Widowmakers
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York
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Those of us who contested your accident numbers were bothered by your fatality number (3,000), not the number of groundloop accidents. From the beginning,we were trying to point out to you that groundloops are pretty much by definition relatively low-speed accidents and therefore eminently survivable. Sort of like those incidents beloved of the nightly news, the gear-up landing...
To return to the original point of this thread, the poster was looking for widowmakers, not wife-embarrassers.
To return to the original point of this thread, the poster was looking for widowmakers, not wife-embarrassers.
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: flyover country USA
Age: 82
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Since most allied pilots flew Texans(Harvards) before graduating to fighters, they had valuable experience in ground handling of heavy, narrow-tread singles; tri-gear trainers were almost nonexistent. So the requisite sensory skills for groundloop avoidance were well developed in the pilot cadre.
But airborne, the trainers could take you for a nice ride if mishandled. The Vultee BT-13/15 and the AT-6 on landing approach would roll you on your back if go-around power were applied too rapidly. So would most fighters.
And Dad and a student were attempting spin recovery in a AT-6 with no success; they had the canopy open, starting to go over the side when the ship recovered on its own. Dad grounded the ship from student use; it was thereafter used only for instructor requalification. It would qualify as a widowmaker.
But airborne, the trainers could take you for a nice ride if mishandled. The Vultee BT-13/15 and the AT-6 on landing approach would roll you on your back if go-around power were applied too rapidly. So would most fighters.
And Dad and a student were attempting spin recovery in a AT-6 with no success; they had the canopy open, starting to go over the side when the ship recovered on its own. Dad grounded the ship from student use; it was thereafter used only for instructor requalification. It would qualify as a widowmaker.
