Taylorcraft dreaming!

[rampeyboy]

Guys, I read with interest the posts on this site. Ya'll sure make it sound wonderful flying these great old planes. I love vintage cars, and aircraft. Currently, I am building a Mustang II, and lots of times I find myself second guessing my decision, and wishing I had just bought a Tcraft. At any rate, I wanted to share a web site with ya'll. It is not Tcraft related, but it's a guy with a Cub who has flown all over, taking amazing pictures. http://www.vintageflying.com/
Check it out when you get a chance. It is truly inspiring!
Boyce

[flylo]

Re: Taylorcraft dreaming!

Good website,Thanks!

[VictorBravo]

Re: Taylorcraft dreaming!

I am building a Mustang II,

There is a significant inherent design flaw in the Mustang 2, the horizontal tail spar or spar attach is NOT good enough.

Please look into this and make whatever modifications are appropriate.

We lost TWO people in Formula One, a pilot and his crew chief, in the crash of a Mustang 2 over the SF bay 15 or 20 years ago. The horizontal tail spar failed in flight, the airplane pitched nose-down so hard that it threw the two occupants out through the canopy.

I do not know if Bushby or Mustang Aeronautics or whoever has addressed this problem or not, but it has to be addressed. Your workmanship, edge distance, rivet spacing, and everything else has to be spot-on in this area too, but there may simply not b e enough metal in the design. You gotta check it out.

[rampeyboy]

Re: Taylorcraft dreaming!

Thanks Bill. Going a bit off topic here. There have been some AD's on the airplane in regard to strengthening the rear. Several doublers added to the bulkheads and such. I think they have pretty well worked out whatever issues, as there doesn't seem to be any ongoing problems with other failures. From the Mustang Aero site:

"The Mustang II is rated for +6 / -4g yield, 9g ultimate at 1350 pounds. A typical O-320 powered M-II weighs about 1000 pounds empty. This typically dictates only one person for aerobatics to stay within the 6g limit. At the gross weight of 1600 lbs the M-II is in the utility category which is 4.5g yield strength. Maneuvers are limited to spins, aileron rolls, and other mild, non-whip stall maneuvers.

We recommend our airplanes for “Sport Aerobatics”, meaning things like rolls, loops, hammerheads, spins, etc.. We discourage snap rolls, tail slides, and similar hard maneuvers."

I don't know the specifics of that fatal flight, but I believe the airplane to be a safe design, when flown within limits. The sacred RV's have had there share of problems also. One of the factory's demonstrators broke up with a passenger in it. To this day, tail shake is common in the RV-8 (per there own forum) and the nose gear planes have I think an alarming rate of nose gear collapses, with potential flip overs. Just read a thread of a RV9A owner with the "new" gear hit a bump in a paved runway intersection, and the nose gear collapsed! Sad! Thanks for the heads up all the same!
Boyce

[jCandlish]

Re: Taylorcraft dreaming!

Two experienced pilots met their end in an accelerated stall at Ann Arbor circa 2002 in the left turn cross after a low pass. I've heard the mustang two has a very sharp stall.

Cheers
jCandlish
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[rampeyboy]

Re: Taylorcraft dreaming!

Do you have the NTSB report on this crash? I haven't heard anything about this one, though I am somewhat familiar with the other one Bill spoke of. As far as it having a sharp stall, it does as compared to a Tcraft or a lot of other GA aircraft. However, I have done stalls in the Mustang before, and thought they were quite gentle. Actually surprised by how gentle it was, as many believe believe as you do that it has a nasty stall, and I was prepared for the worst. You do however have to remember that the older Mustangs built from plans may have differing leading edges which can produce some undesirable flight qualities.
Boyce

[rampeyboy]

Re: Taylorcraft dreaming!

never mind, found it. June 2001. No mechanical fault noted. Conclusion was failure to maintain control or something to that effect....