Originally Posted by
jws_aces
First off let me take a chance to thank everyone for the kind words and help with dealing of such a loss. I My wife Linda and I had one of the best times all week long. Everyone was so kind. Thanks to Greg, Lee for letting us share the tent. Lukey and Boli for being great neighbors. Barry, Dirk and Chris for there support and hanging out together. Shelly and Dave, Amie and Bob, Nir, James, Eric, Lewis, Paul, Keith.
Special thanks to Danny, Dana and his son of Cheif Aircraft and a special thanks to Greg Arnette what a classy guy!
Marvin for doing a great job on the flight line. Also flying the Hawk. It was nice to sit back and watch it fly so gracefully. That was too cool. I know I will forget someone so please don't get afended if I forgot to mention you.
Yes the Hawk was selected by the judges for best craftsmanship and best lights. It was an awesome jet. Yes I want another one. I have had a couple of days to ponder a different airframe but I keep coming back to it. I had over 150 flights on it since March of last year. A lot of you have seen in personand many have flown it. It is one of the best scale jets to fly because it is so forgiving.
There is no answer to what happened. What I do know for sure it wasn’t a battery because all batteries were connected to my telemetry with alarms. The fire started after the turbine shut down near the end of the flight. It was just about the time I was turning crosswind to call gear pass. The turbine shut off and I called flameout and continue in the pattern to land on base leg we notice a small trail of black smoke. I deployed the electric gear and landed. You could see asmall fire at the rear wing root were the flaps tuck up into the fuse. With the flaps down you could see inside and see the fire. It looked to be contained in the floor just behind the front of the turbine. The only thing back that farwas the turbine and the smoke pump. The elevator servo wires ran along thefloor and they survived long enough to make the landing.
The fire continued to grow to a point it made its way to the front of the jet and that is when all the alarms went off. It pretty much melted everything. The NTSBwould figure this one out because there is nothing left.
The other fact is that the pipe was still ok after the fire. It hadn’tcollapsed.
One thought was on the first Saturday I had replaced the smoke pump and it's possible one of the lines could have came off and sprayed into the front of the turbine and shut it down also spraying in the floor and causing the fire. The only problem I had with that is I was out of smoke at the end of the flight Iam pretty sure I had it off on the switch. There was not sign of white smoke either.
We will never know. That jet was so good to me and I know I will do it again once I figure out a way to come up with the money.
If you watch the videos that were posted you will see just how cool that jet was.
My wife and I thank everyone again for letting us be part of a great community of jet people.
Keep watching the skies for the “Britishare Coming” again J
Jeff,
I consider you and Linda as my friends, and again, I am so sorry for the loss. I know how much you enjoyed the Hawk and I'm sure you'll be back with another one very soon. Just keep coming to the events and I promise you stick time on any of my jets.
You showed so much class with your comments at the event banquet. I'm just not sure that I could have swallowed that loss and keep my head up like you did. Class act, man.
Paul