Fri, May 02, 2003
That Fokker Didn't Do So Well, Though
When someone as high-profile as Kermit Weeks has a bit of bad
luck, it's news. When a museum piece comes to grief, it's news. The
fact that we've been calling Fantasy of Flight all week, to get
more information about what happened with his beautiful Fokker D
VIII replica attests to that.
All week, our calls weren't returned, however; and just Friday
morning, a cryptic FAA preliminary report was issued (below).
What we got from local sources is this: on landing, the airplane
snapped around on pilot Kermit Weeks, and a rather exaggerated
"ground loop" ensued, doing quite considerable damage to the
aircraft. The good news is, Kermit is fine (except that one witness
told us he's pretty sore from kicking himself in the butt).
From the sketchy information we're able to gather from
non-official sources (Fantasy of Flight won't comment), the bird
looks damaged, but rebuildable.
[Photo is of an original D VIII, one of just 36 produced.
Note that it's still a biplane (the surface between the wheels
provided important lift), but it's clearly a precursor of very
modern aircraft --ed.]
** Report created 5/2/2003 Record
1 **
IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 94100
Make/Model: D8 Description:
D-8, COUGHLIN FOKKER EXP
Date: 04/29/2003 Time: 1900
Event Type: Incident Highest Injury:
None Mid Air: N Missing:
N
Damage: Unknown
LOCATION
City: POLK CITY State: FL Country:
US
DESCRIPTION
ACFT GROUND LOOPED UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES, POLK CITY,
FL
INJURY DATA Total Fatal:
0
# Crew: 1 Fat:
0 Ser:
0 Min:
0 Unk:
# Pass: 0 Fat:
0 Ser:
0 Min:
0 Unk:
# Grnd:
Fat: 0 Ser:
0 Min:
0 Unk:
WEATHER: UNK
OTHER DATA
Activity: Business Phase:
Unknown Operation: General
Aviation
Departed: POLK CITY,
FL
Dep Date: 04/29/2003 Dep. Time: 1900
Destination: POLK CITY,
FL
Flt Plan: NONE Wx
Briefing: N
Last Radio Cont: NONE
Last Clearance: NONE
FAA FSDO: ORLANDO, FL
(SO15)
Entry date: 05/02/2003
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