by Nick Anderson | Aug 10, 2023 | Plane Tales
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Marvin and Rebecca’s first two flights of the day were cancelled due to high winds at Newark so they both waited in the crew room until their company dispatch released them for flight 3407 at 6pm, 4 and a half hours after their initial report time. Certainly for Rebecca, it had been a long time since she had done more than nap in a chair. Their flight to Buffalo was due to take 53 minutes and they were carrying 45 passengers which, along with their two cabin attendants meant that they had 49 souls onboard their Q400 aircraft. The pilots’ performance was likely impaired because of fatigue but to what extent could not be conclusively determined. However, they boiled down to the flight crew’s failure to monitor airspeed, the flight crew’s failure to adhere to sterile cockpit procedures, the Captain’s failure to effectively manage the flight and Colgan Air’s inadequate procedures for airspeed selection, management during approaches in icing conditions and training. This is the story of Colgan Air Flight 3407.
A Bombardier Q400
The SAAB 340
The DH Dash 8
Examples of wing icing
Stills from the NTSB accident report
Stills from the NTSB accident report
Stills from the NTSB accident report
The wreckage of Flight 3407
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Lord of the Wings, Bill Abbott, Steve Fitzgerald, NASA and the NTSB.
by Nick Anderson | Aug 6, 2023 | Plane Tales
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With thanks to listener Sam Dawson who has such interesting relatives and to Betty Goerke, the author of a book about Baz Bagby, A Broken Propeller. I am pleased to present the story of Sam Dawson’s Great Uncle Baz.
Stunt pilot Lincoln Beachey at Niagara
The 1st Aero Squadron
Early Aerial Reconnaissance
The 88th Aero Squadron
General Billy Mitchell
The start of the Great Transcontinental Air Race
Great Uncle Baz
Images under creative commons licence with thanks to the Library of Congress, the USAAC, the USAF, the RFC, the US Army, the National Archives and SADSM.
by Nick Anderson | Aug 4, 2023 | Plane Tales
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The continuation of my log book tales, otherwise known as RAF Form 414, and we are up to Volume 20. Apart from other asides, this tale deals with my accidental overflight of a very secret satellite surveillance base run by the Australians and the CIA!
Overflying Uluru (Ayres Rock)
My arrival at Alice Springs airport
My ‘circumnavigation’ of Australia
My aircraft being impounded on arrival at RAAF Pearce
Seeing my father at the 1881 Resturant
The Great Australian Bight
Passing through RAAF Edinburgh
Looking back through the fins
Heading home to Williamtown
Images under creative commons licence with thanks to Myself, Nachoman-au and Google Earth.
by Nick Anderson | Aug 3, 2023 | Plane Tales
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The DC-10 was McDonnell Douglas’s first commercial airliner project since the merger between McDonnell Aircraft Corporation and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. It started life on the drawing boards as a 4 engined, double decked, wide body airliner that could carry 550 passengers but morphed into single deck, three engined aircraft that could carry one passenger short of 400! In what was expected to be a knockout blow to the competing Lockheed L-1011, the President of American Airlines and James McDonnell of McDonnell Douglas announced American Airlines’ intention to acquire the DC-10. Flight 96 was en route between Detroit and Buffalo when, above the city of Windsor in Ontario whilst climbing through 11,750 ft the flight crew heard a distinct thud and dirt and debris flew up from the cockpit floor into their faces. On inspection it was obvious that the rear cargo door had detached from the aircraft. This is the story of the DC-10 cargo door issue and the engineer who tried to warn the company of the dire problem.
The 4 Engined Douglas Proposal
The DC-10
The Cargo Door
The Cargo Door of Flight 96
The Accident Report of Turkish Airlines Flight 981
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the SDASM archives, the Douglas Aircraft Corp, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, the FAA and the DOT AIB.
by Nick Anderson | Apr 20, 2023 | Plane Tales
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Telling the tale of my flying career, I left you at the end of my F/A18 conversion course as we reformed the No 77 Royal Australian Air Force Squadron with their brand new Hornets. So far our one and only aircraft A21-5 was being shared around and everyone wanted a piece of it, either to fly or learn how to fix it. The squadron execs were pretty busy dealing with the job of getting the new squadron personnel squared away so the rest of us got more than our share of flying. There wasn’t much we could do with a single jet but I was happy just to play with a multi million dollar toy and get used to my new home.
The M61A Vulcan Cannon
The ‘Pig’ Australian F111
My route around Australia
Mt Isa
Arriving at Darwin
Uluru through the HUD
Pine Gap
Alice Springs
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Peter Gronemann, General Dynamics, Fhrx, and Google Maps.
by Nick Anderson | Apr 16, 2023 | Plane Tales
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Hawaii became the most recent state to join the union in 1959 and is now the third wealthiest. Following it’s annexation, Hawaii became an important naval base for the US Navy so it is hardly surprising that they should be the first to attempt a flight from the US mainland to the island. Aviation had already arrived at the islands in 1910 courtesy of Bud Mars, the Curtiss Daredevil.
The Hawaiian Archipelago
The annexation of Hawaii
J C Mars
Commander John Rodgers
Rodgers in the Wright Flyer
The PN9 flying boat
Rodgers and his crew survive to be welcomed into Hawaii
The Atlantic-Fokker C-2 Tri-motor
Atlantic-Fokker C-2 “Bird of Paradise” arrival in Hawaii
The start of the Dole Air Race
In all, six aircraft were lost or damaged beyond repair and ten lives lost.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Google Map Images, Bain News Service, Harris and Ewing, the Library of Congress, Hawaii Aviation, the USAF and the SDASM.
Images under Creatiove Commons licence with thanks to
