N8129Y - Chase Plane

[rothman]

The flight accident report of the Twin Comanche of Bill Chase and 5 others in Jackson Minn 1974, offers some insight on the tragedy. I wasn't aware the plane had almost made it, within 3/8 mi. They attributed the cause to pilot error, but indicate bad weather of the afternoon contributed.

A pilot I spoke to says that in a storm where aircraft is losing altitude, a decision to try and pull the nose up is exactly the wrong move, because as speed of the plane decreases, risk of the stall is much greater, meaning that doing the opposite - dropping the nose to increase speed will keep the plane flying.

Small aircraft often try to avoid bad storms where possible to divert a different course if there's enough warning. The problem is easier to understand when you note that air flow over the wing is keeping the craft alight.. 'wind shear' of gale force in a storm, or gusts from above or behind puts the plane in a precarious position..

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=13445

[rothman]

Summary : when asking if he thought anyone could've survived with a parachute, he indicated that certain small craft today employ an advanced system attached to the top which will bring it down slow enough to survive, but not individual jumps unless they were trained..

At sea you're given life vest before venturing anywhere, yet the same message doesn't translate with a chute on your back when boarding...

If some recall the film 'American Made', it shows Barry Seal in the 70's dropping cargo bundles from the belly of the plane returning from South America. So while possible in some sense, for civilian flight, it's verbotten.

Bill's plane, being a Twin engine is considered superior to a single, which proves that any plane can bite hard if not flown just right.

[blbaumgarn]

I think from that time forward i thought about musicians, entertainers and people who just travel extensively for work and wondered how they make it day after day. Having lived right there near Jackson, Mn. I can testify that storms can come up quickly and be extremely violent. Since I was going to be there the news shook me to the core of my being for certain.
_________________
"There are two sides to a trumpeter's personality,
there is one that lives to lay waste to woodwinds and strings, leaving them lie blue and lifeless along a swath of destruction that is a
trumpeter's fury-then there is the dark side!" Irving Bush

[chase1973]

It was pilot Dan Ludwig's (AKA Dirty Dan) error in judgement. They were supposed to go up to 5K ' and instead he came down to around 500'...flew over the airfield and went to turn around and the engine staled and with all the heavy wind and rain the plane came down hard and fast, flipping over multiple times. There was also a lot of "Columbian snow" involved...that's all I'm saying, there were many, and I mean MANY "near misses"...they took far too many stupid, uncalculated risks

[kehaulani]

@chase1973 - this is a shot in the dark, but did you know Marty Fox? I don't know if he was still playing when (if) you knew him, but he lived in Port St. Lucie and he was an excellent trumpet player.
_________________
"If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn." Bird

Yamaha 8310Z Bobby Shew trumpet
Benge 3X Trumpet
Benge 3X Cornet
Adams F-1 Flghn

[spitvalve]

I was seventeen, just a couple of weeks away from starting my senior year in high school, when Chase's plane crashed. I felt like Don McLean--it was for me "the day the music died."
_________________
Bryan Fields
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1991 Bach LR180 ML 37S
1999 Getzen Eterna 700S
1979 Getzen Eterna 895S Flugelhorn
1969 Getzen Capri cornet
Eastlake Benge 4PSP piccolo trumpet
Warburton and Stomvi Flex mouthpieces

[blbaumgarn]

I keep coming back to this thread and reading it and am surprised that so many of us still remember Chase. Like I said I was going to go to Jackson that night.
If I remember right the music store in Worthington, Mn. had general admits and I got one. The feeling of having the music die is real and if dredges up emotions even after 47 years. He sound rocked it.
_________________
"There are two sides to a trumpeter's personality,
there is one that lives to lay waste to woodwinds and strings, leaving them lie blue and lifeless along a swath of destruction that is a
trumpeter's fury-then there is the dark side!" Irving Bush