ANOTHER Lockheed 12A Crash! NC2072 17 June 2024 Jackson, GA.

Another very rare Lockheed 12A accident. This is the one involving Dan Gryder in Georgia. UPDATE: The tailwheel appears unlocked in the landing video, this can happen even if you have the lever in the correct position as the locking pin is held in with a bungee cord that can fail...

LINKS:

Theme: "Weightless" Aram Bedrosian

[nizexlizzy]

Pretty good video with all of the details you could have had. We did only work on the right gear and while tightening the brake line, didn’t tighten it enough. We tested everything on the ground before flying and didn’t see any leaks. Apparently when we started flying and the gear was retracted, it twisted the line enough to loosen the brake line. When landing, and the tail wheel lowered, it started moving to the left as the left wheel assembly is a little tighter than the right. This has been the normal operation since I bought it, and requires a tap on the right brake to keep straight. Locking the tail wheel doesn’t really stop this motion but would have kept us straighter for longer. However, if you look at a longer arc you would see we would have more than likely hit the gas tank. The Lockheed’s tail wheel does’t retract and has never shown any signs of trying to ground loop. If you don’t have brakes you can’t control most tail draggers. Some are light enough to control with rudders but the big ones are impossible.

It was just a tragic situation with a ton of little miracles that made it all work out. I hope to be able to get her back into the air but it is going to be a job.

[tennesseered]

Former DC-3 instructor here (but without Lockheed 12 experience). You don't want to "fly the tail down" after a wheel landing in a heavy airplane. You want to keep the tail up high for as long as you can in order to keep the fin in the slipstream and the rudder effective. In fact, don't touch down tail low at all when you are first learning to wheel land. Roll the mains on and push the yoke forward to unload the wing and to put some weight on the mains. Many people get spooked by this. They think they are going to nose over, but they won't. Keep pushing as you slow to keep the tail up. Don't let the tail down right away and certainly don't try to "pull" the tail down early or you could lose directional control—you probably will lose directional control doing that. 

I don't know how the brakes are on a Lockheed 12 but on a DC-3 the brakes are very effective. Even so, you can brake hard in a DC-3 while on the mains, tail up, after landing. In that case, you do a balancing act between heavy braking and pulling back on the yoke to keep the nose up—but only do this if you need to stop quickly. By that I mean, better braking is not a reason to prematurely lower the tail. What you often see nowadays are pilots landing tail low and then bringing the tail down much too soon after a wheel landing, done in the misguided attempt to obtain better steering and better braking. That technique only makes steering and braking more difficult. I saw this poor technique being done on YouTube videos from the recent D-Day celebrations in England. That's also what I see happening in this present video but the tailwheel wasn't locked and that would have been the biggest factor in this accident. Did they not lock it? Or did the locking mechanism not work properly? I understand that this flight was the initial post-maintenance flight. 

The DC-3 tailwheel is locked with a shear pin that is designed to protect the structure from an overload. We always carried an extra shear pin because you can't safely fly a DC-3 if you can't lock the tailwheel. Does the L-12 have something similar that could have failed? On an airplane with a locking tailwheel, the takeoff is always done with the tailwheel locked and it is kept locked throughout the flight. There is no reason to unlock the tailwheel in flight and you shouldn't do it. If you unlock, then you have no guarantee it will re-lock properly before landing and no way to test it. It might or it might not; there is no indicator other than the control position. You can't tell for sure on a DC-3 and probably not on an L-12, either. Since the takeoff is always done with the tailwheel locked and it is left locked during flight, why was this airplane's tailwheel seen swiveling on landing? 

I wish the three injured people a full and speedy recovery and I hope the airplane can fly again. It's a miracle the two up front escaped death after such a great huge tree trunk came through the cockpit.

[mattj]

Well, here’s a video you need to watch to the end. Wow.

[hamadalthani]

I've been a pilot for 40 years, I must say that you have beautifully constructed an argument without stepping on someone toes. GA and airlines need people like you. Nowadays, I fly my own tail dragger (Extra300), and they tend to run away very quickly especially in a narrow runway with a cross wind+ the additional gyroscopic effects. Keep the good work 👏

[RustySax]

Juan - I must say that even though I know you and Dan don't always agree, I must applaud how respectful you are in this commentary. Thankfully no fatalites, except maybe the airplane. As always, Cheers from GEG!

[GlideYNRG]

Regardless of who was in command / on board, hope they all make a good recovery. Can't take any joy out of seeing anyone or an airframe banged up. Thank you for an informative video Juan.

[MarcosElMalo]

“Trying to land a shopping cart backwards.” What a great description.

[billt]

Glad that Dan and others survived the mishap, thanks for the video.

[PlataxJazz]

Glad all survived and wishing them all a speedy and complete recovery. These are the kinds of crash reviews that are very sobering, but critical to prohibit them from happening, again. Thanks for the good review, Juan.

[gracelandone]

As usual, the thoroughness of your reporting and knowledge of subject matter is impressive and simple enough that even us back-seaters can grasp it.

[ericfielding]

Good to hear that the three people onboard are likely to survive. It is amazing to see airplanes built in the 1930’s still flying, but losing two airframes in one week is sad.

[stevedemoe]

I hope I’m not the only “non airplane guy” watching this. Channel. I’m not a pilot. I don’t work in the industry at all. But something about they say you describe these instances makes it a very interesting topic to me. Thank you Mr Browne for all the hard work you do👍

[sonoftherepublic]

Thanks much, Juan. Hope everyone makes a full and speedy recovery. This could have easily been much worse. Personalities aside, the flying community needs to rally around the aviators involved and wish them well. Great eyewitness video - looked like the tailwheel was spinning around like a top…

[bighaasfly]

I used to ride my bicycle up to the airport and go over to RPM aviation so I could see the old aircraft that they had there. I never got tired of looking at them. Loved it! Thanks for the report Juan. Pity they cracked up the airplane. I hope they can get it repaired. Sure is a pretty old bird.

[craftykoala]

3 separate Medevac Helicopters responded. Each of them air lifted out. First responder comms were pretty intense.

[jackanderson]

I owned 5 DC-3s and 1 Lockheed L-18. I always wheel landed and kept the tail high for directional control on roll out. The tail only came down when it wouldn't fly any longer. At that point, my groundspeed was minimal, and I could then pin the tail down with the elevators. 8 years and never a problem.

[catherinesarah]

🦘🇦🇺 Thanks Juan for the respectful coverage of such awful event. Happy to see everyone got out alive. ✈️🙏

[zaku]

Thanks Juan. I know you hear us say it but I hope you really understand what a valuable resource you are to the aviation community.

[bretyoung]

Juan, great analysis, you are the best investigator on YouTube !! Hope all involved are going to recover, so sad. 🇺🇲

[homan]

I accidentally ran across Dan's video before seeing your report. I'm exercising the same professionalism in this response that you use in your videos. I also much prefer the synopsis you have put forth than the production I saw elsewhere. Keep up the great work.