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