Plane down at Stellar Air Park
- Thread starter CracktheVSI
- Start date
WacoFan
Bigly
Here is the funny part - look at pics of the airplane and tell me where the "N" number is - I can't find it. I guess it would be cool to say the call sign with the "November Hotel" if those were the last initials of your name, but it seems silly to me on a plane were the N number isn't readily visible to change it that many times.
Now, in the Waco's and other vintage machines there is an effort to change back to the original NC number if it is at all available - simply because people are putting the small numbers on the tail with the large "NC20902" on the wings and it actually is an important part of the "look" of these old machines.
ozziecat35
4 out of 5 great lakes prefer Michigan.
Very sad news, RIP to the pilot..
On a much lesser note, sad to see a P-51 lost. Anyone know how many actual P-51's are still in existence (not including the replicas)?
On a much lesser note, sad to see a P-51 lost. Anyone know how many actual P-51's are still in existence (not including the replicas)?
Nigel Croker
Well-Known Member
I know a gentlmen that owns one, and he will be at an airshow I am attending this weekend, Ill ask and see if he knows how many are left. I know his is a D model.
Orange Anchor
New Member
That was the tail number I remember it as. As stated, it's had a number prior and likely after.
ozziecat35
4 out of 5 great lakes prefer Michigan.
Thanks for the link OA. What's the difference between Amateur and Type Certificated?
Orange Anchor
New Member
No real clue except thumbing through the list, some are actually listed as 'amateur built' which would lead me to think they were rebuilt from wrecks or build-ups with parts from a number of aircraft. And type certificated would then be machines that had never been 'rapidly disassembled'. But I don't know for sure.
WacoFan
Bigly
I wonder if some of the amatuer built listed ones had previously been modified for racing - making them truly experimental - and have been restored back to stock - that seems the rage now to take a racer and convert back to stock. The only scratch built Mustang I know of was a P-51A that had an Allison 1710 that crashed at Oshkosh a couple years ago.
I think it is a royal pain in the ass to change an airplane from certificated to say "restricted" (thinking Stearmans for crop dusting) and then change back to standard category. Not sure.
Orange Anchor
New Member
I was at that Oshkosh and confused it with an A-36 which was the original design. This is an A-36 Apache and you can easily see the dive brakes and the 3 blade prop.
A friend drove P-38s in the Pacific and he said he was astonished at all the -1710s stacked up on the airfield. He said if they got 50-100hrs out of an engine they were very happy.
Here is what happened as it was explained to me by my friend who watched the entire incident.
My friend was on the east side of the air park watching the airplane circle the airstrip. The plane circled around, did a touch and go and circled back around and made another approach from the North. This time, however, the plane came in real slow. It sounded like he cut his engines or ran out of gas right before landing. As he came down, a wing dropped. He bounced off one run way, crossed to other, clipped a wall, and spun into the hangar.
The third video here shows some raw footage from a news helicopter. You can see the tire marks from the plane's tires. http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/local/plane-crash-at-stellar-air-park-
Nazzi's wife was photographing the airplane as it made its passes and she also had to witness this tragedy.
Very sad.
My friend was on the east side of the air park watching the airplane circle the airstrip. The plane circled around, did a touch and go and circled back around and made another approach from the North. This time, however, the plane came in real slow. It sounded like he cut his engines or ran out of gas right before landing. As he came down, a wing dropped. He bounced off one run way, crossed to other, clipped a wall, and spun into the hangar.
The third video here shows some raw footage from a news helicopter. You can see the tire marks from the plane's tires. http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/local/plane-crash-at-stellar-air-park-
Nazzi's wife was photographing the airplane as it made its passes and she also had to witness this tragedy.
Very sad.
Low&Slow
Ancora imparo
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2010/03/12/20100312aircrash0312.html
When a World War II-era fighter plane dipped below the trees at an alarming speed, Karie Russell thought for sure she would see the plane rise back up again.
Instead, she saw a mushroom cloud.
The single-engine, single-seat plane crashed into the corner of a hangar at Stellar Airpark in Chandler on Thursday afternoon, setting the building on fire and killing the pilot.
Rescuers originally got word that there were two people in the plane, but firefighters only saw one body in the cockpit, said Battalion Chief Paul Nies, a Chandler Fire Department spokesman. The plane was so crushed that it was impossible to know for sure if someone else was in it, he said.
The P-51 Mustang, a 1944 fighter plane, is registered to Hirani Oil Arizona LLC, which also owns a hangar at the airpark, according to deed records. Naziruden Hirani operates that and another company, Hirani Enterprises, which owns apartment complexes and shopping centers in the East Valley.
Those who saw the airplane said it was acting strangely as it flew above the airpark.
Russell was watching the planes take off and land with her two small daughters at Desert Breeze Park, just north of the small private airpark. She saw the olive-colored plane with an orange-and-red nose appear to come in for a landing.
The plane, she said, was flying low, fast and at an angle, making a sharp 90-degree turn toward the airport.
"I heard three sputtering sounds, and then I saw a fireball," she said. "I thought, 'Oh my God, that plane just blew up,' "
The airpark houses about 160 aircraft, nearly all of which are single-engine planes and many of them vintage. The airport, south of Chandler Boulevard near McClintock Drive, is near neighborhoods with upscale custom homes.
Hangars at the airport were evacuated after the crash as a cloud of smoke rose into the air. Those who responded couldn't determine the victim's age or gender, Nies said.
Identification could take days and is likely to require dental records.
The body probably will not be removed until today, when the Federal Aviation Administration completes its initial investigation, he added.
The National Transportation Safety Board also will join the investigation and will issue a probable cause for the crash in the coming months, said Ian Gregor, an FAA spokesman.
Alana Holley, a friend of the family and former employee of Hirani Enterprises, confirmed that the plane that crashed was owned by the company. She said Hirani has a pilot's license, but that the family was too distraught to talk to her Thursday about details of what happened.
Planes attempting a landing at the airport have crashed a number of times over the years.
Most recently, in June 2007, a twin-engine Cessna 340A airplane clipped a house and crashed into a residential street just west of Stellar Airpark. The NTSB found that the plane had engine failure after it ran out of fuel.
The pilot, who survived, took off from Stellar, extended his landing gear, got odd readings in his cockpit and decided to return.
While trying to land, the plane clipped one home, hit the roof of another, destroyed a tree and a parked pickup and plowed through a brick wall.
When a World War II-era fighter plane dipped below the trees at an alarming speed, Karie Russell thought for sure she would see the plane rise back up again.
Instead, she saw a mushroom cloud.
The single-engine, single-seat plane crashed into the corner of a hangar at Stellar Airpark in Chandler on Thursday afternoon, setting the building on fire and killing the pilot.
Rescuers originally got word that there were two people in the plane, but firefighters only saw one body in the cockpit, said Battalion Chief Paul Nies, a Chandler Fire Department spokesman. The plane was so crushed that it was impossible to know for sure if someone else was in it, he said.
The P-51 Mustang, a 1944 fighter plane, is registered to Hirani Oil Arizona LLC, which also owns a hangar at the airpark, according to deed records. Naziruden Hirani operates that and another company, Hirani Enterprises, which owns apartment complexes and shopping centers in the East Valley.
Those who saw the airplane said it was acting strangely as it flew above the airpark.
Russell was watching the planes take off and land with her two small daughters at Desert Breeze Park, just north of the small private airpark. She saw the olive-colored plane with an orange-and-red nose appear to come in for a landing.
The plane, she said, was flying low, fast and at an angle, making a sharp 90-degree turn toward the airport.
"I heard three sputtering sounds, and then I saw a fireball," she said. "I thought, 'Oh my God, that plane just blew up,' "
The airpark houses about 160 aircraft, nearly all of which are single-engine planes and many of them vintage. The airport, south of Chandler Boulevard near McClintock Drive, is near neighborhoods with upscale custom homes.
Hangars at the airport were evacuated after the crash as a cloud of smoke rose into the air. Those who responded couldn't determine the victim's age or gender, Nies said.
Identification could take days and is likely to require dental records.
The body probably will not be removed until today, when the Federal Aviation Administration completes its initial investigation, he added.
The National Transportation Safety Board also will join the investigation and will issue a probable cause for the crash in the coming months, said Ian Gregor, an FAA spokesman.
Alana Holley, a friend of the family and former employee of Hirani Enterprises, confirmed that the plane that crashed was owned by the company. She said Hirani has a pilot's license, but that the family was too distraught to talk to her Thursday about details of what happened.
Planes attempting a landing at the airport have crashed a number of times over the years.
Most recently, in June 2007, a twin-engine Cessna 340A airplane clipped a house and crashed into a residential street just west of Stellar Airpark. The NTSB found that the plane had engine failure after it ran out of fuel.
The pilot, who survived, took off from Stellar, extended his landing gear, got odd readings in his cockpit and decided to return.
While trying to land, the plane clipped one home, hit the roof of another, destroyed a tree and a parked pickup and plowed through a brick wall.