Tiger moth loses control at German show, one dead 38 injured

[NutLoose]

:sad:

Spectator dies in air show tragedy - Yahoo! News UK (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100905/tuk-spectator-dies-in-air-show-tragedy-6323e80.html)



A pilot of a small propeller-driven plane lost control of his aircraft while taking off at a flight show in southern Germany and crashed into a group of spectators leaving one person dead and 38 injured, police said.
The crash occurred at the Lillinghof airfield about 20 miles north-east of the city of Nuremberg, where up to 5,000 people attended the flight show.
Five people were seriously injured, while 33 others were slightly injured, of whom 22 were taken to a hospital, a police spokesman said at a news conference. Among those injured was a seven-year-old child.
Police said it was still unknown why the pilot of the 70-year-old biplane lost control of the aircraft and sped into a crowd of spectators.
The 68-year-old pilot was not hurt in the incident, but a 46-year-old woman died from her injuries at the airfield.
The flight show was to include stunts by small aircraft and sky divers, helicopter tours and tours with a Russian (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/fc/russia.html)-built Antonov An-2 biplane

http://d.yimg.com/i/ng/ne/pressass/20100905/20/298753258-spectator-dies-air-show-tragedy.jpg

[Pilot DAR]

Okay, I'll go first....

Just sad! I could second guess this all over the place, but nothing good would come of it....

[Torque Tonight]

Likewise, although I think most here with tailwheel experience might have a gut feeling regarding this one.

One thing that I have been thinking for a while now is that the Tiger Moth has had a pretty bad run of luck over the last few years, or you could just say a downright bad accident rate given the number of airframes out there. I have pondered this and looked for any common factors or causes and although I do have some suspiscions, this is probably not the right place to voice them. One thing that is often said regarding the Tiger Moth, is that it is an easy aeroplane to fly but a difficult aeroplane to fly well - probably exactly the characteristic the RAF has always looked for in primary trainers.

[Miroku]

For those of us without tailwheel experience would you mind letting us know a possible cause?

[Pilot DAR]

Tail wheel (or often skid, in the case of the Moth) are generally less directionally stable on the ground than nosewheel aircraft. They demand much more precise directional control, and if alllowed to change direction on their own, or under the influence of a crosswind, will diverge more and more, to the point where there will not be adequate control available to return them to the desired path.

[Torque Tonight]

Here's the caveat first - I know no more about this particular accident than the article above so take this as nothing more than general comment rather than idle speculation about this specific event.

Tailwheel aircraft are directionally unstable on the ground and can be a bit of a handful (footfull?). Take your feet of the rudder pedals and a tricycle aircraft will continue in pretty much a straight line. Do the same in a tailwheeler and the thing will groundloop - continuous rudder inputs are required to keep straight -if you don't the aircraft will turn and that turn will tighten up until something bad happens.

In many tailwheel aircraft there is little or even no view straight ahead when in the ground attitude. They are normally taxied in continuous weaving turns even down straight taxiways so that you can get a look at where you're going by peeking out the side. If you just taxi straight you'll probably end up hitting something that you never saw.

This is exacerbated by the fact that many such aircarft, including the Tiger, are primarily flown from the rear seat giving even less forward view - pretty much nothing at all from 11 to 1 o'clock. It would not be the first time that, due to the limited visual references and the natural tendancy not to maintain a stable heading, a tailwheel aircraft had gone 'off axis' on take-off. If you operate from a runway you are helped by your side view and edge markers, if on unmarked grass, you might easily end up well off axis without any visual cues until you get your tail up or go through a hedge. Staring in at the compass between your feet isn't going to be of any use because you really want your eyes out of the cockpit and it subject to acceleration errors anyway.

As I said this is just a generic hunch, and in the accident above all manner of other things could have happened which have not been reported.

Regarding the recent trend in the Tiger's accident rate, I'm at a bit of a loss. Of course there is the background static of random events - engine failures and suchlike, that may in part be related to the aging of the airframes, but I do also wonder if some of the accidents are perhaps related to a dilution of experience amongst the operators of the aircraft concerned. Are Tigers increasingly been flown by those with little or no experience of vintage tailwheel aircraft?

As I said I felt this 'trend' for a while now but have previously bitten my tongue. It's only about two months since the last write-off hence my mentioning it on this occasion. a quick google of 'AAIB Tiger Moth' provides a lot of reading material for a fairly uncommon aircraft type.

Anyone any thoughts?

[Pilot DAR]

dilution of experience

Good term.

[kevmusic]

As a new convert to the Tiger I can personally attest to its 'tricky' handling in anything more than a 5kt crosswind! In my case, the instructor took over (the first time for me in years) before we took out the runway markers.

[EDMJ]

According to various eye witness reports in German media and internet fora, the right-hand lower wing tip hit the ground just after take off from a grass runway, apparently knocking the aircraft some °90 off course.