That aircraft again

[Harlan (Deceased)]

HOLY COW!! You guys know more about the ME-109's and also the Battle of Britain movie than anyone I've ever met. Lefty Gardner was the co-founder of the CAF and he was fairly local so we got to talk with him at some of the CAF shows. Lefty flew spitfires in the movie and Mr. Galland mostly flew the Spanish version of the ME-109. (He was also a CAF member) Lefty said they would sit around in lawn chairs and tell 'War Stories'. Lefty was a bomber pilot in WWII, and Mr. Galland was of course one of the top aces on the German side mostly flying ME-109's. Lefty said it was strange at first sitting around 'hangar flying' with Mr. Galland, but after a little while they became good friends. It seems funny that at one time they were sworn enemies trying to kill each other and now they are friends! Below is a link telling a little about Lefty soon after he too passed:

AOL Image Search result for "http://www.aero-news.net/images/content/general/2008/Lefty-Gardner-White-Lightnin-1208a.jpg"

And yes, the CAF's Spanish HE111 was completely destroyed when on final and crashed into a car wash short of the runway. We know what happened... It was a simple pilot error and very sad. Kinda long story, but he moved the wrong lever and it cut off all fuel when he meant to start the APU to lower the gear. The only hydraulics in the HE111 was operation of lifting and lowering that landing gear.

The two levers on the left were the cause of the fatal crash.



The 'yellow' lever temporarily started the APU and has to be engaged in order to raise the gear, and also lower the gear on final. The 'Red' lever shuts off the fuel supply to the engines. There were several 'close calls' in the past when the pilot or crew chief moved the gas shut-off lever by mistake and the engines started to 'sputter' before they stopped completely while the aircraft was climbing out after take-off, or when on final! You know how things are on final and you seem to have to keep up with 100 things all at once. In the past, when they touched the red lever by mistake and the engines started to 'sputter' but the crew chiefs or pilots quickly put the red lever back in place and 'went around'. They even painted the 'bad' lever RED and the APU lever YELLOW to keep this from happening. Everything happens fast when on final and the aircraft shut the engines off. The pilot only had seconds to correct the situation but he didn't figure out what he had done until the HE111 stalled and crashed.



The CAF worked with the FAA and told them of the lever situation and the FAA found the red lever engaged so as to cut off the fuel.

I always loved the CAF's HE111 and I looked around my hard-drive and found a few photos I had taken from the past. Originally the CAF HE111 still had the 'Battle of Britain' paint, but later it was repainted to resemble the livery style of the Africa theater.

At mandatory three month stay at CAF HQ in Midland. (The Midland location was unbelievably SLOW and saw very few visitors. I used to fly to Midland once a month or so on Saturdays just to see what aircraft were there and the museum and hangar were usually empty of visitors!)


Another time at a random air show:




This shot was when the HE111 was still wearing the old paint from the 'Battle of Brittain' movie:




Bob, that was an OUTSTANDING photo of the Spanish ME-109's. CINDER is 100% CORRECT concerning the landing gear. The CAF bought most of the Spanish ME-109s after the film was done. The funky landing gear while landing on modern runways took almost the whole fleet out! The WWII ME109's mostly operated from grass fields while in service and the gear gave some forgiveness while landing. The CAF 109's had to land on modern concrete fields and it was a disaster! First there was no forgiveness using the strange gear and some collapsed when it hit modern runways. The other MAIN situation that took most of the ME-109's out were 'Ground Loops' as the aircraft 'bit' the runway with one angled gear and the plane was too far in trouble to correct with rudder so many of the CAF 109's were crash landed and/or sent spinning or sometimes cartwheeling tearing off and destroying the wings.

Bob, it's VERY interesting to me but I have a feeling 'this' CAF 109 might be the plane that your friend has. I took this photo several years ago at CAF HQ hangar... It amazed me how small it was next to other fighters on display in the the CAF HQ hangar!


At the time ALL of the CAF 109's were grounded by the CAF because of the landing gear disasters.... The 109 pictured here was said to be the only single surviving Spanish ME-109 remaing from the fleet of ME-109's and it was said this aircraft was permanently grounded by the CAF. It sat in the HQ hangar for about a year, then suddenly it was gone! I tried to investigate as to what happened to it and the one gentleman working in the museum said it was flown out to a guy who had "big plans" to restore it to WWII status. (???)