Hemingway Air incident Africa

[MoonlightVFR]

I have heard tidbits about Ernest Hemingway 's having an incident in a Cessna170 .


I wonder what the complete story entailed. Happened in Africa in 1954.

Any historians among us?



Regards

[Sixracer]

http://www.pbs.org/hemingwayadventure/crash.html

http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/07/04/s ... -safe.html

http://www.ernesthemingwaycollection.co ... frica.aspx

http://www.booktryst.com/2011/01/heming ... fatal.html

[n2582d]

The picture on pg. 122 here shows the accident aircraft to be a C-180.

[hilltop170]

Just below that picture in the text of the story, it mentions he was finally flown to Nairobi successfully in a C-170!

[n2582d]

Just below that picture in the text of the story, it mentions he was finally flown to Nairobi successfully in a C-170!

That is quite a tribute to the C-170 considering the density altitude in Nairobi had to be over 8000'.

The article also mentions that he had "possibly damaged his liver" in the accident. The little I've read of Hemingway leads me to believe that his liver damage may have been a preexisting condition.

The article indicates the de havilland crashed after taking off overgross. Other websites mention a groundloop on takeoff. Anybody know what model de havilland with twelve seats that might have been? I was thinking it may have been a Dragon Rapide but that only had eight passenger seats.

[hilltop170]

Or maybe a Dove?

[blueldr]

Or maybe a Heron ? I also thought of the Otter, but I believe that the British DeHavilands were more popular in British african colonies than the Canadian ones.

[hilltop170]

I thought of the Otter also but the article mentioned twin engine. The Twin Otter didn't come out until the mid 1960s if I remember correctly.

[hilltop170]

OK, mystery solved, I googled Reggie Cartwright and came up with this:

"Those injuries were the result of a crash on January 24, 1954, after Captain Reginald Cartwright, the pilot of a de Havilland Rapide aircraft, was unable to take off from a dilapidated airstrip at Butiaba."

[MoonlightVFR]

Thanks for the replies

I am still sorting this out. Was interested to know if the Cessna 170 was still in existence. Probably not if it was working the bush all those years.


Now we have the dehavilland Rapide, a Cessna 170 mentioned in book text with picture of a Cessna 180. Three airplanes.

Poor Ernest two plane crashes in 2-3 days.

[Sixracer]

He deserved a good stiff drink for all that!! :~0

[hilltop170]

The guy has to be commended, he crawls back into a third light airplane after the previous two crashed!

[W.J.Langholz]

Hemingway was noted for saying "An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools".........I just wonder if that's why Ol Gar tips one back once in a while.......

My favorite is

"We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master"


W.

[blueldr]

If you've ever looked closely at a DeHaviland 84,Dragon Rapide, you would wonder why it could fly.

[170C]

I'll probably get in trouble for saying this (what else is new ), but the British aircraft designers have come up with some pretty unique aircraft. Needless to say the Spitfire, Hurricane and others are just some earlier designs and were really good looking aircraft. The Dragon Rapide is an improvement over a bunch of earlier British designs. Some of those have to be the worse looking aircraft ever built I have no idea how any of them flew.