Police attend light aircraft crash at Nottingham

[fireflybob]

Two reported injured

https://www.nottinghamshire.police.uk/news-article/police-attend-light-aircraft-crash
Allegedly EFATO landed in field, instructor and student ok.

[DaveReidUK]

Looks very much like based AA-5 G-BEZH, owned by a local flying group:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/510x340/g_bezh_df27ca8347aeeeb458078c64d3459e8f45ab6662.jpg

Live updates after two injured following light aircraft crash at Nottingham Airport (https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/live-updates-after-two-injured-2486189)

[CaptainPugwash12]

It was run by Aeros Flight Training, their 2nd crash in a year!

[ShropshirePilot]

Who, in their right mind, would use an AA5 for training?
They are nice aircraft but the 160 Cheetah is underpowered and the Tiger lovely but that tendency to porpoise and bite you....
It's not a trainer!
At least they lived to learn the lesson.

[treadigraph]

Used to be plenty of AA-5s being used for training at Biggin, Elstree and Denham - think they were all Cabair's London School of Flying? Mind you there did seem to be a few accidents, I vaguely recall seeing one wrapped around the spectators' enclosure fence at Biggin after drifting off the runway.

[eckhard]

Who, in their right mind, would use an AA5 for training?

Well I managed 600 hrs of trouble-free instructing on them (and the AA-1) at Elstree. Yes, the nose-wheel torque-tube was notoriously prone to damage in the event of a mishandled landing but then again there are quite a few similar nose-wheel accidents on Cessnas.

There was nothing unusual about the landing technique. In the event of a bounce, we trained to either go-around or land again while keeping the stick back to avoid a second bounce (i.e. quite normal). Some accidents of which I became aware seemed to result from a bounce followed by a go-around with insufficient speed and not enough right rudder. The aircraft always ended up to the left of the runway.

I found them nice to fly, quite suitable for an initio instructing, good visibility, and generally reliable. Students liked them too.

[treadigraph]

The aircraft always ended up to the left of the runway.

Can't find a report for the one I'm referring to, but I'm sure it came off the left side of 29 - it ended up in the fence close to where Mike Hood used to board pax on his joy-riding Rapide.

[ChickenHouse]

Who, in their right mind, would use an AA5 for training?
They are nice aircraft but the 160 Cheetah is underpowered and the Tiger lovely but that tendency to porpoise and bite you....
It's not a trainer!
At least they lived to learn the lesson.
Plenty of AA5 are used for training. There is not much choise for low budget IFR trainer and it has its niche.

[CloudHound]

This one has apparently found its niche.

[Runnerbean]

Weak nosewheel, yes, but not especially prone to porpoising.

[Jetscream 32]

I remember pulling Laura Ashley out of her AA5 when it PIO'd and stoofed in at Middle Wallop back in 89 I think it was, I then did a few hundred hours on them and they are perfectly fine if you know how to round out and have the correct approach speed. :)

[DaveReidUK]

I remember pulling Laura Ashley out of her AA5 when it PIO'd and stoofed in at Middle Wallop back in 89 I think it was

That could so easily have been curtains for her ...

[treadigraph]

Pull the other one...

She actually died after a fall in 1985, so either it's another Laura Ashley, or a few years earlier. I do recall the company operated a PA-31 back in the '70s.

[DaveReidUK]

Pull the other one...

She actually died after a fall in 1985, so either it's another Laura Ashley, or a few years earlier.

The Middle Wallop event was definitely 1989, so must indeed have been a different LA:

Grumman American AA5 Traveller, G-BCEE (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5423042ae5274a1314000bdd/Grumman_American_AA5_Traveller__G-BCEE_01-90.pdf)

Incidentally, that took a bit of finding on the AAIB site (in the absence of the registration) - searching for "AA-5" finds 28 reports, including one for G-BCEE in 1989 (but at Hurn). It's only if you search for "AA5" (no hyphen) that you find the Middle Wallop one.

While the vagaries of the AAIB's historical data are well known, whoever designed a search facility like that should be shot, :ugh:

[treadigraph]

Yes, I was trying to find the Biggin AA-5 accident I referred to above, no luck, though I suspect it predates the reports that have been digitised.

[AndoniP]

That could so easily have been curtains for her ...

haha *golf clap* :D

[ShropshirePilot]

@eckhard I salute you! There used to be an AA5 club aircraft near me but the endless damage it sustained meant it was replaced with a more forgiving Archer 2. Personally I love the AA5 but the springiness of the damper free undercarriage means that the landings need to be well executed as you will well know. I went up in the one I used to fly recently and (with most of my flying now in Archer 2 or Cherry 6) was amazed at how much smaller they feel. One of my friends bought a Cheetah a few years ago and it was either a total nail (probably) or woefully underpowered. It was sold and replaced with a PA28.

I'm only reflecting on what I have seen of low hours pilots making all sorts of crass mistakes in the AA5 - including mashing the nosewheel spat having pushed back from the pumps. My only really terrible arrival in the Grumman was at Alderney many years ago when my pulse rate went off the scale, but at least the second attempt was better and no damage resulted!