florman@randvax.UUCP (Bruce Florman) (05/23/85)
Two weeks ago Perris Valley's only flyable DC3 caught fire at the beginning of its take-off roll and burned to the ground. As yet there is still no concrete explanation for the fire. The management is claiming that a blade was thrown, creating an imbalance which tore the engine off of its mount. Fuel then spewed from the severed lines and ignited. This looks better in court than the alternative explanation. For weeks there had been complaints about the smell of fuel in the plane. On that day some people said that the smell seemed stronger than ever, although I didn't notice a difference. The managements position was that there wasn't time to shut down and look for a leak. We started the take-off roll on the sunset load Saturday and had gotten about 200 yards when there was a loud bang. At first I took this to be a backfire (it didn't occur to me that engines don't usually backfire at full throttle), but we began to decelerate, so I looked out the window. All I could see was bright orange light. Then I looked out the door and saw many pools of burning avgas going by at 40 or 50 mph. While the news reports indecated that there was a brief period of panic, I feel that it would be better described as a momentary disagreement over priorities. Those near the front of the plane, who were feeling the heat coming through the walls, wanted to exit the plane immediately. Those of us near the door, however, were less than enthusiastic about jumping from a moving plane into burning fuel, and preferred to wait for the plane to come to a halt. There was a little pushing for the first few seconds, but calm soon prevailed. The plane rolled to a stop and we exited in a fairly orderly fasion and then ran like hell. The overwhelming opinion at the time was that the leaking gasoline had exploded, tearing the engine off. If this is the case, the drop zone may be held grossly negligent, although the lack of injuries will probably keep them out of court. It probably won't really matter one way or the other, since the insurance on Perris' surviving plane (a Twin Otter), runs out in the first week of June, and the underwriter is currently refusing to renew it. If no insurance can be found within the next couple of weeks, the largest DZ in the world will go belly up. Oh well, Cal City's DC3 is much nicer anyway. Bruce Florman, D9019 "No s**t, there I was, thought I was gonna fry!"