Robert E. Irion, Sandy, Utah: an interview by Benjamin Bahlmann, September 20, 2002: Saving the legacy tape no. 537, 538, and 539

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Rob rt . Irion ept m b r 2 th 20 2 I g t h r and I'm just about to touch down, I'm about six fi t off th gr und, and I hit strong prop wash from the guy ahead of me clearing on down the runway and that old left wing went down. And I poured the coal on too fast. I gave it too much pow r. And that D had more power than even the B 's and C' s did. And I put it on too fast and the torque took me. And instead of that wingtip coming up, the fuselage was coming up and the wingtip 's staying down here and I'm getting steeper and steeper in my angle, and I'm turning left here and the wingtip was about this high off the ground! Got everything over in the comer here and I'm afraid I'm going to cartwheel that thing, catch that wingtip. And I knew I had to come back off the power because it was just heading me right towards the tower. So I finally had to pull off just a little bit on the power and when I came in, I come down like this and I hit with- I'm still going sideways a little bit when I touch down. I broke the landing gear locking pin in the top of the strut. And the left handing gear goes in about that far, about a foot, and it's sitting there pigeon toed with that one gear in about a foot - but I was still okay and I just pulled over there and stopped. They towed the thing away. Now I've got to go over to my crew chief, who I'd just met the day before, and tell him I just busted up his airplane! Great way to start with your new guys that are going to take care of you. Anyhow, they took that airplane up to the main hanger, changed the locking pin that night, put it out on the line. The next mission I flew it. It was fine. BEN: Whose aircraft is it? Yours? Or is it theirs? I mean, how is it viewed? 61