bernd1151 Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Our beautifully restored DC-3 was supposed to ferry a young football team from Skagit to Victoria Intern. It’s a wonderful, almost cloudless afternoon and we move our plane from her parking position to the small terminal in order to have our guests climb aboard. It’s going to be a smooth flight, or that’s what everyone thought… We allow the trainer onto the flight deck, so that he can have a better look at some of the San Juan islands And then out of a sudden we hear a huge bang from the left engine. The plane veers heavily to the left as if someone has tried to move the left wing backwards. The trainer is thrown to the ground right behind my seat. What on earth…?? And then we hear a terrified football team scream with one voice: “Fire!! Fire on the left engine!!” Yes, lads, we have figured that out by now too. No need to panic. We quickly reduce power to that engine, cut the fuel and launch the fire suppression system. After the plane has been stabilized to fly on one engine I move out of my seat into the main cabin in order to have a look at the fire and to calm down the horrified boys. Jesus, I haven’t seen anything like that before on a Dakota. Of course I can’t tell them that. It looks like one of the fuel lines must have ruptured. Unfortunately the fire suppression system has very little effect and we are too low to try to kill the fire in a dive. We need to find an airport and we need to find it fast. We contact ATC and are advised that the closest airport is Anacortes. We turn around and head straight for Anacortes. I can’t believe it, but that imbecile in the tower asks us, whether we want to declare an emergency. Of course not, you sh…head, we are on a joy ride and the fire on the left engine is just there to light our Cuban stogies, when we do our wing walks. Get your bloody fire brigade ready, I shout at him, because I don’t think that our left tire will survive that ordeal Anacortes comes up at 9 o’clock Am I scared? Hell yes, because I worry about the left tire I’ll try to stay as long as possible on the right tire. Let’s see what happens Great, everyone is safe Tower, what do you mean with: your single fire truck is out of fuel??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voyager Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Stunning screenshots and good storytelling! I enjoyed! Voyager Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanbatc Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 lol That's great, nice pics! You could always land on the oil tanker... fire and oil mix right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Emms Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Great set of shots. cheers Iain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gumbypickett Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Fantastic story, dramatic and humorous. cheers Gumby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJ Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Scary indeed. Great shots! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stillwater Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 One of the greatest narrations I have seen here recently, thanks Bernd! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt Pugwash Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 lol...loved the story & shots Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ziggy Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Excellent story telling and also an excellent set of shots to go with it, really enjoyed this!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VH-KDK Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 Port engine on fire Captain Mainwaring, DON'T PANIC, DON'T PANIC. Very dramatic story and shots, well done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bermuda425 Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 That was a heart-pounding experience! Greetings, Bermuda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Scott Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 12 hours ago, gumbypickett said: Fantastic story, dramatic and humorous. cheers Gumby Yepp,I love those little stories.Unfortunately my english is not that good. DocScott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bernd1151 Posted February 26, 2016 Author Share Posted February 26, 2016 Thanks a lot my friends. I am happy that you like my little story and the pics to go with it. As always with these occurences, this has not been planned. But when the port engine suddenly exploded I thought this could make for a nice story Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venturi Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 I am hope you smacked your FO for not hitting the fire retard button on the overhead ):-)) Sent from my SC-01D using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Colbert Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 Great pics and story! I had no idea my virtual planes could catch fire! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dolf8857 Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 Fantastic shots, glad you made it to the strip! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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