How To Kill A Perfectly Good Fokker

WinterHawke · 20 September 2005, 06:26 PM

How to kill a perfectly good Fokker:

1) Take one perfectly good Fokker

WinterHawke · 20 September 2005, 06:28 PM

2) Add one slightly used pilot

WinterHawke · 20 September 2005, 06:28 PM

3) Stir in one Tiger Moth

WinterHawke · 20 September 2005, 06:29 PM

4) Mix

5) Voila! Killed Fokker

WinterHawke · 20 September 2005, 06:33 PM

At this year's HAWKS Four Cycle Rally in Hamilton, Ohio, Del Johnson was flying his Flair Fokker Dr.1 Triplane in the afternoon, along with numerous other planes at the time including Doug Cox with his Great Planes DeHavilland Tiger Moth ARF. Del handed the Fokker off to me, and then Doug and I set up to do some loose formation flying - first with the Fokker in the lead, then switching off with the T-Moth taking the lead. The results were somewhat violent and spectacular.

We were flying in a right hand traffic pattern, and the two planes collided during the base turn toward the runway. Somehow I lost complete track of the T-Moth - I think that I may have picked up another yellow airplane that was in the air, and vicinity, at the time. I know I was very surprised when suddenly multiple large particles of the Fokker started disappearing! Near as we can all figure, that Tiger Moth chewed right through all three wings of the Tripe, and went looking for more!!!

With all three wings sliced in two, it was amazing how very badly that triplane handled! It suddenly had the aerodynamic characteristics of a very large and heavy clump of grass! My skilled response to the situation was to throttle back, and watch the remaining good parts revert to destroyed parts upon impact on the ground.

Meanwhile, when I looked back to stage center, there went that bloody Tiger Moth, still flying, with only landing gear damage apparent. The engine was still running, even! Doug brought her down with no further damage, and then we all went to fetch pieces. The Fokker was completely, utterly, and thoroughly used up. The Tiger, on the other hand, merely had some dents along the leading edge of both right wings, some rips in the covering (some ribs were fractured, but not many) and the front landing gear block pulled out. It didn't even have the dignity to suffer a broken propeller!!!

WinterHawke · 20 September 2005, 06:34 PM

Postflight we speculated that it must have been the landing gear that did most of the damage to the Fokker, as it sliced through at least the top wing - the remaining wings would have followed the first, while the L/G merely broke loose on the T-Moth. Bottom line is one less Fokker Triplane, and one free Tiger Moth, which now gets the honor of putting an Iron Cross victory marking below the cockpit!!!

'til later,

the WinterHawke

Ross_Moorhouse · 20 September 2005, 07:07 PM

Amazing what an unarmed Tiger Moth can do to a Fokker. I feel for the Fokker owner. That was a nice build.

EricGoedkoop · 20 September 2005, 07:16 PM

Shortly before this Allied victory, a Sopwith Baby flipped onto its back during landing. I don't believe there was any damage to that one. I won't mention who the pilot was . . . .

I may have picked the wrong day to finally stop by one of these guys' r/c events, but it was memorable!

Lyle · 20 September 2005, 07:26 PM

Ouch! Man, do I hate Tiggies now! As the mechanic in "The Dawn Patrol" said, "I'd like to make a bonfire out of the whole blinkin' lot of 'em!"

Sorry to see the postmortem results of that fine model. Somehow, as I scrolled through and saw the progressive photos, I began to realize that there was a close encounter of the wrong kind at 100' altitude.

Here's to your next Dr.I! May it be as pretty and have even more stripes...uh, scratch that, this was the ultimate striped Fokker...better make it dayglow orange so Tiger Moth pilots don't miss it!

WinterHawke · 20 September 2005, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EricGoedkoop

Shortly before this Allied victory, a Sopwith Baby flipped onto its back during landing. I don't believe there was any damage to that one. I won't mention who the pilot was . . . .

I may have picked the wrong day to finally stop by one of these guys' r/c events, but it was memorable!

Actually, other than that one little midair

it was actually a pretty good rally.

Stephen Hill-Harriss won the scale event with his Sopwith Baby, and the landing noseover didn't hurt a thing (excepting maybe a sensitive pilot's ego - oh well

). It actually was a pretty decent shakedown of the Sopwith for Dayton - what was supposed to happen was for Pam cooking oil to be sprayed on the float bottoms, but someone forgot!

It was great finally getting a chance to meet you - and don't worry - we usually have much better days than we did Saturday!!!!
'til later,

Lee McD