Blue Origin Astronaut Killed In C 172 Crash

[vanNostrum]

I wonder what has to happen for a 172 crash and kill the two occupants
in a clear day

A Blue Origin astronaut who flew on a Blue Origin rocket with William Shatner has died in a New Jersey plane crash.
Glenn M. de Vries, 49, and Thomas P. Fischer, 54, died when a single-engine Cessna 172 crashed on Thursday in Hampton Township.
"We are devastated to hear of the sudden passing of Glen de Vries. He brought so much life and energy to the entire Blue Origin team and to his fellow crewmates. His passion for aviation, his charitable work, and his dedication to his craft will long be revered and admired," Blue Origin tweeted on Thursday.
De Vries was part of the crew that flew on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket on Oct. 13 with William Shatner.

[Colonel]

Did the wings fall off?

When I was growing up, astronauts were ex-fighter/test pilots that flew all the hairy jets,
and had streets at Edwards named after them.

Killed in a 172 on a clear day. Jesus. That's like being run down by a moped.

Where is the testosterone?

[Slick Goodlin]

Where is the testosterone?

Maybe there was too much. Only an idiot could get killed in a 172, it would never happen to a space hero…

[Colonel]

Only an idiot could get killed in a 172, it would never happen to a space hero

Scott Crossfield managed to kill himself in a Cessna 210, which is just an overweight 172.



He was messing with Cb's in the southeast at night, as I recall. Some of those are pretty nasty.

He was 84, though, so did he really die tragically young?

I remember that Porkchops in one of his videos got all excited when he saw 15 degrees of
bank on final at Toronto Island in a 172. I understand it was a near-death experience for him.
While he was blubbering about that, I laughed so hard I swallowed my chewing gum.

too much (testosterone) in a 172

Not sure that's likely. Or if it's ever happened at all. I'm not saying that you can't kill yourself
in a 172 on a clear day - it just takes effort. Like this future four bars:



Killed himself and his 3 pax, intentionally spinning a 172. Quite the "learning experience".

[anofly]

the 172 , they sadly died in, was doing 50 odd knots at 5000 odd feet just before they went missing from flightaware... probably a spin or stall that they somehow messed up.. lots of instructor experience onboard so puzzling....

[Colonel]

So many lessons there, that no one is interested in learning. This ensures
that they will be repeated in the future. There's a name for that.

Let's look briefly at W&B. Pilot will tell you it's important. Wrong. You can
get a a piece of paper - a flight permit - and legally fly 30% over max gross.
Pilots aren't interested in physics, but the location of the Center of Mass is
what matters. See picture of 172 above.

Take a lesson from the recent King Air meat bombing spin, where they
suffered from a C of G shift from moving pax (and the idiots blanking the
horizontal stab).

Light bulb goes on. If you ever are in a happily spinning 172 with four
people on board (shudder), you need to get the people in the back seat
to take their seat belts off and climb into the front seat. Yes, you can
fit four people in the front two seats of a 172.

What effect will that have, on your C of G? And the spin recovery?

Sometimes, physics matters.

[Colonel]

Back to the mighty 172, and the importance of W&B.

With the 2300 lb 172's with 40 flap - I think M - you can pay someone
to get a piece of paper, and if you promise to never use more than 30
flap (ok, you fiddle the limit switch on the flap lever) you magically add
150 lbs to the legal max gross.

But it's still the same airplane, isn't it? You just can't use 40 flap any
more (not that you ever need to). Funny that the O-1 had 60 flap. As
the decades go by, they let pilots use less and less flap. I expect that
in the future, the mighty 172 will be limited to 10 flap.

Ever heard of Dan Gryder? Wildly popular on YouTube, lectures endlessly
about other people's aviation accidents ... and he just crashed at OSH
in a buck fifty trying to overshoot with (wait for it) ... 40 flap that wouldn't
come up.

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/265897