Scudrunners

[b]Experimental Plane Crashes into Airliner Boneyard.[/b]

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Source: [url=http://frontpage.scudrunners.com/planecrashboneyard/]Experimental Plane Crashes into Airliner Boneyard.[/url]

Yes he is lucky, but lacks skill.

Can anyone help me understand why he turned left to crash there, instead of going straight, to what appeared to be an area without trailers to hit?

[quote author=Shiny link=topic=7227.msg19665#msg19665 date=1507351234]
It sort of looked like he had some control issues with one of the engines out. I can't imagine the quicky's tiny rudder would do well with some asymmetric thrust.
[/quote]
It was supposedly the third flight of that little jet Quickie and the VMC had been in question from the start.  The decision was made that if one quit in testing both power levers would be brought to idle and the jet landed straight ahead.  For whatever reason (perhaps when he ballooned with the engine out) a split second decision was made to keep flying and from there on out he was just hanging onto the ragged edge.  At times there were full control deflections with almost no response.  Apparently the engines used (intended for RC jets) were also prone to flameouts if the power was advanced too quickly, which can't help.


Somewhere online there's actually a NTSB report on this one and while I've read excerpts I haven't gone through the whole thing.  No idea why they investigated a non-fatal crash of a one off, maybe it was because it was an already weird plane made weirder with an unusual engine swap.

Ok, that helps.

God bless them for pulling a Diemert and fooling around with designs they don't quite understand. You learn much more doing things like that than not trying.

Maybe do it in a place with less obsticals. Get out in the middle of the desert, not beside a bunch of giant parked planes. He is lucky he did not hit one of those 747s. They probably were not as impact absorbing as that old office trailer.

Now I need to rant about my misspel. You know what iPad? You can't spell either and I don't apreciate the suggestions for silly words to replace "obsticals". There now it's probably in wrong and you just can let me spell it wrong.

[quote author=David MacRay link=topic=7227.msg19677#msg19677 date=1507385483]
Maybe do it in a place with less obsticals. Get out in the middle of the desert[/quote]
He kind of did.  Mohave airport as far as I understand is pretty remote and flat and those airliners aren't at the end of any of their runways.  The place is pretty well suited to experimental flying and with the community of tinkerers there it has pretty well become the civilian version of Edwards AFB.


Just a shitty day in a weird airplane.

That place is pretty amazing. Burt Rutan and Jet Propulsion Labs have been there for a long time.

I think it's called Mojave "Spaceport" or something since they managed to get high enough in Spaceship One.

I'm kind of catching up, the right engine was still making trust and caused the left turn, yes?

I know they probably can't go there but on Google maps there are areas on Edwards where there are vast flat spaces with nothing but lines marked on the surfaces. Some of the area is former Space Shuttle landing strips. One thing you can see from the satellite image, is a circle possibly 20 or even 50 miles in diameter. I suspect it was marked like that, so the shuttle pilots could get a visual from far away, when coming back in that glider. It's obvious why it was a great place to test planes.

[quote]I know they probably can't go there but on Google maps there are areas on Edwards where there are vast flat spaces with nothing but lines marked on the surfaces[/quote]

I think you're referring to R-2515:

[img width=500 height=246][/img]

I was just there.  Overnighted at APV, arrived through
the Rockies via Barstow.  Lots of sand and rocks. 
Serious desert.

[img width=500 height=375][/img]

Next morning, went north and then west around
Victorville, up to 10,500 and just north of Palmdale,
then up to Mohave and through the Tehachapi pass
into the interior valley northbound past Bakersfield
and Fresno.  Logbook says it was 2.7 hours flight
time in the Pitts APV - LVK.  Nice little flight.

Waggled the wings in salute as I passed Palmdale.
My father used to pick up new CF-104D's from
Lockheed there in the early 60's.  They said the
warranty was good to the end of the runway!

PS  Mohave has a nice breakfast but I think they
stop serving at 2pm IIRC.