No Injuries, But The Bird Got A Little Bent...

Greg Colyer is known as a guy that has edxpertly brought the earliest generation of military jets to the attention and delight of airshow audiences all over the country.

Flying his 'Acemaker' T-33 (T33-452) N133HH, on Tuesday, he apparently encountered some squirrelly conditions on landing and wound up with a hard landing and a collapsed Right Main Gear. The accident took place at Wyoming's Cheyenne Regional Airport (KCYS). The damage to the Canadair CT-133 Silver Star 3 has been listed as "substantial.'

Greg took the unusually forthright approach to avoiding the rumor mill by explaining what happened on his Facebook page...

"Was going to wait to say anything but already getting texts, calls and questions, so figured hear it from me first. We had hard landing at CYS due to a sudden wind direction change/crosswind/gust/micro burst or something just as beginning to flare, which i could not arrest the decent rate. The right gear hit hard and no way to spool up engine to help. Control inputs pretty much ineffective. Right main collapsed from side stress/hitting hard. I don’t even remember doing it but when we came to a stop I went to shut her down but i had already shut down the engine, fuel pumps and electrical system, I had to turn back on the battery to open canopy.

Just Thankful Cameron and I walked away. It was a wild ride, my 37 years of incident free flying comes to an end.

(S)omething like this happened once before to me at the Ellsworth AFB show, the wind then lasted just a tad longer keeping me airborne just enough enabling me to spool up the engine. Jim Peitz witnessed it as he took the runway as soon as I went by, then it lifted me pushed me off the runway over the median grass.. thought my tip tank was going to dig into the ground, that time I thought i was a goner but was able to save it.. this time not so lucky."

There is no word yet on the repairability of the jet... we'll update you when we find out -- the important thing in all this, especially in a year that has done no one any favors, is that everyone walked away to fly another day. Amen... 

FMI: https://www.acemaker33.com/