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Old 28th June 2022, 10:42
paulmcmillan paulmcmillan is offline
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US Marine Corps VF-9M Fatal Accidents 1930

All

I have the following - Can anyone please place Wolfe and Ostertag in the correct aircraft

Text Description from "Marine Fighting Squadron Nine VF-9M"

300220 Curtiss F7C-1 Seahawk A-7664 Quantico, Virginia
300220 Curtiss F7C-1 Seahawk A-7665 Quantico, Virginia

2nd Lt Joseph Leon Wolfe
Birth 4 Feb 1903
Death 20 Feb 1930

2nd Lt William Rogers Ostertag
Birth 14 Apr 1901
Death 20 Feb 1930

"Second Lieutenants Joseph L Wolfe and William R. Ostertag were killed in what should have been an avoidable accident. In the afternoon of 20 February 1930, the two men took off from Brown Field to conduct Single Aircraft Battle Practice in F7C-1's. After sparring a while for position, Ostertag got on the tail of Wolfe's airplane. Wolfe, unable to outmanoeuvre his opponent, dove his airplane almost straight down, trying to pull away and shake him off, but Ostertag kept following close behind. As people watched in horror, both airplanes dove into the Potomac River, just off the mouth of Chopawomsic Creek, which formed the north border of Brown Field. It was the opinion of witnesses that, in all probability, Wolfe was looking backward at Ostertag, trying to shake him from his tail and because of the glassy surface of the river, misjudged his altitude and dove straight into the water. Ostertag, following close behind Wolfe and concentrating on getting a "kill." was unable to pull up in time and also dove into the river beside Wolfe. The deaths of these two young pilots had a sobering effect on everyone at Quantico and resulted in an investigation that called for stricter flying regulations governing battle practice. "


300611 Curtiss F7C-1 Seahawk A-7669 Quantico, Virginia
2nd Lt Guy Dewitt Chappell
Birth 25 Dec 1904
Death 11 Jun 1930

"On 11 June, the third fatal accident occurred when 2nd Lt. Guy D. Chappell crashed during a test flight in an F7C-1. The airplane had been used for touch-and-go landings on East Field the night before and was reported by its pilot as being "out of rig," with the left wing having a tendency to be heavy. A thorough inspection of the rigging indicated a definite shift had taken place and the airplane was grounded. The next morning the crew chief made the necessary rigging adjustments, and Lt. Chappel volunteered to test fly the airplane.

As part of the test he decided to power-dive the airplane. During his wide-open dive from 10,000 feet, the lower fuselage fitting, where the left wing flying wires are attached to fuselage, severed and the aircraft completely broke up, crashing into the woods just west of the field. All F7C-1's in service were immediately grounded for inspection. An investigation by a Marine trouble board recommended that all wing and fuselage fittings be modified and made stronger on the remaining airplanes of this type. It also ordered that all terminal-velocity dives be prohibited until the modification was completed. "

Thanks Paul
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Old 28th June 2022, 13:49
twocee twocee is offline
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Re: US Marine Corps VF-9M Fatal Accidents 1930

Paul,

Wolfe was in 7664 and Ostertag in 7665.

Apparently the final dive was started at about 800' over the river, which was ill judged to say the least. O. had started to pull out when he struck the water but Wolfe went in vertically.
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Old 28th June 2022, 15:05
paulmcmillan paulmcmillan is offline
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Re: US Marine Corps VF-9M Fatal Accidents 1930

George Thank you Paul
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Old 28th June 2022, 15:17
paulmcmillan paulmcmillan is offline
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Re: US Marine Corps VF-9M Fatal Accidents 1930

Another VF-9M fatal

Type here is wrong ?

http://www.accident-report.com/USN/aircraft.html

311121 F7C-1 "6583" VA 7658

6583 was "Lowe-Willard-Fowler DT-2"

Only a small number of F7C-1 built and crash photo shows it to be A-7658 F7C-1 Curtiss Seahawk

1 Lt Joel Benedict Nott
Birth 1 Sep 1905
Death 21 Nov 1931

1 Lt Joel Benedict Nott

On 20 November (1931), Cloud departed Brown Field with six F7C-1's for New Berne, North Carolina, to take part in the dedication of the city's new airport. Because of other assignments, Jerome and two squadron pilots were unable to take part. Cloud borrowed three pilots from squadron VO-6M to complete the assignment. M usual VF-9M was well received on its arrival at New Berne and were the guests of the city during its three-day stay. Saturday afternoon, Cloud led the squadron through its exciting performance and, just before preparing to land, gave the hand signal for the squadron to form a Lufberry circle. It was Cloud's intention to lose altitude gradually and, at the same time, tighten the circle. When low enough, he would break out of the circle into a dive, with each airplane following to form a line; then, with throttles wide open, to dive past the grandstand at less than 50 feet off the ground. This was always a crowd pleaser. The six-plane formation was getting lower and the circle was getting tighter. Cloud was about to give the signal to follow him down when Lt. Joel Nott, flying the number two position behind Cloud, suddenly flipped over into a spin, and before he could possibly recover, crashed to his death on the airport to the horror of the spectators


In all probability the fatal spin was the result of two things: the near-stalled attitude of the airplane as Nott tried to stay in the tight formation, and the turbulent prop-wash created by the other airplanes in the continuous tight circle. It was a terrible blow to Cloud, who somehow blamed himself. Nott was the least experienced of the six pilots, and it was for this reason that Cloud has assigned him as his number one wingman where he could keep an eye on him. His death marked the eighth violent Marine fatality of the year.
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Old 28th June 2022, 21:11
twocee twocee is offline
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Re: US Marine Corps VF-9M Fatal Accidents 1930

Yes, it was 7658 and Nott spun-in from 1500'. It appears that he came out of the spin but then dove into the ground from about 500'.

Incidentally, it is Bern, not Berne.
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