Yeah, John owned the Spitfire….he died with Red in his T-28 about a year later…hence the ‘rough year’ comment about losing these three guys….

Mark

MK. X, great stuff….thanks for finding that…says the airplane was completely destroyed, huh? Unfortunate…some folks I had heard from said the plane looked as though it had belly landed in and the pilot was just sitting in the cockpit, dead…apparently not the case….everything ELSE jives with what I have heard though, that they were scud running and doing stuff with the Spit they should’nt be doing….even Bill Greenwood said they were just running on the main tank which would’ve severely limited the fuel supply, not a good idea in that terrain…

Mark

Bingo, Daz, nail on the head….impressive. Knew you’d come through on this one….so what ever happened to the airframe? John Breit was unfortunately killed a year or two later when the tail of his T-28 came off during some aerobatic maneuvers near Denver, killing a very nice man who was trying to start a warbird collection here in Denver (the Spit 18, a Mustang, C-45, T-28 and a Beech 18 under restoration)….

M

That’s one….and the lady behind him?

M

You’re right…Cavanaugh’s…sorry about that…still early morning here….Lone Star flies the dash 5 model, Cavanaugh has the former Paul Morgan machine that had the belly landing…my bad…changed my above post to make it more accurate. The bummer about that accident last summer was she was just getting ready to depart TX for some event here in Denver….we don’t get Corsairs through these parts that much…but anyway…

More coffee…

Mark

The Corsair suffered the usual damage associated with a belly landing…bent prop, sudden stoppage of the engine, damage to the underside of the fuselage and the ‘bend’ in the wings and the flaps from what I read elsewhere….if the gear were not down I would imagine it has some aft fuselage damage also since the tailwheel would’nt have been down either…reading the WIX board apparently she is in decent shape for a bird her age and some folks there praised how tough Vought made them and how they could be repaired after a landing like this (Cavanaugh’s Corsair suffered a similar belly landing last summer and is still under repair).
Let’s hope she’s not out of the game too long…

Mark

Operative word there, TBY…’Suggested’…did’nt say ‘for sure’ or ‘confirmed’ did I? I said, and I quote “….but word is it was forgetfulness…” thereby implying that we are LEANING towards the pilot having forgotten to lower the gear, but not CONFIRMED yet. I mentioned no pilot’s name other than Ray Kinney’s, and that was because he WAS involved in an incident with the Corsair some years ago (and the CAF P-40 also) and Ray is a friend of mine and a great pilot. The closest I came to NAMING anyone is where I said ‘SOMEONE’…no specifics involved, no names mentioned…I have a good idea who might have made the alledged mistake (if indeed that is what is happened) and I will still not say this person’s name….all I WAS trying to do was inform you lot of an incident with a historic plane and what ALLEDGEDLY went down (literally) on the runway at Las Cruces…
From now on I’ll keep any info I have to pass on to myself and my e-mail circle…and not post it here for all to read. Satisfied?

Mark

Don’t know that I DID slander the pilot…just asked a question that’s all.

M