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B-17 "909"


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Looks like the Collings Foundation is gonna be in trouble...

 

From the FAA via WIX forums, falsified mtce records, falsified training records, scheduled checks not completed, spark plug gaps found beyond limits on all four engines, "jury rigged" wiring to the magnetos in the #4 engine...

 

Their authority to carry passengers has been revoked. Now, the lawyers will have a field day I guess...

 

Mark Proulx

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2 hours ago, Mark P said:

Looks like the Collings Foundation is gonna be in trouble...

 

From the FAA via WIX forums, falsified mtce records, falsified training records, scheduled checks not completed, spark plug gaps found beyond limits on all four engines, "jury rigged" wiring to the magnetos in the #4 engine...

 

Their authority to carry passengers has been revoked. Now, the lawyers will have a field day I guess...

 

Mark Proulx

 

Eek!  That's so irresponsible.

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 As a U.S. certificated aircraft mechanic for over 33 years, I have always avoided flying in these types of privately owned aircraft.  In operations that depend on fees and donations to keep an aircraft flying, the first thing that’s sacrificed in tough financial times, wittingly or not, is maintenance.  Aircraft maintenance is EXPENSIVE.  


 

Edited by Juggernut
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What a tragedy all the way around.  

 

I have you beat on the license by 3 years Juggernut!  Lol.   

I also find it hard to manipulate wiring for a magneto for what’s its worth, but......OK.  Why would you even consider doing it?  

 

 

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This is indeed all disappointing, even desastrous and "criminal", and personally i'm looking back at the TF51D flight we (my son and i)  did in january '19 in Florida, felt very comfortable flying in the aircraft, being instructed by David Vopat ( who sadly died in the N-9M crash a few months later.......) and "ofcourse" never had a feeling of incompetence on the account of the organisation, but that is food for thought................

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Why am I not surprised.

there are so many bad players in GA.. I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, but the warbird world is rife with shenanigans.hopefully this doesn’t affect those of us in the warbird world who are working hard to do it right-

 

cheers 

 

Pete

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 Hey Troy,  i have you beat by 4 years, how time flies. Falsifying aircraft maintenance records is  a criminal offense. Flying  and operating high performance a/c is extremely expensive. Doing it correctly is even more so. Not just parts but personel, inspections, ndt, paperwork ect, ect. We should wait for the final report, but it's not going to be good for them or the warbird community. One bad apple... If you ( company, oranization, whatever) can not afford to do it right, you should not be allowed to do it at all. It's not fair for those that correctly operate their business.

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I have a low opinion of the many one- or two-airplane "flying museums" out there these days because so many are always short of money and often operate literally on a wing and a prayer.  There is one at my airport and I had an opportunity to get checked out in one of their airplanes because they needed ferry pilots to take it to airshows and such -- my time, their gas, etc.  But it was easy to decline this choice gig after nosing around their hangar a bit.  The things I saw while rummaging through their "spares" and while watching their volunteer maintainers bang away on their airplanes made me run the other way and never look back.  But I always thought the Collings Foundation was well funded and well managed because their airplanes always looked great whenever I saw them.   Seems to me their bean counters would have to be aware of the enormous liability issues associated with selling rides in these old maintenance hogs and would have kept them focused on dotting I's and crossing T's, so you gotta wonder if maybe this was a 909 specific thing perpetrated by a tired, maybe complacent and aging flight crew who were used to making do to keep their airplane in the air when far from home.  I think the aircraft commander for 909 was highest time B-17 pilot on the planet; he was 75.  While touring FiFi not long ago, I had the chance to talk to the A/C and was surprised to learn that he was 74.  I'm sure both these guys had seen everything there is to see while on tour.  Now, I'm not dumping on old farts because I am one, but decades of experience and a high level of familiarity with a specific airplane can breed complacency to the point that you might one day ask it to do the impossible because it has never let you down before. Whatever the reason, I think the Collings Foundation is toast and that we're soon going to see their entire collection on the auction block.  Too bad, because it didn't have to be that way.

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