The real tragedy of this accident apart from the loss of two lives was the quality of the accident report.
It was compiled by an underqualified inexperienced investigator. I suspect the guy might have had a ppl at one time but he certainly has no aerobatic experience. The accident report fails some of the basic standards of accident reporting. It paints a picture of carelessness and recklessness which is completely false. It draws conclusions not supported by facts and relies heavily on eyewitness accounts from non aviation people. Both pilots were well respected and flew regularly. Chris and Kerry had every reason to believe they were properly authorised by Warbirds and had gone to some trouble to ensure that they were.
The author of the report stated that the crew had endangered the lives of people on the ground near the township of Kaiaua because they were carrying out aerobatics near there. Yet the CAA placed an aerobatic training area with it's southern boundary right on the edge of the township shortly after the accident.
The accident report did not discuss a number of altenate scenarios that might have caused the accident
Chris Timms was wealthy. He won an olympic gold medal in yachting when he had no money... tell me how you do that without discipline while being reckless. He had well over a thousand hours. At least half of those hours were gained in Warbirds aircraft flying aerobatics. He spent an awful lot of money seeking out the most qualified people in Warbirds to give him instruction and guidance to ensure he flew safely. He flew regularly. The reason that he had not flown the Fouga for approx six months was the aircraft was on maintenance.
The list of rules he alledgedly broke is a joke... not one of them would have prevented this accident.
The truth is nobody (including the author of the report) knows why this aircraft crashed. At best it is poorly compiled speculation
Last edited by BGQ; 22nd Apr 2006 at 02:05.