Light Aircraft Crash Cape Yorke

[Ovation]

Bad news again:

A LIGHT plane crash on the tip of Cape York Peninsula has claimed the life of a South Australian pilot.
The 62-year-old man took off from Bamaga airport on Thursday on a flight to Weipa, but didn't arrive.
Searchers found the wreckage of the plane on Friday morning at Cotterell River about 50km away.
The pilot was the only person on board.


Read more: Pilot killed in Cape York crash | News.com.au (http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/national/pilot-killed-in-cape-york-crash/story-e6frfku9-1226518335527#ixzz2CMgQ7FAI)

[PinkusDickus]

Any further details on this accident?

[T28D]

Vale - Ross Vining & Searey VH-RRZ

[Jabawocky]

A SeaRey apparently.

:sad:

[RenegadeMan]

Here's a picture of Ross landing VH-RRZ on the Swan river in Perth during the Skyworks airshow in January 2010. His aircraft was nicknamed the Violet Crumble.

http://seaplanes.org.au/images/VioletCrumble.jpg

He has flown that aircraft to almost every place in Australia. He'd just been airborne for the total eclipse in Cairns the day before and waxed lyrical about it in an email to some of us in the Seaplane Pilots Association of Australia. Sadly he's flown off to an extremely remote place alone and come to grief (how and under what circumstances we don't know). Only that he had a SPOT personal tracker in the aircraft was he found so quickly and a major multi-aircraft search didn't have to be launched.

I'll remember him as a tremendously decent fellow who was an expert forensic scientist and a great lover and support of seaplanes.

It was great to have known you Ross. My condolences and best wishes to your family and friends.

RenegadeMan

[Dexta]

He was very generous with his time and aircraft, I was admiring his aircraft and he kindly offered a ride, we spent nearly an hour flying around the Coorong and Goolwa, he will be sorely missed.

[QDMQDMQDM]

Do we know what happened yet? Will we?

[Fantome]

Has any finding been released?

[Cuban Eight]

Investigation: AE-2012-163 - Technical assistance to QLD Police Service - amateur-built SeaRey amphibious aircraft, VH-RRZ, near Weipa, Qld, 15 November 2012 (http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2012/aair/ae-2012-163.aspx)

On 15 November 2012, an amateur-built SeaRey amphibious aircraft, registered VH-RRZ, was being operated on a private flight with only the pilot on-board. When the aircraft failed to arrive at its destination, search and rescue authorities were notified, and the aircraft was subsequently located on 16 November, having collided with terrain approximately 76 nautical miles north of Weipa, Qld. The aircraft was destroyed by impact forces and the pilot had sustained fatal injuries.

The QLD Police Service (Northern Coronial Office) is investigating this occurrence. Following examination of the aircraft wreckage, QPS officers requested assistance from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) in the recovery of data from a GPS unit found at the accident site. To protect the information supplied by the QLD Police Service and any data recovered from the examined device, the ATSB initiated an external investigation under the provisions of the Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003.

The examination found that the GPS memory chip which contains the flight data was damaged and the data was therefore not able to be recovered. The GPS was returned to the QLD police.

[YPJT]

Unfortunately not much about it on the ATSB (http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2012/aair/ae-2012-163.aspx) site. Only a bit about QPOL requesting assistance with the GPS data chip.

[Ben.Vining]

Hi Everyone, I'm Ben, Ross Vinings Son.

It's an interesting coincidence this thread came back to the top recently as I have only just become active on the forum and would never have thought to search for it!

I did lots of flying with dad in his Searey, including a trip across the Bass Straight which was an amazing journey.

He was an experienced pilot with over 2,800 hours in light aircraft and had flown his Searey almost the entire circumference of Australia on various trips.

I spoke with the investigation team and the coroner at length about the cause of the crash and a solid conclusive single factor was never found. There were several factors that were thought to be contributing to the crash:


The aircraft entered in a low altitude stall possibly after a touch and go on Cotterell River
Gusty winds were reported by fishermen nearby in the Gulf of Carpentaria
He had been using standard grade mogas due to the unavailability of the Rotax recommended premium and as a result was reluctant to use full power when not essential
The investigation did not reveal any engine or aircraft malfunction


The location on the map view on the ATSB website is a little off, the crash was not into the water as indicated, it was on land just south of the river.

If anyone would like further details please feel free to contact me at [email protected]

On a side note, I have not been discouraged from flying as a result. I held a private pilot license at the time of dads death, I am currently training for my commercial and hopefully will be looking for a job in aviation around May this year.