July 22, 20187 yr All survived! By Lew K. Cohn Managing Editor Burnet Bulletin The famed Bluebonnet Belle C47 Skytrain, which assisted in Hurricane Harvey relief efforts and was an integral part of the Highland Lakes Squadron of the Commemorative Air Force, crashed Saturday morning, July 21, at Burnet Municipal Airport's Kate Craddock Field in Burnet while attempting to take off for an air show in Wisconsin. Fourteen people were aboard the Belle, headed for the annual Oshkosh Air Show when the plane left the runway shortly after 9 a.m. Saturday and crashed before catching fire and eventually exploding. Miraculously, all 14 people aboard the craft survived the crash and made it out of the plane before the explosion.
July 22, 20187 yr Yeah saw the video. Not sure if it's the effect of the camera, but the number 1 doesn't seem to be spinning all the fast. Plus it looks like they slid a little to the left side of the runway before going airborne. Whatever the case I'm glad everyone made it out.
July 22, 20187 yr It looks to me as if the external elevator gust lock is still installed. During take-off roll, the elevator can be seen with a slight "up" deflection as it passes the camera and is pushing the tail and tailgear into the ground causing dirt and dust to fly. At this point ,the elevator should be slightly in the "down" position until the tail lifts . With a gust lock installed on a DC-3/C-47 , the elevator is in a slight "up" deflection. The gust lock is to be removed during the preflight walk-around, and all flight controls are to be cycled through complete deflection by aircrew prior to takeoff checklist.
July 22, 20187 yr Wow, a gust lock? I know it's been the cause of accidents before, but still hard to imagine that of all the threats that an airman must consider to safely fly.... It can all come to an end because a single forgotten step in a preflight.
July 22, 20187 yr I'm glad that everyone survived the crash, saddened by the loss of yet another vintage aircraft. My computer: ABS Gladiator Gaming PC featuring an Intel 10700F CPU, EVGA CLC-240 AIO cooler (dead fans replaced with Noctua fans), Asus Tuf Gaming B460M Plus motherboard, 16GB DDR4-3000 RAM, 1 TB NVMe SSD, EVGA RTX3070 FTW3 video card, dead EVGA 750 watt power supply replaced with Antec 900 watt PSU.
July 23, 20187 yr 22 hours ago, wwdavis said: It looks to me as if the external elevator gust lock is still installed. During take-off roll, the elevator can be seen with a slight "up" deflection as it passes the camera and is pushing the tail and tailgear into the ground causing dirt and dust to fly. At this point ,the elevator should be slightly in the "down" position until the tail lifts . With a gust lock installed on a DC-3/C-47 , the elevator is in a slight "up" deflection Maybe. 🙂 I Earned My Spurs in Vietnam
July 23, 20187 yr Two people weren't so lucky. One was taken to San Antonio with severe burns. Another was air-evacuated to a hospital in poor condition. The airfield is not far from our house.
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