[Black 6]

Did you see that two P-51 Mustangs were involved in a landing accident at this year's Oshkosh gathering? The planes clipped each other's wings in the landing accident which, tragically, claimed the life of one pilot while the other received minor injuries. News and pics can be found at this link:

Oshkosh Landing Accident

One of the planes involved appears to be the Mustang that Dragon modeled its "special" edition (# DRW50051S the blue and silver Mustang). It's sad to lose a pilot and two warbirds.

[flyXwire]

Sad tragedy indeed.

[Elmer]

If anyone finds out more about the Mustangs, please post. From Fox News:

OSHKOSH, Wisconsin — Two single-engine war planes at an experimental airshow collided while landing, killing one of the pilots and injuring the other, officials said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the collision with the two P-51 Mustangs happened Friday afternoon after the planes finished a performance at the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual AirVenture show.
P-51 Mustangs are single-seat fighters that were used in World War II.
FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board investigators were on the scene on Friday.
NTSB spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said one pilot died and the other had minor injuries when the planes clipped wings on landing.
On Monday, a veteran pilot trying to break a speed record en route to Oshkosh was killed when his small, experimental plane crashed into an apartment building and playground in Switzerland.
The pilot, identified as Hans Georg Schmid, a former Swissair pilot, had been trying to break a world record for a solo single-engine flight. He had planned to fly more than 4,970 miles (7,998 kilometers) with a C1-D class of plane, aiming to reach his destination in 30 hours.
The annual convention is considered one of the world's largest gatherings of recreational aviators. It draws more than 600,000 people and 10,000 planes from around the world. The weeklong event ends Sunday.

[STARMAN 352ND]

This is so sad...My heart goes out to the family of the pilot.
This link has the pictures of the P-51's.
JP
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/27/air....ap/index.html

[PappyB]

That is a real shame -- I wonder how it happened, these guys were experienced pilots...

[Hoverbug]

Originally Posted by PappyB

That is a real shame -- I wonder how it happened, these guys were experienced pilots...

The word on the ground is that they were experienced pylon racers but were not experienced formation pilots. The P-51A was too fast in the transition to flare and cut into the side of Stang.

[Waltz41]

The pilot that passed away was Gary Beck, and he was flying an A model P-51 that he basically built. It was called Precious Metal II, and was basically unpainted with a green underside to the wings. It was used in the film that should be coming out I think soon, called THUNDER OVER RENO. Mr. Beck drew up designs (from what I remember) for the A with some help, and the goal was to produce like 5 or 6 more.

For the accident, what I have heard, is that there were a few planes up doing an air race demo, reno style, and on coming into land, Precious Metal and the other P-51, a D model called STANG (i think - yes painted in the fictious blue/yellow 361st scheme). Stang was landing first, Metal behind...and basically Metal's propeller clipped the tail of Stang, which then flipped over Metal.

So sad....Mr. Beck has done A LOT for the warbird community. He will be missed. Godspeed.

[Waltz41]

Edit: In quickly trying to make sure I had some fact straight, I found this, which is a small video of the crash. Also, I'm going to say that what I stated above, is what I had read on other forums, and so it is just conjecture for now. Probably the worst thing to do in a case like this, try to guess what went wrong. The simple fact is that someone passed away in what had happened.

http://www.aero-tv.net/index.cfm?vid...b-6f3b0f149c4d

[STARMAN 352ND]

Just by looking at that video "Metal" looks to be coming in a tad too fast for some reason..Either that or "Stang" slowed up faster then "Metal" thought he would and had no time to correct it.
It's really sad to see things like this happen and this has got to be the worst weekend for airshows.
Godspeed for Gary Beck and Jim Leroy who lost their lives over the weekend.
JP

[Shawn 507]

I heard about this while on vacation. Sad loss of life and I assume a rare P-51A. I suppose the other will and can be re-built?
- Shawn