Ouch! Thats got to hurt! Stearman flips at DCA

[a2capt]

Ouch.


One viewpoint:


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/06/08/VI2010060802370.html

Another:

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/06/08/342998/video-stearman-biplane-flips-shuts-down-dca.html

My first thought when someone sent me that first link was "instant nose over" "brakes on"

Then I read some news where it said "ground loop and then flipped" and thought, wow, I didn't see any parallax scrolling going on, so I don't know what ground loop they're talking about. Then I found the other video.

[Eclipse]

Another less shaky external shot...

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/08/wwii.biplane.flips/index.html

[NIN]

Oww, what a bummer.  Glad everybody was able to get out. Hope the can fix her.

[a2capt]

They may not fix "her" in all cases, but as long as the data plate isn't bent ..
They tear these things apart to nuts, bolts and bolts of fabric and start over.

[davidsinn]

Guy should never be allowed to fly again. Not because he crashed. But because he bent such a beautiful airplane.

[sparks]

Seems I saw some smoke from the tires during touch down. Either it's the normal effect of wheel spin up or someone had their feet on the brake pedals. Only the pilot & passenger knows.

[SarDragon]

There's almost always a little smoke when the tire touches the runway. Gotta spin it up from 0 mph to whatever the landing speed is.

[NC Hokie]

There's almost always a little smoke when the tire touches the runway. Gotta spin it up from 0 mph to whatever the landing speed is.

That looked to be more than a little smoke, as it kept getting thicker right up until the time the wheel came off the tarmac.  It also appears to have only been coming from the left wheel.

My (uneducated) guess is that the pilot was kicking rudder to counter the wind and inadvertently engaged the brake after getting up on the left pedal a bit more than he meant to.

[PHall]

Not the first Steerman to flip on landing, and it sure isn't the last.