close call with a waco biplane

i was at a flyin last saturday where i was parked in the middle of the field. when a waco was ready to taxi out he was facing me about 50 ft away. we all watching as he taxied straight ahead, saw my plane about 10 ft from it, stopped 5 ft from it. how things can change in a moment. i will always try to park a the outer edge of the field in the future. it is nice to still have a complete flying plane.

Idea

turbo said:

i was at a flyin last saturday where i was parked in the middle of the field. when a waco was ready to taxi out he was facing me about 50 ft away. we all watching as he taxied straight ahead, saw my plane about 10 ft from it, stopped 5 ft from it. how things can change in a moment. i will always try to park a the outer edge of the field in the future. it is nice to still have a complete flying plane.

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I've gotten the idea (and I might do it) next time I go to a fly-in I might rig up a "dune-buggy" style whip antenna with a red flag on it. Could probably make a 10 footer out of a telescoping (or collapsing) tent pole.

Offroaders have been doing this for many years. In an environment where a careless or incompetent pilot might kill me on the ground, it could be cheap insurance.

Just a thought.

And be glad they stopped - recall the beating that Black Magic took earlier this year from a Cessna....

greg

Almost

You almost joined the ranks of Black Magic.

With all these people putting cameras on their planes and submitting videos, you'd think someone would invent a solution for all these taildraggers

TV

srv said:

With all these people putting cameras on their planes and submitting videos, you'd think someone would invent a solution for all these taildraggers

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I flew a Waco YMF-5 that had a video system installed to make a recording for the paying passengers. There were 3 cameras and a small flat screen monitor in the cockpit. It could be used to see forward, but it put you head-down in the cockpit. The bottom line in any old school tail wheel aircraft, with zero forward vision, is the need to S-turn and keep your head on a swivel.

John Clark
RV8 N18U "Sunshine"
KSBA

AGH!!!!!!!!!!! That gave me flashbacks.

Seems we can park them in the middle of nowhere and they are like magnets



Glad the guy hit the brakes instead of using your trusty bird as a braking device.

Go with Doug and go pink!! You guys really think I'm going to paint my new pink cowl black................just might go with the new paint job...hum Pink Panther or Black Magic....

Seriously, I feel for you. Glad all turned out fine.

You can't use Pink Panther....Rozendaal had that one for a long time with his pink RV4- sort of fit him too!

Glad you didn't get hit, but at least if you'd have gotten hit by a Waco it would have been a cool plane, not some piece of garbage non-maintained worthless uninsured jump plane like Dana sucked up!

Cheers,
Stein

BlackRV7 said:

AGH!!!!!!!!!!! That gave me flashbacks.

Seems we can park them in the middle of nowhere and they are like magnets

Glad the guy hit the brakes instead of using your trusty bird as a braking device.

Go with Doug and go pink!! You guys really think I'm going to paint my new pink cowl black................just might go with the new paint job...hum Pink Panther or Black Magic....

Seriously, I feel for you. Glad all turned out fine.

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Ugggh, I think you should have a put a "WARNING: DISTURBING IMAGES" label on your post.

SteinAir said:

You can't use Pink Panther....Rozendaal had that one for a long time with his pink RV4- sort of fit him too!

Cheers,
Stein

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Hey now!!! I resemble that.... I never thought about the pink on the panther being a repellant.... It attracted lots of young kids.... and some of them came with their young moms... My standard response to them, the kids, was "what do you want to do when you grow up?" Invariably they would say, "Fly!" and then I would reply, "Sorry son, but you can't do both."

Then the young mother gives me a look, grabs her child and scurries off with great haste....

Seriously,

This is a huge problem flying blind airplanes. There was a comment in this thread about incompetent... This can happen to ANYBODY! I live in frear of this kind of acccident. Remember the TBM Oshkosh accident. Nobody is more careful than the TBM pilot involved in that accident.

I nearly chewed up a 182 with my 195 because it pulled out of a hangar row when I was turned the other way S turning.

I nearly ran over a Stinson this summer flying the Super Corsair at an Airshow this summer. I am very careful and witnesses said it slipped infront of me when I was turned toward it and could not see.

This can happen to anybody and we ALL need to be extra vigilant and especially careful at airshows and flyins where there is lots of traffic and people get in a hurry.

Tailwinds,

Doug Rozendaal
former pink panther driver

Umm, NTSB report differs.

B25Flyer said:

This is a huge problem flying blind airplanes. There was a comment in this thread about incompetent... This can happen to ANYBODY! I live in frear of this kind of acccident. Remember the TBM Oshkosh accident. Nobody is more careful than the TBM pilot involved in that accident.

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From the NTSB report:

He reported that he never saw the airplane that he hit while he was taxiing.
Witnesses reported that the Avenger pilot did not make any "S-turns" while taxiing.

According the NTSB, the pilot only had 16 hours in make and model.

Full synopsis of the accident at: http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20060804X01093&key=1

Just MHO.

The reason why he did not S turn is because that taxiway is too narrow, further the airplane ahead of him had Tundra written on the top wing in big letters. He dropped back far enough that he could see it over the nose and the RV pulled in between them when they passed the fightertown/RVtown taxiway.

16 hrs in type had nothing to do with it, he has hundreds of hours of T/W warbird time.

Anybody who flies blind T/W Airplanes and believes for a second that this accident could never happen to them is dreaming. It is a huge risk that requires constant effort to mitigate, but make no mistake, you can't eliminate it, unless you stick with trikes.

Tailwinds,
DougR

srv said:

With all these people putting cameras on their planes and submitting videos, you'd think someone would invent a solution for all these taildraggers

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The correct solution is to look before you get in the plane, look before and during taxi and to do constant s turns to be able to look down the side. Several of the camera installs have in cockpit monitors to help look directly ahead.

Nearly Ran Over by a Waco too...

I was nearly ran over by a YMF a couple of years ago in my Bucker. He was not able to S turn due to narrow taxiway and obstructions. I was sideways on the taxiway running up behind two other's who where also with our group. He simply lost track of me and thought I was farther down the taxiway. He saw me last second and jumped all over the brakes. He went onto his nose, hit the prop just right and the prop sent him back on his tail instead of flipping him on top of me. He was so close I had pieces of asphalt on top of my wings. I had an impressive view....
He did not hesitate and it saved my life. A very high time experienced pilot who paid dearly for his mistake but nobody got hurt. Trashed prop, engine, bent fuselage, dented cowling, and a year and half to get back in the air.
He was my friend and still is. Accidents happen even to the best and most experienced. Just one of those things and lucky not to be a statistic.

Me too

JonJay said:

He saw me last second and jumped all over the brakes. He went onto his nose, hit the prop just right and the prop sent him back on his tail instead of flipping him on top of me. Just one of those things and lucky not to be a statistic.

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Almost had an AT6 eat my Tailwind for lunch(with me in it) I was holding to cross an active runway and heard the sound of prop to asphalt behind me. He was also a high time pilot and not at all happy with himself. The T6 engine/ prop was just overhauled. But I am very happy he did finaly see me!