When will the press realise that when an aircraft has no tail, the pilot has become a passenger and gravity has taken over the aircraft and said aircraft will make a direct hit on the bit of ground beneath it. Luck and nothing more that it came down where it did. Still if it makes people feel better to think that way................

Matt

I want to know when they'll call for the execution of incompetent air traffic controllers... especially the French and Spanish ones during the summer holidays

beaky wrote on Jul 5^th, 2011 at 8:53pm:

I usually keep out of these discussions as eye-witness reports are notoriously unreliable. I prefer to wait until the official report is published. This is slightly different as it's close to home. The dead pilot's name has been released & he was a very experienced ex-BA captain. Just the sort of chap one would expect to have a cool head. http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/9122479.Pilot_killed_in_Shoreham_crash_named/?ref...

Although I'd never met him he lived a few minutes walk from where I'm sitting. He built his own RV-7 which he'd been flying for many years. One report states that the doomed aircraft was on its maiden flight. From reading between the lines he was killed while flying a friend's aircraft, possibly test flying it, which makes it even more tragic.

On the subject of media reporting of aircraft accidents, how often do you see this type of headline even when anyone with a modicum of sense know it's complete rubbish? Shoreham crash pilot died a hero

I believe a lot of this is caused by a chance remark by an onlooker picked up by a local reporter desperate for a news story. This is then picked up by the national media & before you know it it's spread all over the world.

ozzy72 wrote on Jul 6^th, 2011 at 6:29am:



It just goes to show what rubbish is reported. I read in an national newspaper yesterday that the DA40 had it's engine ripped off in the impact and landed "Safely". Apart from the HUGE C of G problem that would produce, look at the picture in Doug's link, the impact damage is on the leading edge

Matt

expat wrote on Jul 6^th, 2011 at 6:39am:

That report was basically correct. If you look at the photo carefully you will see the prop is missing. The propeller that ended up on the beach was from the DA40, not the RV-6 as everyone seems to assume. They did well to get back safely to the airfield. IMHO

Hagar wrote on Jul 7^th, 2011 at 11:15am:


Point taken, but if the engine as reported was missing then the outcome would have been somewhat different.

Matt

[quote author=rottydaddy link=1309852757/4#4 date=1309913586]Closest I've ever come to swapping paint with another plane was in the pattern at a tower-controlled airport. I was not pleased with the controller's performance (all three times!) but in the end it was my fault and the other pilots'.
I have learned from this: avoid controlled airspaces!.  ;D[/quote]

(this is in FS9) My worst ATC incident was coming in to land at Snohomish in a Boeing 747-400 after taking off from Seattle-Tacoma.  I was making a straight in to runway 34L and I was cleared to land, and a Piper Cherokee had been given the "cleared to land runway 34L, follow the Boeing 747-400 on final."  So I expected it to be right behind me.  But [i]boy[/i] was I [u]wrong.[/u] The little piper was about 250 feet ahead of me and about 100 feet below me and I didn't see him.  (and this is all happening about 500-1000 feet from the airport)  And since I was on a higher approach speed than he was being a big jet instead of a much smaller single engine, when he touched down, I was 100-75 feet right above him and the runway coming down at a rate of about -100 to -500 per minute. And [i]right then[/i] the ATC told me to go around, and when I was just [b]100-75 feet above that poor Piper Cherokee and the runway!!![/b]  I still have no I dea how I managed to go around without landing on the runway or crushing that poor Piper pilot who was probably scared to his digital death. (or his aircraft)  All I remember is applying full throttle, letting off that 29% of speed brake I had on and pulling back on the digital stick.  Thank goodness when the ATC gave me permission to land on runway 16R (the same runway from the other end) that they made sure that no other aircraft had been given permisson to land or takeoff.  I guess those digital fools learned their lesson, and thank goodness!!!