Avenger Emergency landing

This happened in Cocoa yesterday
https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/ww-ii-era-plane-makes-emergency-ocean-landing-at-air-show/2431141/
...at least it's intact

Glad the pilot is ok...

Oh darn ! I’ve had my hands on that plane. She was big and beautiful.

I’m sure they will recover it and hopefully fully repair it to flying condition.

Wow I did not know this happened. I'm thankful the pilot is okay and he did his utmost to protect others. I have not been to Tico Airshow in too many years but I have some pictures of the Avenger long before it was fixed up and brought back to airworthiness. I have yet to see if fly which I look forward to doing so.

I've got an older picture of me and some family members sitting in it back around the time Valiant Air Command acquired it. It was still pretty much a shell at the time. I got same later pictures from 2014 when it was well underway in its restoration but still some years from being flyable.

Here's the 2014 Airshow photos I took:

Darn good emergency landing.

Even avoided the Orlando kooks pretending they were surfing. Looks like about 6th Street ish.

Yeah right, what would I know. I surfed that whole coast from Sebastian Inlet to Cape Carnival (on purpose) from about 1964 until, well my last try in 2014.

Had some fun.

Great pilot.

Isn't that the same model plane that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle or taken away by UFOs? It is !! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_19

Yes and no, this was a restored version doing a recreation flight. But a sad loss to all involved with the progic.

Salt water ruins everything it touches, alas the pilot did the right thing.

It is possible to rescue it with a thorough soaking in freshwater. Look at this Heinkel 115 recovered from the west coast of Norway in 2012. It was put in a freshwater tank to halt corrosion until preservation work could start. While it is true this particular Heinkel was in quite brackish water for 80 years, the principle still applies.

Never mind the Google Translate English, the pictures are what matter

https://heinkel115.com/?lang=en

Fascinating info here:



and then...



NN

A little update from another source (he does collabs with Juan from Blancolirio and is well worth listening to IMHO)

If what he is saying is true, those are some serious problems. Skipping flight briefs are a big no-no. We had a pilot miss the brief and when we were walking out to the planes he joined us. The Flight Lead told him that he wasn’t flying because he missed the brief. He started to try to get into the flight, but the Air Boss backed up Flight Lead and told him no. He asked if they could brief him now and the Air Boss said no. They could have done it, but wanted to make the point. Another time a pilot was dressed down for not flying as per the brief. They made it clear that if he did it again he wouldn’t be flying with us anymore.

And flying with a smoking engine is indefensible. Particularly with public around. You put it on the runway and deal with it. I expect the investigation will determine if it lost the required oil.

I am surprised that the other pilots were so accepting of it and that the Air Boss allowed him to continue.

I will be watching to see how this unfolds.

Very interesting video OG. Put a whole new perspective on the incident. I hope the culture can be changed before we lose the opportunity to see these planes fly anymore.

Yeah, that is strange . . . not sure if he was used to flying other (liquid cooled?) aircraft where a temporary smoke (or some vapor resembling smoke) event might occur without indicating a fatal problem, but EVEN if that were the case, the fact that it had not cleared up after take off, or even by the time the air boss cleared the formation in, yet the pilot still elected to continue, is not really comprehensible from my aviation experience. If you have a engine experiencing abnormal conditions/indications, ESPECIALLY when that is your only engine and no one else's life depends on your mission, you put the plane on the deck. Period.

Why the Air Boss didn't demand he leave the box and land somewhere IMMEDIATELY when he saw smoke is mind boggling.

Heck, I've gone back and landed my airplane when I thought I heard something I didn't like, let alone smell smoke....