[ARC5] Collings B-17G crash

[Captain D.]

So the Collings Foundation needs to get serious with maintenance, and maybe have a disinterested party look at it's maintenance records and have more frequent inspections of it's aircraft.  Aircraft are still meant to fly.  Correct the problems, and keep them flying.
Mark D.WW2RDO
In a message dated 4/27/2020 12:23:15 AM Eastern Standard Time, Kargo_cult at msn.com writes:

'Military Trader' magazine for May 2020 reports that the Collings Foundation is denied permission from the FAA to carry passengers in any of itshistoric aircraft. "The FAA also found 'notable maintenance discrepancies existed with the B-17G, yet Collings director of maintenance signed inspection records - dated as recently as 23 September 2019 - indicating no findings of discrepancies. Collings maintenance director was Ernest McCauley, 75, who was the chief pilot the day of the crash."  ( Died in crash. ) "....[ these and other discrepancies ] indicates Collings lacked a safety culture when operating the B-17G."An inspection of the bomber's engines found problems significant enough to cause the FAA to question 'whether the engines were inspected adequately and in accordance with the applicable maintenance requirements."
 
Article goes on with details of engine problems, spark gaps fouled and out of tolerance, weak or "jury rigged" magnetos. Collings owns 10 aircraft, including a B-17 it "obtained to replace the one crashed at Bradley".
 
Reading this article, I thought back to WW2 airfields. There you had a team of ground maintenance workers, basically low paid, but mostly motivated, with plenty of time, no expense account to bill to the aircraft owner for parts and time, and who could not quit their job. So youhad maintenance not limited by cost factors. Of course, time was sometimes a concern, if critical missions were upcoming, or there was a lack of flyable aircraft. And sometimes the young maintenance people made elementary mistakes, like putting in a part backward, or forgettingsome part, and that resulted in fatal crash.
Article says final FAA report is not yet completed. -Hue Miller______________________________________________________________ARC5 mailing listHome: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htmPost: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
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