G-ARNZ down at Herne Bay Air show (Pilot OK)

[DownWest]

Remember a chat with my father about ditching. He flew fighters from 38 to 45 and said that the radiator on the Spitfire touched first and the water it disturbed tended to kick the tail up and drive the nose down. He watched Finucane ditching with a bad outcome. They decided that possibly the best way would be to boot the rudder hard just before touching and try to use the dihedral to skate to a halt. Luckilly he never had to try the idea.

[abgd]

Perhaps the best thing to do would be to ditch inverted so that you end up upright (tongue slightly in cheek).

Turbulent stall speed is 39 knots/44mph or thereabouts so that must have been a pretty sudden stop.

[susier]

I can't find it online but local papers are carrying a headline which states that investigators have confirmed (more likely someone has suggested) that the accident may have been caused by a balloon which was photographed in the vicinity of the plane just prior to the incident.

It looks to be a large hand held novelty balloon which has escaped from its owner, at a glance.

Interesting if this could indeed have caused a problem with the prop - there were quite a few floating about during the display.

[Maoraigh1]

Could a burst balloon block the engine air intake? Never heard of a problem with balloon bursting events.

[abgd]

Originally Posted by Maoraigh1

Could a burst balloon block the engine air intake? Never heard of a problem with balloon bursting events.

I'd be surprised - and there's always carb heat. My first thought was carb icing to which they're prone.

I fly my turb down the coast often, so would be very interested to hear from the pilot about his experiences.

[Mechta]

Could a burst balloon block the engine air intake? Never heard of a problem with balloon bursting events.

You would probably use rubber balloons for bursting. A mylar balloon would would make a better job of blocking an air intake. The mylar ones, half deflated, turn up on our club's airfield quite frequently.

[abgd]

And it seems it was a burst balloon - see the latest LAA magazine for a mod to prevent balloon ingestion.

Presumably it got into the carburettor? I can see that would prevent carb-heat from solving the problem.