Recently I was looking through some photos at Air Britain’s website, and found a pair of images showing a T-34 (US regd.) that spent at least a year in the UK. This being N16JL which was seen at Thruxton in the 70s.
http://www.abpic.co.uk/search.php?q=N16JL&u=reg
The name connected with this Mentor is a Col. Ken Ecclestone of the CAF (a.k.a. The Janitors), but I fail to come up with much info when googling him and the Beech.
Did this T-34 fly much while in the UK, is it still here, went derelict, or what?
My only knowledge of Mentor’s in the UK is limited to David Arnold’s N34AB which he kept during the early 90s. Has there been any other?
T J
By: snafu - 3rd August 2014 at 22:09
One of the AB pictures has a note that it subsequently became N234KC.
Googling N234KC came up with:
In 1955
Constructed as an A45.
BEECH A45 G-789On 12 May 1987
To Cox Kris E, Mccall, ID with c/r N234KC.On 19 February 1997
To Cox Kris E, Groveland, CA with c/r N234KC (T34A, G-789).By 28 September 2003
To unknown owner with c/r N234KC.On 28 September 2003
Involved in an incident.
Summarized NTSB narrative from report number SEA03LA196: Incident occurred at Mccall, ID. There were no fatalities. On September 28, 2003, approximately 1330 mountain daylight time, a beech T-34 (A-45), N234KC, impacted the terrain just short of runway 34 at mccall municipal airport, Mccall, IDaho. The private pilot and his passenger received serious injuries and the aircraft, which is owned and operated by the pilot, sustained substantial damage…http://www.aerialvisuals.ca/AirframeDossier.php?Serial=59059
The NTSB brief report says:
NTSB Identification: SEA03LA196.
The docket is stored in the Docket Management System (DMS). Please contact Records Management Division
Accident occurred Sunday, September 28, 2003 in McCall, ID
Probable Cause Approval Date: 03/30/2004
Aircraft: Beech T-34 (A-45), registration: N234KC
Injuries: 2 Serious.
NTSB investigators may not have traveled in support of this investigation and used data provided by various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.Upon returning to the airport after a local flight, the pilot sequenced himself into the traffic pattern behind an Aviat Husky that was following a De Havilland Beaver. Just after he rolled out on final with his gear down and his flaps retracted for a no-flap landing, the pilot noticed that the Beaver was pulling off of the runway. He therefore continued on final at an airspeed about 10 to 15 knots above the aircraft’s no-flap stall speed. As he neared the runway in calm wind conditions, the pilot concluded that the Husky, which had landed just beyond the threshold, would not be exiting the runway before he touched down. He therefore decided to execute a go-around. As he was adding full power, the aircraft encountered a disturbance most likely created by the Beaver, resulting in the left wing suddenly dropping and the aircraft losing about 50 feet of altitude. As the engine revved to full power, the pilot was able get the wings level and stop the altitude loss, but his remedial action was insufficient to fly out of the disturbance, and almost immediately thereafter the right wing dropped and the aircraft fell another 20 feet onto the terrain.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be:
The inadequacy of the pilot’s remedial action taken in an attempt to fly out of an encounter with the wake vortex turbulence created by a preceding aircraft while on short final to land. Factors include calm winds in the area of the final approach course, and the pilot’s inadvertent encounter with wake vortex turbulence.
http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20031001X01646&key=1
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August 3, 2014 at 5:48 pm