G-WIZZ beach landing
 

Fairly neat self-amputation of the tail boom, imagine it's rebuildable. One of the very early out of sequence registrations as I recall, before they became endemic.

I'm sure I flew in that when it was a Baron. Anyone know what happened to the original?

Pulse, the Baron is G-WWIZ, now G-GAMA. WIZZ was always a Jet Ranger first registered in December '77.

I'm told that the Baron-to-JetRanger conversion mod is very tricky and not really cost-effective to do,

My 82nd birthday is a bit late to discover that I am slightly dyslexic! Thanks for the correction.

Strange - cos I was sure I had flown that Baron as well........... ( not dyslexic that I know off )

Okay total thread drift, but while we're transposing aircraft registrations anyway, old story...

Back in the later '80's, I arranged for my old friend Bill Loverseed to borrow a friend's Piper Aztec for his instrument renewal. Bill had left the employ of dehavilland, and thus had less access to airplanes for local rides. My friend Max owned Aztec C-GVVV. So I told Bill to jump in on the apron in the morning, and familiarize himself, as he was not experienced on Aztecs. Ride in the early afternoon. I met Bill for lunch. He expressed gratitude for my arranging the loan of the airplane, but then asked me, "do you not know the difference between an Aztec, and a Beechcraft Baron?". "Sure I do Bill, why are you asking?". "Because VVV is a Baron, not an Aztec!". "No, VVV is an Aztec, I've flown it lots!". So we quickly finished our FBO lunch, and Bill took me to show me that VVV was a Baron. Indeed, it was! C-FVVV was a Baron, parked two planes down from C-GVVV, the Aztec. He'd actually walked past Aztec C-GVVV to get to Baron C-FVVV. Both had unlocked cabin doors. Bill had now only a few minutes to get familiar with the Aztec, as the examiner was minutes away! He passed the ride.

Bill never again challenged my knowledge of types. Many years later, while driving through a distant town, a car license plate in a McDonalds parking lot caught my eye, "C-GVVV". I had to stop and see if Max was there. Sure enough, sitting having a burger, there was Max. He'd long since sold the Aztec, and given up flying, and we had a great chat anyway!

The last Bell 206 I flew was C-GGAZ, (though we still put jet fuel in it!). Back to chatting about an unfortunate helicopter event....

Poor old Bill, his was a sad ending... I recall that he ferried Len Morgan's Cessna 172 to the UK for its new owner - Len wrote a beautiful article in Flying about his time with the aircraft.

Excellent story, Pilot DAR! I used to take to the skies in a then-new 152, the registration of which was N757WW. She was known in KSSI, KJAX, and KSAV as "Double Shot". Would that I were left seat on a beautiful autumn day like this one!

Apologies for thread drift.

- Ed

Indeed (continued thread drift, apologies). I did visit Ashburton, walk into the field, and think of Bill and Mic (whom I also knew well). I flew over to Farnborough in the Buffalo as a passenger with Bill during my DHC days, and went for the show demo flight in it with him two days before that accident. Following his departure from DHC, Bill and I did a lot of sailing, and flying together, including a couple of Transatlantic ferries, and a Twin Otter delivery to Lesotho. We sailed a number of times from Bosham, near his home at Selsey, when he moved back to England. For one summer, I positioned airplanes to him in Bangor Maine, so he could ferry them onward to England. One a week, I'd meet him in Bangor most Saturdays, when he was taking the plane I'd dropped off the week earlier. When he crashed in Labrador, I flew there right away to get him sorted out as much as possible for his return to England, where he convalesced for some time. But Bill always had a smile, and a great story, RAF, Red Arrows, USAF, and demo trips with DHC. I could (and did) listen to his stories forever....

G-WIZZ down 15/10/21
 

Reported on Aviation Safety Network, Forced landing after engine failure, tail boom severed on landing. 3POB, no injuries.

Is that the one that used to be Mark Thatcher's?

Found it and gotta share it...

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...D8Q6AF6BAgCEAI

Bugger all to do with the G-WIZZ prang but...

(In my opinion Len Morgan was Flying's greatest ever asset...)

Great article! Thanks! That sure brings back memories. That was not one of the planes I positioned for him, as I remember the "hurricane". It made news here in Canada, and Bill phoned me a few days later anyway. I had spliced a rope bridal for his sailboat while moored in Bosham harbour. Bill's boat (being Canadian in origin) lacked the big bollard just forward of the mast. I remember the harbour master stopping along as I was splicing, and more or less saying that it would never hold. I explained the for the absence of the typical bollard, it was all I could do. The harbour master muttered, and continued along. Bill told me that his was one of very few boats which was not ripped from the mooring, and blown inland.

Bill had home "Super 8" movies of his ferrying the Hunters to India. Beautiful formation movie of his buddy flying a nice curved approach, flaps coming down, gear coming down, crossing the threshold, and nicely touching down to a gentle roll out and turn off. "Bill", I asked. "You took the movies?", "Yes", "well, who was flying?", "I was... I just stayed formed up on him, and did what he did.". He was an amazing pilot!

Sorry about the thread drift, but the Bell 206 seems handled, and I've been delighting in the memories!

Must have been a pretty heavy landing to do that to the boom! The 206 must be the easiest helicopter to do an EOL!

Until you still have an armful of pitch and get retreating blade stall as the rotor slows. Difference between practice and reality? I have seen some very experienced pilots and instructors chop tail booms off and wonder why.

Sorry, this will need some explaining. It's not a condition I would usually associate with blade stall.
There are several reasons why a tail and blade may meet during a forced landing, never heard it attributed to retreating blade stall before.
Retreating blade stall during an auto is definitely a new one for me, so will go fetch the notebook so long.

My guess would be a slight bounce on initial landing - there is a gap in the marks in the sand - which prompted a big handful of aft cyclic which took off the tail.

You would be aiming for almost zero speed on touchdown on sand - which it looks like he almost achieved.

Frankly, since they walked away - it's a job well done.

PS - and another situation where the engine in a single lost power leading to a forced landing:E