Aircraft Down

[microswitch]

Aircraft down in Sydney Basin, Any Details? Apparently fatalities?

[virgindriver]

According to 10 news- a glider out of Camden. 2 fatalities :uhoh:

[Going Boeing]

A man and a child have died in an aircraft crash south-west of Sydney.
Their motorised glider exploded on impact near Camden.

Onlookers saw objects falling from the plane moments before it crashed.

Emergency services are still at the scene.

Very sad. If anyone knows which glider was involved, I'd like the details. Thanks

[LookinDown]

I understand it was a Stemme based at Bankstown and which regularly commuted to Camden.

[Going Boeing]

Thanks LD. I know two guys who are in the syndicate that owns the Stemme - would now like to know the names of the deceased.

[catseye]

Going Boeing,

hang in there, the police can't release the names until formally identified and hopefully the close relatives advised.

There is a formal disaster victim identification process to be gone through.

These situations are stressful enough without naming the wrong crew.


The Eye.

[Going Boeing]

Totally agree with you catseye. I was just indicating that when the details are officially released then I'd appreciate the info as I'm currently O/S. Thanks

[Diatryma]

From SMH

Father and son die in glider accident

A FATHER and his young son have been killed after their glider crashed and burnt near Camden.
The two-seater motorised glider, with a 25-metre wing span, was flying from Camden to Bankstown yesterday afternoon, when it crashed in the middle of a paddock about one kilometre from Camden Valley Way.
The aircraft was burnt so badly there was little wreckage left.
A fellow member of Southern Cross Gliding Club, who did not want to be named, said the victims were father and son. He said the man was very experienced and was flying a private glider.
"I was having lunch in Camden when I heard the sirens," the man said. "We didn't realise. It's very tragic; I'm just in shock. We were just friends from the club.
"Gliding is actually a very safe sport. That's why it's a tragedy."
The aircraft, built in 1999, was understood to be registered to an investor, Neil Cocks, the owner of a company called Multihaven.
Gliders usually have no engine and are towed into the air by another aircraft. However, this one had a motor.
A police spokesman said: "Emergency services attended and located bodies of two people, an adult male and a child."
He said police would prepare a report for the coroner.
Two fire engines and at least four police cars attended.
The glider is understood to have crashed near St Gregory's College and a golf club.
An ambulance spokesman said the child was thought to be six or seven years old.
He said an ambulance raced to the scene as soon as the emergency call came in at 3.55pm. But when the ambulance officers reached the scene, they found both occupants were dead.


Di :uhoh:

[Foyl]

SMH now reports the pilot was Neil Cocks.

Emily Dunn
August 28, 2006 - 2:23PM

A gliding club president today paid tribute to pilot Neil Cocks, who was killed with his four-year-old son in a flying accident.

David Boulter, president of the Southern Cross Gliding Club, said Mr Cocks was a "very experienced pilot".

"He was a very good friend to everybody in the club. He will be greatly missed," he said.

Mr Cocks's two-seater motorised Stemme glider, with a 25-metre wing span, was flying from Camden airport to Bankstown yesterday afternoon, when it crashed in the middle of a paddock about one kilometre from Camden Valley Way.

The aircraft was burnt so badly there was little wreckage left.

Mr Cocks, a glider pilot for seven years, had spent Sunday helping other club members by towing up non-motorised gliders after taking off from Bankstown airport.

Then at 5pm he took off with his four-year-old son to fly back to Bankstown.

Mr Boulter said it was not yet known what caused the crash but he said the aircraft had safety checks every 50 hours and pilots were trained to land outside airports in paddocks.

"It's a very safe sport," he said, adding that only two fatalities had been recorded in the sport in Australia between 1996 and 2005.

"Our primary concern at the moment is to make sure the family is well supported with information," he said.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating the accident.

Mr Boulter said Mr Cocks had only recently started flying with his son.

"He had only in the last six months introducing him to flying," he said.

"It's quite normal for members to take their family up with them, even at quite young ages, but you tend to do that in your own glider, not so much [in] the club gliders."

Children were not allowed in SCGC gliders until the age of 10, he said.

Mr Boulter said Mr Cocks had recently moved from Lane Cove, in Sydney's north, but that he had little other information about his family.

"Being like a golf club, the way blokes are, we tend to talk about what we're doing, and what's happening, but we don't talk a lot about our families," he said.

"So we actually don't know a lot about his family."

NSW Police have not released Mr Cocks's age or the suburb where he lived.

- with AAP

RIP Neil and son. :(

[OhForSure]

Very sad news. May they both rest in peace.

[Trash Hauler]

I heard speculation that a catastrophic engine failure caused the event. I know zip about this glider however, I would have thought that any engine failure would be relatively easy to handle being a glider and designed to operate unpowered as well as powered.

TH

[jokova]

The Stemme's Porsche engine is behind the cockpit. On engine start the spinner/nose cone moves forward and the prop blades come out centifugularly. The long carbon fibre drive shaft goes up the axis, in a straight line through the cockpit.

Speculating, if the donk shat itself majorly, then the elevator and rudder controls could be disabled.

[LookinDown]

TH you are correct about failure of power plant generally not being an issue (so long as the engine is not lost from the airframe of course). An aircraft like the Stemme could literally glide almost to the horizon unpowered in still air.

Most likely either damage to control circuits resulting from engine calamity as jokova said or smoke/fume/heat as engine fire, which would not easily be directly observed in early stages, consumed airframe materials. Damn shame.

[Trash Hauler]

Noted on the GFA website an AD for inspection of exhaust system. AD issued on 18 Jul 06 and required to be incorporated within 10 engine hours. Affected engine is Rotax 914 F2/S 1. Are these the only engines fitted or do they also have Porsche as per previous reference?

TH

http://www.gfa.org.au/Docs/ADs/GFA%20AD%20636%20Issue%201.pdf