Skytyper Fatal 8/20

There were up practicing for the air show this weekend. Just crazy.
 
From the Thunderbirds Facebook page, a witness: From my vantage point, it could have been a lot worse. He was somehow able to keep his seriously disabled plane away from the terminal and basically anywhere there were people. In that effort alone, the guy is a hero, plain and simple. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and truly wish there was a better outcome for Andy “Trav” Travnicek a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and former C-5 Galaxy pilot.
 
RIP. We crossed paths at DLF during my T-6 (texan ii not the accident airplane) days. He was in one of the active duty t-6 squadrons. Husband and wife dual former c-5 pilots and dual jetblue pilot couple. Some folks on this side of the fence used to refer to them as he trav and she trav, as disambiguation term of endearment for the fact they were career carbon copies.
 
He was based at Hampton airfield, where I learned how to fly. He took me flying in his Maule once. He was a great guy and a very safety conscious pilot. When I moved to Puerto Rico, he had an overnight (with his airline) so we got to meet up for lunch. it was great to see a familiar face at a time I was feeling lonely and homesick. He will be missed greatly
 
I met him and his wife at a formation clinic in Iowa last month. Great people, very experienced pilots, both of them, and very down to earth. He was trying to talk both me and his wife into becoming "Leads", but both she and I are like...eh...I'm good for now as Wing. I'm a little shocked, and I want to know what went wrong. We both flew the WASP T-6 for the CAF, too. His wife also flies T-6s, one of the few of us ladies who do.

Most of the time if someone has the capability to control the plane well enough to keep it from crashing into people, they have the same control it would take to keep it from crashing as a fatality. I am glad no-one on the ground was injured, I am sad for the loss, I am very sad for Sandy's loss, and I will be watching this to see what on earth happened. He was a really good guy. This picture is of him and his wife with the WASP T-6.
 

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I live within a few minutes of the airport and am based there. Had the oppurtunity to meet him at his Sri craft for a few minutes the night before. I took a photo of his plane as he was preparing to leave for the evening. I’m totally in shock over this. One of the reports from someone on the field said he departed, climbed to a approximately 100 feet, then banked hard left and went down hard. He ended up going down on the westerly side of the departing runway in the grass past the parallel taxiway. After meeting him I read his bio and everything and am totally amazed at what happened. He was only airborne for a short few seconds before this tragedy. Anyone have any possible preliminary insight on this? I was told it appeared the plane went into a stall/spin, then hitting the ground pretty hard.
 

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jmarine225 said:
I live within a few minutes of the airport and am based there. Had the oppurtunity to meet him at his Sri craft for a few minutes the night before. I took a photo of his plane as he was preparing to leave for the evening. I’m totally in shock over this. One of the reports from someone on the field said he departed, climbed to a approximately 100 feet, then banked hard left and went down hard. He ended up going down on the westerly side of the departing runway in the grass past the parallel taxiway. After meeting him I read his bio and everything and am totally amazed at what happened. He was only airborne for a short few seconds before this tragedy. Anyone have any possible preliminary insight on this? I was told it appeared the plane went into a stall/spin, then hitting the ground pretty hard.
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That's what confuses me. T-6s aren't very forgiving of the ole crank, bank and yank, and the accident reports are full of them. But he was a Geico pilot, an aerobatic pilot, a highly current, proficient and qualified T-6 pilot. Him just over-banking and stalling out after takeoff just...I don't know what the rest of the story is, but I'm going to think there's a rest of the story.
 
FlightofTwo said:
That's what confuses me. T-6s aren't very forgiving of the ole crank, bank and yank, and the accident reports are full of them. But he was a Geico pilot, an aerobatic pilot, a highly current, proficient and qualified T-6 pilot. Him just over-banking and stalling out after takeoff just...I don't know what the rest of the story is, but I'm going to think there's a rest of the story.
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Yeah I’m hoping there’s some sort of answers shortly, but I know what to expect. I must say, as a fairly newly minted pilot with approx 200 hours, this hit me pretty hard. Seeing how this can happen to someone as professional as this, with decades of experience. After seeing this and the fact I have a family with young kids, scares the hell out of me, getting back in my plane again. I work in law enforcement, have seen tragedies and understand, these things happen and life goes on unfortunately. Gonna take me a bit to get back in there.
 
jmarine225 said:
Yeah I’m hoping there’s some sort of answers shortly, but I know what to expect. I must say, as a fairly newly minted pilot with approx 200 hours, this hit me pretty hard. Seeing how this can happen to someone as professional as this, with decades of experience. After seeing this and the fact I have a family with young kids, scares the hell out of me, getting back in my plane again. I work in law enforcement, have seen tragedies and understand, these things happen and life goes on unfortunately. Gonna take me a bit to get back in there.
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I hear ya, but breathe. It is a hobby of course, so no right or wrong answer here. imo, no need to be paralyzed by accidents that aren't germane to the kind of flying you engage in. A lumbering radial sized visibility restricted taildragger and your small fixed gear trike with much lower mass, are different paradigms. Anything can kill you of course, but I don't see anything particularly salient about this accident that would give anybody else pause when it comes to the kind of weekend VFR flying you presumably engage with your family.

We don't yet know (what/if) degree of contribution pilot miscontrol led to this accident and/or its fatal outcome, so no need to feel disempowered by the fact people with higher time than you, do and will continue to, die in airplane accidents.

Cheers.
 
hindsight2020 said:
I hear ya, but breathe. It is a hobby of course, so no right or wrong answer here. imo, no need to be paralyzed by accidents that aren't germane to the kind of flying you engage in. A lumbering radial sized visibility restricted taildragger and your small fixed gear trike with much lower mass, are different paradigms. Anything can kill you of course, but I don't see anything particularly salient about this accident that would give anybody else pause when it comes to the kind of weekend VFR flying you presumably engage with your family.

We don't yet know (what/if) degree of contribution pilot miscontrol led to this accident and/or its fatal outcome, so no need to feel disempowered by the fact people with higher time than you, do and will continue to, die in airplane accidents.

Cheers.
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Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I have a small single engine fixed gear type Piper. Maybe it’s the fact I met the guy the night before and then all of a sudden gone. The feeling will pass over time I’m sure.
 
So sad! It will all play out a year from now when the NTSB publishes its final report. Until then its all a mystery. I wonder how many of the T-6’s are from the original batch of Skytyper T-6”s. As a kid growing up in Flushing NY, back in the 60’s, I spent many a summer afternoon at Flushing airport, home of the Skytypers back in the day. For years they languished at the west end of the field. When Flushing airport closed, they were resurrected and moved to KFRG, ECHO area, their home to this day I believe and where I was based. I’d taxi past them when leaving and returning to my tie down.

They were still a rag tag fleet until taken over (sponsored) by GEICO. They gave the Typer’s the infusion of cash to cleanup and maintain the Texans to a high standard. Their pilotage skills were never in question, as I can remember from those days at FRG, the pilots were experienced professional on their own time.

Condolences to the family and fellow pilots…
 
FlightofTwo said:
That's what confuses me. T-6s aren't very forgiving of the ole crank, bank and yank, and the accident reports are full of them. But he was a Geico pilot, an aerobatic pilot, a highly current, proficient and qualified T-6 pilot. Him just over-banking and stalling out after takeoff just...I don't know what the rest of the story is, but I'm going to think there's a rest of the story.
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Bank and yank I’m pretty sure I got. But what is the crank in ‘crank, yank and bank?
 
luvflyin said:
Bank and yank I’m pretty sure I got. But what is the crank in ‘crank, yank and bank?
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Just another nice rhyming word, cranking on the stick aggressively, cranking in the bank...
 
FlightofTwo said:
That's what confuses me. T-6s aren't very forgiving of the ole crank, bank and yank, and the accident reports are full of them. But he was a Geico pilot, an aerobatic pilot, a highly current, proficient and qualified T-6 pilot. Him just over-banking and stalling out after takeoff just...I don't know what the rest of the story is, but I'm going to think there's a rest of the story.
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Pretty sure this wasn't yank and bank scenario. Impression I got was it was a mechanical issue that precipitated the crash, but I have no other details. The pilot who was on his wing at the time is a friend of mine. I don't know exactly what happened and out of respect for him and my other friends on the team, I haven't bugged them for details. They are taking it pretty hard. I'm sure the details will come out in due time.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Pretty sure this wasn't yank and bank scenario. Impression I got was it was a mechanical issue that precipitated the crash, but I have no other details. The pilot who was on his wing at the time is a friend of mine. I don't know exactly what happened and out of respect for him and my other friends on the team, I haven't bugged them for details. They are taking it pretty hard. I'm sure the details will come out in due time.
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My absolute condolences to his team, family and friends. He was a really nice man the few times I interacted with him, and I am sorry for the loss.
 
It has to be difficult to carry on after the loss of a teammate. The Skytypers also had fatal accidents in 2007 and 2018. There isn't any common thread between them, just fate and circumstances.

May they rest easy.
 
C-1 PILOT said:
I wonder how many of the T-6’s are from the original batch of Skytyper T-6”s.
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They used the SNJs back in the 60's, but I also remember them using Grumman Tigers. Not sure when they moved back to the SNJs, but I think they have lost three. One of them was 74 years old and had heart problems he hadn't told the FAA about.
 
Don’t remember them using Tigers. I was based at FRG 1989-2000 and they were always parked in ECHO area along the taxiway. At that time, if I remember correctly, they flew AT-6’s and one SNJ. I could be wrong and it’s the other way around, it’s only been, what, 21+ Years.
 
With a wingman in fingertip and on interplane freq as witness, I'd expect that kind of narrative detail. It's a serious business (formation work). I'm gonna withhold further comment since I know of the deceased's .mil time of relevance to this type of flying (TEX2) on a 1st hand basis.

Ultimately I take this accident as an opportunity to reiterate to myself that every day is a brand new day when it comes to handling emergencies in formation. The airplane cares not for level of experience or personal circumstances. My retirement flight can bite me just as easily as my first qual ride in the airplane, and I think we honor these losses by not paying lip service to that. Everybody stay safe up there.
 
I was recently reminded of an important adage about the T6:

The T6 is a very easy airplane to fly. But it is unforgiving of two things: getting too slow and accelerated stalls.
 
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