Stearman biplane crash in Texas - GIF

Boeing PT-17 Stearman Biplane crash in Winnie, Texas. Pilot survived with minor injuries.

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Previously:

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...226#post141834
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...3434#post99087
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...248#post138549
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...5623#post82221
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...478#post166442

Glad nobody was hurt. But that was *very* expensive. What the guy flying it was doing trying to take it back off a public road (which I'm sure he landed on because of a previous emergency) is quite beyond me.

It also looks like he wasn't feeding in the right amount of right rudder to correct for adverse yaw on takeoff and drifted left over what should have been his runway centerline.

I doubt the plane will get written off, but it's going to take a wheelbarrow full of money to put it back together.

Any idea what that is that appears to be falling from the plane at about 4 seconds in?

His left wing clipped the street light and severed the lamp housing, which is what you see falling down.

The pilot is very fortunate indeed, a foot higher or lower, and that traffic signal strung across the road (0:06) would have written a different ending.
I lost a pilot friend on July 3, 2011, due to an aerial phone line over a river bed in Santa Paula, CA.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by eoverton

What the guy flying it was doing trying to take it back off a public road (which I'm sure he landed on because of a previous emergency) is quite beyond me.

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He was part of a parade for the Rice Festival in Winnie, Texas the first weekend in October. There are photos of the plane having been towed around by a tractor. Word is he opted to fly the plane back home rather than tow it home.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by eoverton

. . . drifted left over what should have been his runway centerline.

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Another view of the accident shows that he ran into the median during his takeoff roll and lost a bit of steam trying to get it back on the road. There are also articles from the local news outlets that he experienced power issues, as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by toyman

His left wing clipped the street light and severed the lamp housing, which is what you see falling down.

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Thanks. I see that now that you point it out. It's funny that I played that through a bunch of times and never picked up on that. Now that you point it's out, is obvious. Funny how your brain can tune out stuff like that.

It looks like he's trying to fly above the traffic light and below the high tension wires. But it seems like there is a another wire between the traffic light wire and the hi-tension wires that he tried to avoid but lost control when he hits the street light. (at 6:00)