Look... And Learn
While we must offer our
heart-felt condolences to the poor pilot who now has to face up to
a hefty repair bill, we can't help but be in awe of the amazing
photos that have been generously offered to ANN, to share with
you all. One photo, in particular, shows the Mustang as it made
first contact with the runway... presumably at the very
instant/point of contact. Let's face it... a gear-up landing is a
terrible event, but every one of them should serve as a warning to
all of us that, "there but for the grace of God, go any of us..."
and learn accordingly.
Photographer Richard Kramer tells us that, "I'm not a pilot or
anything, just an enthusiast. I've been attending the annual Quad
City Air Show for many years. I always seem to spend much of the
show watching thru the lens of a camera. Although I take a lot of
pictures and have had fairly good success, I'm also just a photo
enthusiast." The guy may be "just a photo enthusiast," but as the
photos show, he is anything but an amateur.
Richard tells us that, "I'm not a pilot, but a friend of mine
is, so I sent him a copy of the picture and asked what he knew
about it. To give you a little background, this occurred shortly
after I arrived at the QCAS (Quad City Air Show) on 6/7/2003. My 2
yr old granddaughter seems to have a fascination with airplanes and
we decided to take her to the air show for the 2nd time. For some
reason, though, over the past month or so, she has been a little
frightened by loud noises. So, we've been telling her 'It's ok,
it's just noise, it won't hurt you'."
"Well, just after we arrived, I saw this P-51 approaching for
what I first thought was just going to be a low pass. I thought it
was a perfect opportunity to get a couple of good pictures, so I
picked up the camera and got ready. As he got lower, and lower, I
thought he was going to land rather than making a low pass, but I
noticed the landing gear wasn't coming down. As I started shooting,
I thought 'Oh no. I've been telling my grand daughter 'It's ok, it
won't hurt you!'' and now we're about to witness a big fiery crash
right in front of us!' Fortunately, all we heard was the underside
of the plane scraping along the runway and then it slid off into
the grass."
ANN truly appreciates Richard's immense generosity in sharing
this dramatic photographic series with ANN...
** Report created 6/09/2003 Record
43 **
IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: UNK
Make/Model: P51 Description: P-51,
F-51, A-36 Mustang
Date: 06/07/2003 Time: 1540
Event Type: Incident Highest Injury:
None Mid Air: N Missing:
N
Damage: Minor
LOCATION
City: DAVENPORT State: IA Country:
US
DESCRIPTION
ACFT LANDED RWY 15 WITH GEAR UP. ACFT SKIDDED OFF THE WEST
SIDE OF RWY. DAVENPORT ARPT, IA
INJURY DATA Total
Fatal: 0
# Crew: 1 Fat:
0 Ser:
0 Min:
0 Unk:
# Pass: 0 Fat:
0 Ser:
0 Min:
0 Unk:
# Grnd:
Fat: 0 Ser:
0 Min:
0 Unk:
WEATHER: NOT AVAILABLE
OTHER DATA
Activity: Pleasure Phase:
Landing Operation: General
Aviation
Departed: UNKN Dep Date: Dep.
Time:
Destination: DAVENPORT, IA Flt
Plan:
Wx Briefing:
Last Radio Cont: UNKN Last
Clearance:
FAA FSDO: DES MOINES, IA (CE01)
Entry date: 06/09/2003
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