35% scale B-29 landing accident, 05/11/23

[treadigraph]

Sad to see that Tom Hodgson's amazing B-29 replica was damaged in a landing accident yesterday at Kokoma, Indiana - worse, it collided with a golf buggy, injuring a female occupant.

The latest I'd heard a couple of months ago, it was doing some engine runs I think, possibly some high speed taxying.

Hope that the injured lady will be OK...

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/347642

[DogTailRed2]

I've often wondered what the rules are for large scale model aircraft. When does a large scale model aircraft become a real aircraft? (yes I know models are real but you get what I mean).
BTW has there ever been a model aircraft fatality at a show?

[FlightlessParrot]

I've often wondered what the rules are for large scale model aircraft. When does a large scale model aircraft become a real aircraft? (yes I know models are real but you get what I mean).
BTW has there ever been a model aircraft fatality at a show?

As far as I can tell, this is a piloted aircraft, so not a model in typical uses of the word.
But it would be interesting to know whether, in various jurisdictions, there are regulatory distinctions between models and UAVs.

[treadigraph]

It is indeed a piloted aircraft and not a radio controlled model.

[blind pew]

Don’t know about a show but there was a father who killed his son and closer to home on two tree island, the southend club, a guy flew his model into his face and was saved from death by another modeller who arrived at the field after the accident although the victim was blinded. Both were during low passes.
In the early helicopter days I would watch between cars but imho ducted fans followed by gas turbine powered scale jets which fly up to 200 mph are far more dangerous. I’ve seen a lot of crashes but far fewer compared to my brother who has french display licenses.

[Jhieminga]

Photo copied from a scale model aircraft forum:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/750x413/c642514c38af1d083e228361ba4b9eab_af683645eda682ca160a70baa08 0c31c72ff2e5c.jpg

[Bksmithca]

As others have mentioned This is not a model and is registered with the FAA. https://registry.faa.gov/AircraftInquiry/Search/NNumberResult?nNumberTxt=N29XB

[treadigraph]

Hopefully lady's injuries not too serious - looking at that pic, the thought of those props v a golf buggy...

A plane crash Sunday afternoon at Glendale Airport injured one.

Police say an “experimental aircraft” flown by Raymond T. Hodgson, of Kokomo, was coming to land at the Glenndale Airport, 3460 S. 400 West, at approximately 1:37 p.m. when the plane drifted off course and struck a golf cart occupied by a woman who was filming the landing.

As a result of the crash, the golf cart rolled over, injuring the woman and knocking her unconscious.

She was flown to an area hospital; the pilot was uninjured, police say.

A Howard County Sheriff’s Office press release Sunday does not provide a name for the injured woman nor does it state the seriousness of her injuries.

The Federal Aviation Administration will be investigating the crash.

[Clandestino]

BTW has there ever been a model aircraft fatality at a show?

ISTR that about two decades ago a couple was killed in Hungary when large scale piston engined model went out of control.

[RatherBeFlying]

Photographers can unfortunately put themselves in too close proximity to aircraft without understanding the hazard. All too often they do not consult with the airfield operator or pilots with the result that pilots can be unaware of photographer presence until it's too late.

Landing on a runway with the threshold just past the road, I spotted a photographer lying in the ditch with precious little room between his head and the nosewheel.

[ATC Watcher]

There was a large article on the aircraft in one of the EAA Sport Aviation magazine some time ago . Looks great , but from the photos visibility for the pilot is very limited, and it looked to me very overpowered
There was a link to a video that show the building process and even a taxi run .: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAWv1rhb8Uw&t=1s
You must have lots of time ( started it in 1994 !) and lots of money to start such a project. and must be devastating to get an accident on one of its first flights

[punkalouver]

ISTR that about two decades ago a couple was killed in Hungary when large scale piston engined model went out of control.

Reminds me of this near disaster. The pictures show you spectators about to either die or be seriously injured by a jet model of the Avro Arrow.

Except that the tail of a T-6 got in the way. After repair, a very small painting of an Arrow aircraft was painted on the tail at the point of impact.

https://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-jets-120/8908289-avro-arrow-crash.html

[treadigraph]

Here's a video of the flight - the accident not included, nor referred to...

https://youtu.be/iZQyTTQLI10?si=e1lFZlMPTuVGRKSW

[Jhieminga]

Looks like it flies well, but I wonder if he got around to testing asymmetric configurations during this first flight. Something that is clear from the video is that there were several people, both on foot and in golf carts, pretty close to what is not a very large runway. From a risk management point of view: not ideal.

[Ohrly]

Is it me, or are the tips of the props very close to the ground? I know it is to scale, but unless the bumps on the runway and the travel on the oleos are 35% scale too it seems a bit risky.

[Jhieminga]

I had that same thought, but on the first part of the video the nose wheel does appear to be behind a bump or perhaps the grass is longer than it seems, so there may be more clearance than we think.

[Bksmithca]

Is it me, or are the tips of the props very close to the ground? I know it is to scale, but unless the bumps on the runway and the travel on the oleos are 35% scale too it seems a bit risky.
ATC Watcher in post 11 has a video with taxi tests being done and at about 2.58 into the video there's a shot of it taxing past the camera location. I'm guessing there's about a foot between the grass and the end of the prop

[IFMU]

The thing that surprises me about that first flight video is the amount of low passes from an unproven airplane. Would seem better to do that sort of thing on a later flight. It may something about the attitudes at play.

Or, maybe I was just too conservative on my own first flight of a proven design, climbing to altitude over the airport to do some evaluation of the airplane before returning for a landing.

[Jhieminga]

According to what I read, he flew for an hour and we're only seeing 10 minutes of that in the video. Carrying out several practice approaches could also be part of the game plan.

[Lake1952]

Retractable gear or fixed?