From the photos, I think its amazing the guy lived.

Is that really a commander? I thought that was something else.

http://www.ktvb.com/news/Plane-crashes- ... 52991.html

Aero Commander?

I never knew Aero Commander made a fabric covered taildragger…

Amazing that he walked away from whatever it is but an aero commander is what Bob Hoover used to fly, twin engine nose dragger otter looking thing- not that.

Av8r3400 wrote:Aero Commander?

I never knew Aero Commander made a fabric covered taildragger…

Maybe it's a stock photo rather than an actual photo of the wreck.

The flap brackets look like a Christen Husky to me but the double brace wires holding the horizontal don't look like a Husky---I thought they had a strut back there.

Statistically people often survive severe crashes. It's the fire that gets you.

Looks pretty bad for the crew. One of the worst I have personally seen a picture of. I would of assumed no survivors, hope I am mistaken.

the rudder is a straight line no horn, the landing gear i don't know, and a 6 cylinder engine?

http://www.arrowheadaviation.com/ Here's their fleet, looks like the one in the third pic. I'm not an ag guy, so I still don't know what it is.

CallAir isn't it?

Aero Commander bought the Intermountain, originally Callair, A9-B and called it the Quail. All were crop dusters or glider tow. They were tube and fabric with wood spar, unless Intermountain changed that. Aero Commander made very few before shelving the program.

It was the best flying crop duster I ever flew. With ribs in all controls, it handled like it had hydraulics, even with a full load. It wouldn't haul as much as a Pawnee, even with the same engine and wing area.

Many Pawnee operators avoided the Callair because it would drop the inside wing if you pushed it too hard in the steep turn. The down wing just dropped like a spin. I didn't think it was a full spin because just a tap on the top rudder brought the bottom wing right back up. Very scary, however. It definitely caused you to level the wing and abort the spray run.

It was a CallAir A-9B Per FAA database information for Montana, Park County.

Yes. It is the third pic. The first two are Cessna's.

I guess Aero Commander DID make a fabric covered tail dragger…

that's what it is, and why the pilot made it out

In Av8tr's pic, notice the big cowl flaps. My mechanic thought they fouled some of the airflow over the wing root. We safety wired them full open except for winter seeding.

Av8r3400 wrote:It was a CallAir A-9B Per FAA database information for Montana, Park County.

Pretty sure Blake crashed that one towing gliders in Driggs, then it ate it hard as a spray plane again for the last time in St. Anthony causing the pilot to tell me "those f-ing things are banned in Canada, and rightfully so"

Dead dusters do make interesting roadside billboards though:

The A9-A was the same airplane but without flaps. The A9-B had full wing length flaperons that worked really well. Just as smooth and easy to fly as the A model. It was a hated or loved airplane. I lived in both models several years and loved them both.

Like all spray planes, it is designed to crash. The pilot sits high, for visibility, and on the trailing edge of the wing to be as far away from the engine as possible. They have low wings so the pilot doesn't hit first unless he goes in inverted. There is a lot of steel tubing around the pilot. Hopefully he made it. Callair used the kind that resists bending until it bursts. I think that would have been helpful here rather than the bend throughout the crash kind as in the Pawnee.