Old Commander fuselage on the side of the road

[Chris Mixon]

I was driving back from Denver and saw this old 112 fuselage on the side of US 287 in Clarendon TX. I found the old ASN writeup of the accident, which occurred in 1983 in Chesterton MD. How weird that the last remains would be chained to a pole on the side of the road in north TX...

 

[gmascelli]

That is indeed strange. Maybe it was purchased for parts???

At least the three on board survived.

 

[janderson]

03-1983. The old Machen conversion. there's another thread in here somewhere.
Machen long gone.

[TABLE="cellpadding: 2"]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 5, align: center"]------- NTBS Accident 1 -------[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Event Date[/TD]
[TD="width: 30%"]1983-03-03[/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD]Aircraft Make[/TD]
[TD="width: 30%"]ROCKWELL[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Aircraft Model[/TD]
[TD="width: 30%"]112A[/TD]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD]Aircraft Serial Number[/TD]
[TD="width: 30%"]461[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Damage[/TD]
[TD="colspan: 4"]SUBS[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Probably Cause[/TD]
[TD="width: 30%"] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Preliminary Narrative[/TD]
[TD="width: 30%"] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Final Narrative[/TD]
[TD="colspan: 4"]THE AIRCRAFT SETTLED BACK TO THE RIGHT OF THE RUNWAY DURING TAKEOFF AND STRUCK AN OLD STANCHION USED FOR RUNWAY LIGHTS. THE PILOT WAS UNSURE OF THE EXTENT OF DAMAGE AND ELECTED TO RE-LAND THE AIRCRAFT. THE LANDING GEAR HAD ALREADY BEEN RAISED, SO THE LANDING WAS GEAR-UP. THE AIRCRAFT SLID TO A STOP OFF THE SIDE OF THE RUNWAY. THE AIRCRAFT WAS DAMAGED, BUT THE OCCUPANTS WERE UNINJURED. THE RUNWAY WAS SOD AND SOFT FROM RAIN. THE TAKEOFF HAD BEEN STARTED ABOUT HALFWAY DOWN THE 3300 FOOT RUNWAY TO AVOID A MUDDY AREA OF THE STRIP. ANTICIPATING SOME TREES AT THE END OF THE FIELD THE PILOT RETRACTED THE LANDING GEAR EARLY. THE AIRCRAFT HAD BEEN MODIFIED WITH A 300 HP ENGINE (MACHEN CONVERSION) IN PLACE OF THE 200 HP STANDARD ENGINE.[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Judi

 

[plight]

Sad ending to a great aircraft. And note the 300 HP conversion.

 

[sshore]

Sad ending to a great aircraft. And note the 300 HP conversion.

I got an opportunity to fly a 114B Super Commander Jim Richards STC conversion - IO-580. These airframes definitely were made for 300+ hp. What a great airplane to fly. I would have to look at my notes again, but the climb to 10,000' was fantastic. The fuel burn from that IO-580 was fantastic too. Like shockingly fantastic.

Pretty neat picture though of that airplane in North Texas. Definitely a story there.