Plane lands on highway in TN....pilot killed

[Cutlass1287]

Just saw it on Fox News, plane lands on highway 40 in TN, pilot killed, cant find the story anywhere on the internet.

 

[Spooky 1]

Hellcat

Planes of Fame Hellcat. Not sure where that operation is based?

 

[Cutlass1287]

I wish the media would hurry up and get something online

 

[erj-145mech]

Planes of Fame is based in Chino, California, article is from the Nashville, TN, The Tennessean:

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051009/NEWS01/510090390/1006

 

[Spooky 1]

Pilots last name was Vance.

 

[Moonfly201]

The weather in that part of TN was low, and deteriorating at the time of the crash. If it wasn't an aircraft problem, my bet would be scud running over the interstate towards better weather further west of the mountains, and hitting a power line.

AWG and total speculation. But not an unusual event in this part of the country.

 

[erj-145mech]

That would be my best guess too. The ceilings here in TYS weren't too stellar. From what I've read, he was enroute from Sevierville to Little Rock for an airshow appearance.

 

[YourNameHere]

Here it is...

http://www.newschannel5.com/content/news/14904.asp

 

[Snakum]

my bet would be scud running over the interstate towards better weather further west of the mountains, and hitting a power line

Wow ... having driven a lot in that part of the state, the idea of having to thread the mountains in a scud run is terrifying. He must have really been out of options.

God speed, pilot.

Minh

 

[Skyline]

Sad

It is a sad thing that the pilot died but these confederate air force and rich guys are steadily crashing our national heritage. I would like it much better if these things were firmly tied down in a museum.

Skyline

 

[EagleRJ]

It is a sad thing that the pilot died but these confederate air force and rich guys are steadily crashing our national heritage. I would like it much better if these things were firmly tied down in a museum.

Skyline

How quickly things change when it comes to warbirds!

As recently as 30 years ago, WWII-era aircraft were being removed from storage at Davis-Monthan AFB and melted down, turned into radio-controlled target drones, or just parked on a target range and strafed back into spare parts. Many of the aircraft in private ownership were sitting derelict in back lots and hangers, and there was no financial justification to get them back into the air. As the number of flyable aircraft grew fewer and fewer, the market price of some models grew from $10,000 to $50,000 to $200,000 to $500,000 over the course of 20 years, and suddenly even wrecks in remote jungles in Indonesia became candidates for restoration.
These days, aircraft like the Lockheed P-38 fetch more than one million dollars for a flyable example. Just 30 years ago, drag racers were buying them as surplus for $5000, taking the Allison engines out, and selling the rest for scrap. I guess you would call that a bad investment decision!

As anyone who has ever been to an airshow can attest, these aircraft are still impressive in the air, even 60 years after defeating Nazism and Japanese Imperialism. Seeing them in the air helps current generations understand the sacrifices our parents and grandparents made during WWII. These aircraft were built to fly, not sit gathering dust in a museum. There are plenty of airframes that are pulling museum duty, but for those that are flyable, I say keep them flying! The only time we should consider grounding a particular type for good is when there are only one or two examples remaining.

Organizations like the Commemorative Air Force, Valient Air Command, Planes of Fame, etc. are doing a tremendous job keeping these aircraft available for the public to see in their natural element. Restoring a warbird to flight can involve tens of thousands of man-hours of work, and maintaining them takes many, many hours of work for every hour of flight. Most of the work is provided by volunteers, some of whom worked on the planes during the war!

 

[NookyBooky]

It is a sad thing that the pilot died but these confederate air force and rich guys are steadily crashing our national heritage. I would like it much better if these things were firmly tied down in a museum.

Skyline

If it wasn't for these "rich guys," there would be absolutely zero flying examples and very, very few tied down in museums. Furthermore, very few people would give a hoot about the whole concept of "warbirds" and the story they represent, because nobody, except for those who saw them flying when the Department of War was footing the bill, could have whitnessed them firsthand.


If it weren't for dedicated and generous benefactors such as the Maloneys, Allens, Browns, and Hintons of the world, there is no way you or I could have have ever whitnessed a flying Hellcat, Corsair, Bearcat, Tigercat, etc. in person.....no way at all except for staring at the caged hanger queens at the Smithsonian.

But, then again, they're rich. So, everything is they're fault right?



Mr. Art Vance, godspeed and thank you for the shows,





NB

 

[NookyBooky]

http://www.napanet.net/~arbeau/usaah/quotes.htm

 

[Skyline]

Stacked up

National Heratage

At the rate these things are getting stacked up it will only be a short time before they are all gone. I have never seen a Hellcat in person. It would a sad sad day if we were down to one. I have never seen an avenger either. Two years or so ago two guys crashed a one of a kind Hinkel in WY. Usually the pilots are low time millionaires who can afford more plane than they can Handel. To me it would be like burning down historical buildings because we wanted to see how the old fireplaces worked. I know they can fly. There is plenty of movie footage of that. I also know that they can crash and we are building up a growing inventory of movies of how well rare old planes can burn at airshows. We are past the point of having to save them from the scrap heap now we need to save then from their saviors. I think it would be a crime to let them all be destroyed one at a time. Even though they are privately owned these relics are a national treasure and should be protected like historical buildings.

Skyline

 

[Moonfly201]

keep'em flying

I'm with EagleRJ. Until the world is down to a couple of museum quality samples ... keep'em flying. Tens of thousands more people see them at airshows than will ever visit a museum. Just hearing the sound they create during a low-pass at an airshow makes it all worthwhile.

 

[erj-145mech]

There's a difference between seeing an aircraft fly and watching a movie of an airplane flying. Watching the fire and smoke breathing machine spring to life and feeling the vibrations in your torso is as much a part of flight as the visual image.

I love the smell of burnt sixty wieght in the morning. Nothing smells like an R-2800 firing up. You don't get that in a museum or a big screen.

I personally know 50-60 C A F pilots, and other vintage aircraft pilots, and each one has a job to go to, mortgage and car notes, and are just working stiffs. They consider themselves "rich" because of what they get to do on weekends. They fly airliners, fix airplanes, sell insurance, work in offices, are retired from some mundane everyday job, but they all look forward to the weekend when they can do something that they love.

Beleive it or not, aviation is more than showing up at an airport, taking your shoes off at a TSA checkpoint, throwing your travel pro into the bin and doing a walk-around. There is more to the joys of flight than moving 150 people to their destinations.

I'm glad that the Skylines in this country are few and far between. The romance of aviation is not dead in most aviators.

 

[NJA Capt]

I have never seen a Hellcat in person.

I have never seen an avenger either.

Usually the pilots are low time millionaires

Skyline

You must not go to too many air shows. I have seen plenty of TBMs and even seen a very nice Hellcat. There are approx 5 "flyable" P51s within 100nm of my house. Most are flown by former/current airline pilots. Nothing beats the sound of a P51 flying over....as it should be. Not collecting dust in some museum. What took the toll on the warbirds was not the "rich guys." It was the rich guys that thought it would be "cool" to take the Merlin engines and put them in the racing boats…which would be sunk in rivers and lakes around the world. Or the guys that butcher up perfectly good fighters so they can race around in the desert (something we never see on the east coast).

Or perhaps the years of using PBYs, B17s, TBMs A26s, T6s, PV2s, etc as fire bombers/spotters.

When compared to the risky behavior above, the "rich guy" maintaining a flyable example and flying it A to B so others can see it at a show is pretty "low risk."

Keep'em Flying!!!! But don't scud run through the mountains....(hopefully that is not what he was doing )

 

[USMCmech]

Usually the pilots are low time millionaires who can afford more plane than they can Handel.

Not true.

Getting an LOA for one of these warbirds is not an easy task. The CAF has VERY stringent rules about who gets to fly them. Most of the members of the CAF squadron that I visit sometimes are average working pilots and mechs.

The millionare part may be true, but if it wern't for them NOBODY would be able to see ANY of these classics. They would all be scrap metal by now. Running these machines is extreamly expensive, and it takes a lot of money and time to do.


Despite these ocasional crashes, the number of flyable warbirds has increased steadily over recent years.

 

[mtrv]

National Heratage

Usually the pilots are low time millionaires who can afford more plane than they can Handel.Skyline

Considering I actually know many pilots who fly WWII restored aircraft, as well as those who restore them

I can say as fact, that most are anything but low time! The majority are present/ex commercial, military, or perhaps spent a good part of their life crop dusting.

And, has already been said-----------------
NOTHING beats the sound of Merlin powered P-51 flying overhead!!!!!!!

 

[Skyline]

Well

Warbird

Low time or not they do have an impressive crash record. I mean two or three get destroyed every year. It is almost a given that within a few hundred hours of restoration it will end up as a pile of ashes. It is a crime. We are robbing future generations of what rightfully belongs to all of us. I don't need to see them fly to know they can. I also don't need to fly it myself and shoot down a zero just to have a WW2 experience. Twenty years from now after the CAF has crashed their last DC3 we will all realize what we have lost. It will be a shame to have to buy a fist full of airline tickets and cross the country a dozen times to view the last remaining example of whatever is left. I think it is a selfish waste and I hope it stops soon.

Skyline