Losing an old friend

"cjcampbell" wrote in message
oups.com...
Some of you may remember my first airplane, N9636B. It was a 172RG and
I had many hours in it. I frequently talked here about my experiences
with it.

I was curious as to what it was doing now and did a search on the
plane. To my shock, I learned that it crashed near Catalina Island on
September 5, killing two ATP rated pilots, one of them an FAA Aviation
Safety Inspector flying his EBC requirements and the other an examiner.
Very experienced guys, I would guess.

The accident report is he
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?e...09X01430&key=1

N9636B was a good airplane, except for the perennial problems I had
with the gear until I replaced the hydraulic pack. After that it flew
flawlessly. I understand that the people who bought it from me had used
it as a trainer and that it had suffered a gear up landing that
required a complete engine teardown and overhaul.

Well, now I suppose I will always wonder what happened to the plane. :-(

Had a similar experience.
The last airplane I flew in for test purposes in the flight test community
was an F14A at Strike Aircraft Test Directorate at Patuxant River Naval Air
Station. It was the #619 engine test bed aircraft being used for flight
testing the TF30 engines.
Several weeks after I had left Pax, I got the word this aircraft was lost
while being flown by a friend of mine experimenting with flat spin modes.
Both DD Smith and his RO got out all right, but the spin was so bad, the
front cockpit was way out in front of the spin axis and DD was -7g's. He
couldn't reach the curtain and just barely got a grip on the seat handle in
front of the seat. Pete Angelina in the back was luckier. He was much closer
to the spin axis and had an easier ejection.
The bird went into the Chesapeake Bay and was a total loss of course.
I has a special affinity for that old bird. Even today I can recall where
the paint was chipped on the panel.
Such is life. Some days you eat the bear. Some days the bear eats you.
Dudley