Not your typical General Aviation blog for me, but some things you might like to know if the airline passenger next to you experiences thermal runaway on their laptop battery. HINT: DO NOT COVER IT WITH ICE....
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In parallel with completing a new piston-powered 11-seat twin (the P2012 Traveller), a new four-place single (the P2010). an amphibious light sport (the P92 Sea-Sky Hydroplane), Tecnam today revealed its newest product, the P92 Tail Dragger light sport.
While going from tricycle landing gear to tail dragger might at first seem to go against the grain, the company says its research shows:
Customers in the US can power the light sport with a Rotax 912ULS2 or Lycoming O-233 engine. More details will emerge during the Sun n' Fun show in Lakeland, Florida in April.
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The thing that caught my eye about this NTSB preliminary accident report on a Guardian Flight Bell 407 prang in Rock Springs, Wyoming on 13 December, was the following line:
"The passengers reported that the pilot, who was an employee of Guardian Flight, immediately departed the scene".
The reasons for that departure became clear after a little research, and the somewhat disturbing realization of how little an emergency services provider like Guardian, the largest air medevac provider in Alaska and nascent provider in Rock Springs, might really know about its employees.
Though the helicopter's landing gear skids and lower cabin structure were deformed, and the tail boom severed, in the hard landing, neither the pilot nor any of his four passengers were harmed, at least in the physical sense.
Mentally, they may have been harmed when they found out via the NTSB that the pilot, hired as a helicopter mechanic by Guardian Flight, was not authorized to fly the helicopter by his employer, quite possibly because he didn't have a pilot's license. The FAA said he was issued a student pilot certificate in 1988, but that was it. He was, however, a properly certified airframe and powerplant mechanic, however.
"An acquaintance of the accident pilot reported that he observed the pilot flying N8067Z on serveral previous occasions for personal reasons," the NTSB states. "Passengers were carried during these 'joy rides'".
More of Calvin Franklin Connor Jr's dark secrets began to emerge soon after he was apprehended in another state.
According to a complaint filed by the government in US District Court, Connor was in possession of firearms from outside the state despite having earlier in his life been convicted of a crime carrying jail time of more than a year, a federal offense. In 1992, he was sentenced in Georgia to 15 years in jail for two counts of forgery. A year later he received a three-year sentence, also in Georgia, for "theft by taking". The document doesn't mention actual time served.
Then there's the firearms...
Guns in Connor's possession and guns his co-workers had either seen him with or fired with him run the gamut, according to the complaint... Pictured below are examples of the guns listed (not the actual guns he owned or was seen with).
One co-worker interview by the ATF special agent worker on the case, said he had met Cannon several years ago when they both worked for EMS operator Hawaii Life Flight, where he had observed Cannon's "all decked out" AR-15 assault rifle. Another co-worker had said Cannon had carried a 0.40 or 0.45 caliber handgun on his side while he worked at Guardian Flight.
]]>The models on offer will be available as fully factory delivered aircraft with everything needed for amphib or normal land operation and run at just under $159,900 for an Echo Classic with Garmin SL40, Garmin GTX 327, Garmin Aera 500 GPS, PM3000 intercom, Speakers, ELT and the new Trutrak Gemini PFD to give it full six pack capability. The Eaglet with a similar configuration would run around $12,000 more expensive. Retrofit kits will also be available for existing Echo Classics and Eaglets and will cost about $35,000 plus installation labor and shipping. A float only version will also be offered at a lower price that has not yet been finalized.
We will have a program in place in the US for "Early adopters" to get an incredible deal on these aircraft. We plan to provide some more information in the next week or so with a full program launch timed for Sebring.
We will definitely have a product at Sun and Fun and hopefully some considerable time before that as well but there is still some logistical work needed before we get the first delivery in the US. The factory already has, as you have seen, a flyable model that has been used for testing.
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Tecnam today revealed its newest light sport family member, the P92 Sea-Sky Hydroplane. As it's name suggests, it's an amphibian, and it's pretty sweet looking.
Here's the press release from the company. I've asked for cost and delivery estimates (and will update this blog when the numbers come in).
]]>Tecnam today announced the launch of the Tecnam P92 Sea-Sky Hydroplane, the 6th generation model of the very successful Tecnam P92 Echo Classic and Eaglet range of aeroplanes.
Tecnam's reputation for developing aeroplanes for all aspects of General Aviation flying was further established today with the introduction of the Tecnam P92 Sea-Sky Hydroplane.
This 6th generation development builds on the tremendous success of both the P92 Echo Classic and P92 Eaglet to offer potential customers seeking an innovative, spacious and cost effective seaplane.
Requiring a take-off run of less than 200 metres, coupled with an impressive climb rate and a 100 hp engine, the Tecnam P92 Sea-Sky Hydroplane affords ease of operation, both on the water (be it lakes, rivers or sea) and in the air.
Tecnam aeroplanes are especially known for offering outstanding value. One reason for the Tecnam P92 Sea-Sky Hydroplane low cost is that it is produced at Tecnam's new composites production facility, home to both the Tecnam P2008 and Tecnam P Twenty-Ten, in Capua, Italy.
''Our Tecnam P92 Sea-Sky Hydroplane offers you the pleasure of enjoying both blue waters and blue skies'' said Paolo Pascale, Tecnam's Managing Director. ''Not just designed to perform superbly on water but also on the remaining 29% of the worlds surface, land, by using our innovative 4 wheels retractable landing gear. Wherever you want to go today Tecnam has got the right aeroplane for you! Enjoy your time, meet land, sky and water!''
The company in December revealed that it will fly a new four-place single (the P2010) early this month (in January)
Here's my second annual Accident as Art (AaA) exhibition.
Last year's definition of AaA still holds:
Painful as wrecked aeroplanes are to behold, there's an artform in the lines and curves that beset our fallen angels.
Below is the slideshow of 2011 accident pictures that I found artful in some way. Photos were pulled from US National Transportation Safety Board documents from prangs that occurred in 2011. No pilots were killed in the making of this slideshow - they all walked away.
Happy Holidays,
John Croft / AsTheCroftFlies
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Hey airline travelers, do your fellow humans a favour this holiday season (and any other time for that matter) by staying in your seats when the pilot, who's paid to do more than just sound professional on the intercomm, keeps that little overhead seatbelt fastened light illuminated.
To ignore the cute little lighted cartoon is to maybe suffer the fate of a plane load of passengers trying to get to Frankfurt out of Philadelphia on the night of 19 October. The US NTSB pubished its initial report on incident on 20 December.
US Airways Flight 702, a Boeing 767-2B7 (N253AY) was climbing through 22,600ft toward its cruise altitude that night when the aircraft came upon a few minutes of unexpected moderate turbulence.
The captain had announced when passing through 10,000ft that passengers could use their portable electronics, but he did not, according to pilots and flight attendants, say "feel free to move about the cabin". In fact, the seatbelt sign had remained lit.
Despite the warnings, as we all have seen too many times, at least one passenger got up to use the lavs and learn a hard lesson in physics. She broke her ankle quite badly in the turbulence.
Injuries to time and money for other passengers and the airline then followed.
The pilots and flight attendants reported the situation to virtual physicans at Medlink, through company dispatch. A physician who happened to be on board also helped.
The consensus: Back to Philadelphia.
The pilot declared an emergency and returned to the airport to land overweight at 26,400lb, which led to a sink rate of 280fpm, which apparently is high.
The passenger was cared for by medical personnel at the airport.
Meanwhile, the two pilots, one international relief pilot and the flight attendant who cared for the injured passenger had to fill out a gob of paperwork while the aircraft had to receive an overweight landing inspection.
And then there were 200+ other passengers who didn't get to Frankfurt that night/morning.
Attached below are the reports the crew had to fill out. Makes for some good perusing.
So this holiday season, please show goodwill toward men by sitting your butt in your seat when the fasten seatbelt light is on! (please?)
All the More Reason to Pay Attention to Seat Signs ]]>
I'm not exactly sure what motivates a helicopter crew to do what five members of the Canadian rescue forces at Base Comox on the western coast of
I'm also not sure how cost effective it is to use a large, three-engine helicopter to pick up one little hiker, but that's grist for the story mill some other time.
Regardless, a panel of judges from the Canadian forces and Canadian journalist cadre recently selected a 442 Squadron crew as the winner in AgustaWestland's annual Comorant Trophy for helicopter rescue based on a 23 December 2010 rescue.
Here's the setup: It's night time on 23 December and a 23yr-old hiker is stranded nearly one mile up in a narrow steep bowl in dense clouds on
Here's how AgustaWestland describes the rescue: "As the crew approached in their AW101 "Cormorant" helicopter, they were battered by the turbulence of 46mph wind gusts blowing straight down the mountain.
This forced the pilots to fight rapid power swings, causing significant rotor speed changes which made accurate control of the helicopter very difficult.
Using night vision gear, the search team were only able to make out a faint light, which they hoped was their rescue target."
"We reached the estimated location of the hiker by slowly flying up the side of the mountain," said the aircraft commander, Capt. Jean Leroux. "We had to attempt multiple passes until the visibility was good enough for us to fly over the man's location." Each of these approaches pushed the helicopter with its three powerful engines to its limit. Normally, the 'maximum' speed or power required for missions in an AW101 Cormorant reached about 80%, but during this rescue, the power fluctuated up to 117%, giving constant warning alarms."
"Facing the high risk of an avalanche, the crew decided on a fast extraction with the search and rescue (SAR) technician remaining attached to the hoist. The flight engineer then directed the aircraft [to a position] about 23ft above the hiker with a vertical rock face just 5-10ft in front of the rotor blades. The flight engineer lowered the SAR tech who quickly hooked up the rescue subject and both men were hoisted on board. Throughout this procedure, the snow was being whipped around the helicopter enveloping it in a "snowball" drastically reducing the pilots' visibility."
"As they went to fly away, a thick layer of cloud moved in, making it impossible to backtrack the way they came in. With almost no visibility, the flight crew managed to extract the helicopter from the cliff confines relying only on instrumentation to show them the way out. The crew flew to
Congrats to the crew for the gutsy dispatch, and better luck hiking to the hiker who was lucky enough to have an AW101 and able crew at the ready.
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That Brent Hampton will spend Thanksgiving on Thursday with his wife and newborn son in Portageville, Missouri, at all is testament to the toughness of an Air Tractor. I'm not promoting the company, I'm just amazed for the second time this month at the ability of this metal workhorse to give pilots a second chance.
Earlier in November, I wrote about an AT-402 in Texas that hit wires and came to rest inverted back in August, with the pilot walking away.
Then this week, I found the final NTSB report on a should-have-been-fatal accident involving not one, but two Air Tractors that collided in midair on 18 April. One pilot in an AT-502B walked away with no injuries, the other, Brent Hampton in the AT-802A, was just about healed from a variety of broken bones and was enjoying his one-week-old baby when I talked to him by phone on November 22.
Oddly enough, the guy in the other Air Tractor was Brent's father, Buster Hampton. The two, along with Buster's other son, run Hampton Flying Service.
Here's what happened, according to the NTSB. Buster Hampton had just departed KIEW (New Madrid airport) to the south in his Air Tractor AT-502B turboprop loaded with chemicals. After turning to northeast at his cruise altitude of 500ft, he came face to face with Brent in the AT-802A coming back empty from a spray run.
"Impact marks and the location of the wreckage indicated the spray boom on the AT-502B (Buster's plane) contacted the windshield on the AT-802A while the right wheel hit the left side of the vertical stabilized," says the NTSB. "Both the right main gear and the vertical stabilizer were located in a field near the collision site. The horizontal stabilizer remained attached to the AT-802A (Brent's plane)."
Buster's Air Tractor, with right gear missing, continued to fly and he returned to the airport where he safely landed. "Prop strike due to [landing gear] leg missing," he wrote in the accident report.
Brent can't remember what happened next. NTSB says his plane "cleared a 5ft-tall fence prior to contacting the terrain". The aircraft hit the ground in the middle of a gravel road then slid 150ft before hitting a telephone pole and splitting in two (nose separated from tail). Brent says the cockpit remained intact. His helmet got knocked off at some point in the accident sequence.
"It busted me up pretty bad," Brent tells me. Bad in this case means "nine or ten" broken bones, including limbs and pelvis. He says he's healed now but hasn't yet gone back to get his flight medical reapproved, in part because of the new baby. He says he'll get back to flying crop dusters for Hampton Flying Service in January.
"I'd be dead if I were flying anything else," he tells me.
]]>Weber and a passenger, one Charles Conquergood, were on a long cross-country, moving the Waco from Anderson, Indiana to Carefree, Arizona when the deed was done at the stopping point in Moriarty.
"After a good three-point landing [at Moriarty], the aircraft started to turn, and I applied what I thought was a small amount of rudder," said Weber in the NTSB accident report.
Control of his lower appendages had been compromised, however.
Being that the Waco is an open-cockpit aircraft, Weber had to dress appropriately.
"Weather was quite chilly so pilot and passenger wore multiple layer of clothes including heavy insulated coveralls," he wrote, adding, "Pilot at the last moment decided to wear heavy insulated steel-toed boots."
While keeping his feet warm, those boots exposed his Achilles heel when he applied that "small amount" of rudder on landing.
"The aircraft abruptly swerved the opposite direction. I pressed hard on that rudder and the airplane turned over," he says. "It is apparent to me that I was applying brake rather than rudder." Neither man was injured but the plane is listed as "destroyed" in Weber's report.
In his recommendation for how the accident could have been prevented, Weber tells it like it is:
Weber continues with some good advice, however: "In the future be sure that any footwear or clothing does not interfere with proper 'sensing' and operation of the controls. Had I been wearing light footwear, I am sure I would have been able to detect teh back pressure from the brakes."
]]>Exhibit One: A healthy stream of comments, many by ag pilots, to my YouTube post about the landing crash of a militarized AT-802U variant in October 2010 have nothing but praise for the sturdiness of the type.
Exhibit Two: A just-posted NTSB preliminary report about a turbine AT-402 in Uvalde, Texas on 13 August, further illustrates the point.
It's not real clear what happened, but the excitement started with the pilot messing with his on board GPS (most of us have never done that, right?...) while cruising along pretty low to the ground.
"As he attempted to troubleshoot the [GPS] problem, engine torque dropped momentarily, then returned to 1200 pounds," the NTSB states. "Shortly thereafter, engine torque dropped again and the pilot decided to make a precautionary landing on a road." The FAA inspector later said he was unable to determine the reason for the drop in engine torque.
A typical story would have ended with the pilot landing in a field or on a road, but...
"While on final approach to the road, the pilot looked inside the cockpit momentarily and when he looked outside, he noticed a set of power lines crossing the road," the NTSB continues. "He was able to avoid them."
"The pilot then saw a second set of power lines and while manoeuvring to avoid them, inadvertently stalled the airplane. The right wing dropped, striking the power lines. The airplane spun around and impacted terrain in an inverted attitude."
Despite stalling at low speed, which for an AT-402 is about 60mph, hitting wires and slamming into the ground INVERTED, the pilot walked away with no injuries. Amazing.
Here are pictures of the aircraft during recovery by AvClaims.
German company e-volo says it has successfully flown its manned 16-rotor electric multicopter in the southwest of Germany in "late October".
Test pilot Thomas Senkel flew the fly-by-wire copter for 90 seconds for the flight.
According to the company:
]]>The automatic attitude and directional control are taken care of by multiple separate and mutually monitoring onboard computers, controlling the engines with the precise rotation speed necessary to fly this tri-axis device. A simple joystick allows the pilot to control the aircraft via a fly-by-wire system. Whether during vertical takeoff, in flight, or landing, the pilot has to pay little attention to minimum speed, stall, gas mixture control, pitch control or one of many other things that make conventional flight as challenging as it is.
This electrically driven system is quiet, clean and economically cost efficient. A one-hour flight would cost something near to 6 Euro for electricity. In addition, the device holds few parts, which could wear out, making maintenance intervals and cost low and far between.
Unable to start the low-wing single the usual way (battery ON, mixture RICH, prime, pump throttle, yell "CLEAR", engage ignition switch), O'Grady decided to hand-prop the aircraft. He suspected the "starter drive gear was not engaging the propeller ring gear," according to the NTSB report on what happened next.
NTSB: "As he rotated the propeller, the engine started and the unoccupied airplane proceeded across the airport, colliding with a hangar."
Here's O'Grady's diagram of the action.
The aftermath in person was much messier than the paper cartoon.
In O'Grady's words: "While rotating the prop, the engine started causing the aircraft to race across the field striking a hangar, destroying the aircraft, shearing off both wings and coming to a stop".
Along with the PA28 getting hammered (picture below), a Stearman B75N1 in the unlucky hangar received damage to both its wings and its engine.
Post-crash forensics revealed the flaws in Mr. O'Grady's procedure: He had turned off the master and "thought" he turned off the magnetos, but realized when looking at the wreckage that he had in fact:
The good news? No people were injured (pride excluded), and a toy Stearman in the corner looked to be unharmed, as were the cool nose art pix on the wall.
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According to the recently issued NTSB factual report, the Baron was cruising at 8,000ft on the return leg of a charter flight from Morgantown (MGW) back to Mercer County (BLF) with one pilot and four paying passengers. First the right engine unexpectedly shut down, followed shortly thereafter by the left.
The pilot definitely had "the right stuff" in the left seat of the now-quiet cockpit. Before the left engine failed, he tried to turn the left fuel tank selector to cross-feed from the left tank to try and restart the right engine, a natural reaction when an engine fails. The fuel selector wouldn't budge however.
After the left engine failed he feathered both props for maximum glide, set up best glide angle and continued in vain to restart an engine.
Reaching the airport was not an option, so the pilot picked a yard and flew to the ground, sliding about 60ft before hitting the back of a house. As testament to pilot skill and a solid airplane, all five on board received only minor injuries.
An investigation reveals the accident, at least to me, looks to have been completely avoidable.
"Further examination of the left fuel selector knob revealed that when in the "On" position, indicating that the left engine was drawing fuel from the left tank, fuel was actually drawing from the right tank," says the NTSB. The left fuel selector valve had been removed, resealed and reinstalled during annual maintenance on 8 September 2010. The NTSB did not state which company did the work.
How much fuel was on board is also a topic of interest. Albatross had topped off the Baron with 200 gallons (194 gallons usable fuel) the week before, flying 3.2 hours in the interim before the accident flight. Had the fuel system worked properly, there would in theory have been plenty of fuel for the flight. NTSB retrieved no fuel from the right tank; the left tank had been punctured during the accident and 5 gallons remained.
Why the pilot was not clued in to the right tank being much lower than it should have been, eventually running dry, is unclear, and had he topped off for the charter flight, the problem would likely have remained uncovered.
