And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Sunday, January 3, 2021
December 19 1946, a Railway Air Services Douglas DC-3 crashes on take-off in London, Britain.
Yet everyone walked away, so by definition, it was a good landing.
Thanks to a Stall Speed of 58kts, and a landing speed just a little higher than that, it doesn't look like that airframe had much forward V when it hit, and all the "soft compressibles" dissipated the energy very well indeed!...hell, they probably buffed out the scratches, fixed that airframe and I wouldn't be surprised it it was STILL flying today. I love me the DC-3s!
(Don McCollor)...one of my DC3 books notes that there was a baby in a crib looking up at the belly of the airplane. Another was in the US where icing was bad enough that the pilot smashed a side window so he could see to land. There was a delay while the ground crew chipped enough ice off the plane door so they could get it open...
Ernest K Gann wrote about a particularly harrowing experience when deicing boots froze over on him in his classic Fate is the Hunter. In fact the entire book is a rolling series of disasters narrowly averted, some quite narrowly indeed.
An exaggeration anon, the side window opened easily as it slid back and would not ice over. To have to stick your head out to land would mean the alcohol would have run out which means a hell of a long time in the air or the pump failed which is improbable.Chipping ice off the door is pure BS. G-AGZA is not a DC-3 it is a re-purposed C-47.
I guess you could say they stuck the landing.
ReplyDeleteThanks to a Stall Speed of 58kts, and a landing speed just a little higher than that, it doesn't look like that airframe had much forward V when it hit, and all the "soft compressibles" dissipated the energy very well indeed!...hell, they probably buffed out the scratches, fixed that airframe and I wouldn't be surprised it it was STILL flying today. I love me the DC-3s!
ReplyDeleteBut the aircraft could not be reused, so it was not technically an "excellent" landing.
ReplyDeleteWing icing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1946_Railway_Air_Services_Dakota_crash
I'm guessing they didn't have the de-icing chems that they have today, before that take-off!
Delete(Don McCollor)...one of my DC3 books notes that there was a baby in a crib looking up at the belly of the airplane. Another was in the US where icing was bad enough that the pilot smashed a side window so he could see to land. There was a delay while the ground crew chipped enough ice off the plane door so they could get it open...
ReplyDeleteErnest K Gann wrote about a particularly harrowing experience when deicing boots froze over on him in his classic Fate is the Hunter. In fact the entire book is a rolling series of disasters narrowly averted, some quite narrowly indeed.
DeleteAn exaggeration anon, the side window opened easily as it slid back and would not ice over. To have to stick your head out to land would mean the alcohol would have run out which means a hell of a long time in the air or the pump failed which is improbable.Chipping ice off the door is pure BS. G-AGZA is not a DC-3 it is a re-purposed C-47.
Delete