't pretend to know what buttons to push to make the 747 he was flying shoot a Cat III approach, but this "kid" might show him a thing or two about the stick and rudder skills he left behind when you joined the airline! They are amusing if nothing else.

I do have 1 retired airline friend who is not like that, and he's the only one I know. He's 88, has a pacemaker and a 3rd class medical. He retired flying the 707 and they were still new!! He has a Cub, Super Cub, Beech Travelair, and just finished restoring a Fairchild 22 he's had since the 50's. I hope he lives to be 120!!
 
That's I guy I'd like to meet. Wow. I really admire people like that who keep going. Hope I live to 120!

I do have 1 retired airline friend who is not like that, and he's the only one I know. He's 88, has a pacemaker and a 3rd class medical. He retired flying the 707 and they were still new!! He has a Cub, Super Cub, Beech Travelair, and just finished restoring a Fairchild 22 he's had since the 50's. I hope he lives to be 120!![/quote]
 
Believe me, if you meet no other person, you need to meet Jon Weiss once in your life. He's something else. Not only does he still love to fly, he still loves working on them. Last summer he had some health problems and we were all wondering if this was it, and if he'd finish and fly the Fairchild before he died. Not only did he finish and fly it, he got bored. He bought a J-3 that needed some work just to have something else to do!!
He still has the twinkle of a child in his eyes when he's around airplanes. When I was in high school and being an airport bum, he pointed at me and told me, "Don't do ANYTHING you don't love doing, I never have." I think about that a lot and that's one reason why I'm on my own now and not working for ungratefull A-holes. He's one in a million.
 
Ok, so all I gotta do is get my carcass to Cuba Mo and you'll introduce me to Jon?

PT13Pilot said:
Believe me, if you meet no other person, you need to meet Jon Weiss once in your life. He's something else. Not only does he still love to fly, he still loves working on them. Last summer he had some health problems and we were all wondering if this was it, and if he'd finish and fly the Fairchild before he died. Not only did he finish and fly it, he got bored. He bought a J-3 that needed some work just to have something else to do!!
He still has the twinkle of a child in his eyes when he's around airplanes. When I was in high school and being an airport bum, he pointed at me and told me, "Don't do ANYTHING you don't love doing, I never have." I think about that a lot and that's one reason why I'm on my own now and not working for ungratefull A-holes. He's one in a million.
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wait, chris - you are at Cuba? Matt Sawhill and I stopped there for gas in his 140 last year on our way to Memphis. Whats the name of the old guy who is airport manager there again? He was a pretty nice guy. Nice airport.
 
I live in Cuba, but my hangar is at Rolla National (VIH or KVIH depending on your GPS). Tony, you're thinking about Fred Goodwin probably, he runs Cuba and has a Champ. He's a good guy as well. They always have cheap 100LL at Cuba, I think they are 3.65ish right now, haven't been by lately.
And Jon Weiss is at Rolla National as well. He's not out as much in the winter, but come spring time he's there on weekends and whenever else he decides to show up!
Maybe we'll have to do a barbeque or something out there this spring.
 
PT13Pilot said:
I live in Cuba, but my hangar is at Rolla National (VIH or KVIH depending on your GPS).
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I remember landing at Cuba years ago and giving FSS a PIREP from the old phone booth at the airport...told them I could hear thunder from the phone booth. The storms chased us up to Sullivan that day.

We fly to see family that lives near Rolla but we used to land at Downtown in the past. The family moved northwest of Rolla so we may land at VIH from now on. Maybe we'll run into you there. :)
 
chris - a spring bbq sounds like a great idea. Ill have some students looking for XC destinations by then.
 
tonycondon said:
chris - a spring bbq sounds like a great idea. Ill have some students looking for XC destinations by then.
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And hopefully some of my glider students will be looking at xc destinations too.
 
based on the way your former glider students (me!) fly glider XC's they'll be lucky to make it past Des Moines!
 
tonycondon said:
based on the way your former glider students (me!) fly glider XC's they'll be lucky to make it past Des Moines!
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I laughed out loud when I read that! I'll race you, Tony. Just turn the McCready down a notch from Matt's normal setting, and you'll stay in the air instead of the normal outcome.

Chris, glad to have you on the forum. Sounds like we need to fly down there to say hello when the wx improves a little.

I'd love to get the contact info for whoever owns those DC-3s.
 
foka4 said:
I laughed out loud when I read that! I'll race you, Tony. Just turn the McCready down a notch from Matt's normal setting, and you'll stay in the air instead of the normal outcome.
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ive tried pushing and going fast, or wallowing slowly. It doesnt make a difference, 10-20 miles just seems to be my personal distance limit. Next summer maybe I'll try stopping to thermal instead of waiting for that 800 fpm boomer to 10k feet.
 
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