Taken from
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Mock Combat Turns Deadly Over Texas
T-34 Loses Wing In Possible Collision
> It’s not uncommon to
> look up in the skies over Lake Conroe (TX), north of Houston, and
> see a pair of T-34s twisting and turning in mock combat. But when
> retired corporate pilot Jim Lebus looked up from his golf game
> Wednesday afternoon, he was horrified. He saw a wing separate from
> one of the two aircraft.
>
> “It just came off,” he said. “The plane started spiraling down,
> down and the wing was fluttering down behind it.”
>
> One of the Texas Air Aces aircraft impacted the ground about 20
> yards from a highway, killing the two people on board. The
> separated wing landed in a field nearby. The second aircraft landed
> safely at Hooks Memorial Airport in northwestern Harris County
> shortly after the incident.
>
> Dead are 39-year-old
> William Eisenhauer of Centerville (OH) and 64-year-old Donald Wylie
> from Montgomery (TX). Wylie is a former USAF F-4 and B-52 pilot. He
> founded Texas Air Aces in 1992. The company sells simulated combat
> flights featuring lasers instead of machine guns.
>
> Three years after establishing Texas Air Aces in Spring (TX),
> Wylie (pictured right, standing next to actor and AST graduate
> Harrison Ford) came up with another venture. Aviation Safety
> Training helps experienced pilots cope in unusual attitude
> situations. AST has received wide recognition as a vital
> contributor to accident avoidance.
>
> Eisenhaur, the second pilot aboard the downed T-34 was a 15-year
> flying veteran, according to the Houston Chronicle. His brother,
> Chuck, told the newspaper his brother “was just one of those guys
> who loves to fly. He was doing what he loved to do. His eyes just
> absolutely lit up over it.” William Eisenhauer was reportedly
> employed by Airborne Express. His brother speculated Eisenhauer had
> been in the Houston area on business.
>
> A trio of NTSB investigators was sifting through the crash site
> into the evening.
> Spar Problems?
>
> After the 1999 crash of
> a T-34 during a similar dogfight simulation in Georgia, the NTSB
> reported stress fractures found in the wing spar of the aircraft.
> The FAA issued an AD limiting the speed and G-loads on T-34s. It
> also recommended more frequent wing inspections.
>
> AST’s web site says the company flew six T-34s, all with updated
> engines and Beechcraft Baron wing spars.
> FMI: http://www.airaces.com
>
> For the WHOLE story, go to http://www.aero-news.net/news/sport.cfm?ContentBlockID=d632bd75-9ee9-48a7-beca-a473d5864025&Dynamic=1
By: DOUGHNUT - 21st November 2003 at 08:51
From “Aviation International News”:
Don Wylie, Pioneer Upset Recovery Instructor, Killed in T-34 Crash
Don Wylie, the 64-year-old founder and president of both Aviation Safety
Training and Texas Air Aces, and his passenger, 39-year-old Airborne
Express pilot William Eisenhauer, died yesterday morning when their
Beech T-34 reportedly lost its right wing during upset recovery training
in VMC near Conroe, Texas. AST’s Rick Gillenwaters told “AIN Alerts”
today that, contrary to earlier reports, there was no collision with
another AST T-34 that was accompanying Wylie’s airplane. Witnesses in
that airplane, which returned safely to base, said they saw the right
wing of Wylie’s airplane fail cleanly at the root, according to
Gillenwaters.
The airplane, N44KK, was the same T-34 in which “AIN” contributor Rob
Mark flew with Wylie in the course of preparing the article on upset
training that appears in the current issue of “AIN”. A 1999 crash in
Georgia in which a wing separated from a T-34 during simulated combat
was attributed to stress-related cracks in the wing spar, according to
the NTSB, a weakness that led to the grounding of T-34s used for such
flying pending modifications. Gillenwaters said that N44KK was one of
the AST airplanes that had not yet been modified with strengthened wing
spars, but it had been inspected and deemed fit for upset recovery
training pending modifications, which had been scheduled to be
incorporated in 60 days or so. Texas Air Aces conducts simulated combat
flights. Aviation Safety Training teaches experienced private,
corporate, and airline pilots how to recover from aircraft upsets.
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November 20, 2003 at 12:16 pm