Scout/wasp heater/fuel cock ?
 

On hearing of the civi Scout/Wasp that went down near Cambridge last week (both crew walked away) :) .The words of that old tractor loving Court and Social Flt instructor sprang to mind "You WILL NOT use the heater until you have atleast 500 hrs on type" Cold day, just after take off, need some cockpit heat? Ooops..... there by the grace of God go I.
:eek: :)

You are right, this ridiculous design killed many a good man...and still they wouldn't redesign it! :(

The design of the Scout heater and HP cock was not so much ridiculous as the heater is a lateral slider wheras the HP cock is a fore and aft gated lever. As a Scout QHI I made it a serious teaching point not to mistake the two and a variety of methods were used to ensure, as far as possible, that they were not confused. When flying two crew for instance, he who would operate the heater would put his hand on it and say "heater", the other crewmember would look in and either confirm or scream "no you dumbass thats the HP cock"!!
I can remember at least 3 occasions during my 2000hrs on Scouts where I screamed the latter. It proved the CRM worked.
My point therefore is that no matter how good or bad a design may be perceived, human error and poor cockpit drills are normally to blame for mishaps like this.
As far as civvies flying Scouts is concerned it was only a matter of time until a mishap occurred, I can tell you all for sure that the only reason both of the civs survived is as a direct result of the quality training they did receive prior to flying solo.

Word, from as close to the horses mouth as I can get, is that the engine stopped three minutes after a total refuel at an East Anglian licensed airfield. Substantial quantities of water have been found in the tank.
The e/o landing seems to have been textbook straight if just a tadd too fast for the boggy conditions. Skid dug in and the machine rolled over. Not much wind that day. I doubt I could have done better

That accident, to my reckoning, makes the fourth accident to a Scout in private hands.

The conversion is now 10 hours, up from the original 5, and as far as I'm aware there's only one place you can go to get converted onto them.

There but for the grace of god . . .

I seem to recall reading of an unfortunate civilian pilot who failed to hold the throttle against the stop. When it partially ran down with the associated audio, our man entered autorotation.....into a water filled quarry. All got out safe and well but after Farnborough had been through it they came to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with the aircraft and the piolt had caused a partial run down and failed to recognise it. I may not be 100% correct but that was the gist of it. Any comments from fellow drivers of the mighty Nimbus?

Sloppy :

Links coming up to all the Scout accidents I can find. Your one is at the top.

Scout accident report #1 - Oct 1999

Scout accident report #2 - August 2000

Scout accident report #3 - September 2000

[ 30 November 2001: Message edited by: The Nr Fairy ]

hmmm....64av8r (wotever) i've got 3000+ on the queen of the skies, it was a daft design, dont u dare quote CRM! do you remember an old friend of ours - now dead, who turned off the 'heater' high level in the far-east! just made it on to a jungle track! several mutual friends scared themselves to death over the years in NI and germany with that daft design....never forget...westlands make GREAT garage doors but....

Not sure I can cope with the conclusions reached in the report about a civilian diving a Scout into a quarry.

He reported following a "wag" with a full down auto. The report concludes that he may have slightly rolled off the throttle.

SO...What caused the airframe twitch and then what happened to that universally developed Scout Driver's Every Bl**dy 10 Seconds Throttle Twitch.

I have to admit I enjoyed the beast....the boys found it hard to dent and it was easy to stagger away from.

Many,many years ago I was doing "eagles" near the beutiful village of Castlederg,Co Derry. One of my winscreen wipers departed as they were wont to do. The heater was on and I couldn't hear the radio, my crewman was busy making sure that the UDR soldiers in the back - average age 58! - were still alive. I thought I heard my callsign on the radio but to make sure I went to switch the heater off, you've guessed it I went to move the HP cock but took my hand away just in time. Iv'e also seen it closed in error on the ground by a dear friend and when he put it forward again very quickly the engine re-lit!!

As a postscript to the first part of my tale, on return to Omagh I told my crewman that I almost turned off the HP cock and he said " no you didn't, if you'd have moved that lever 1mm I would have broken your ****ing arm sarge" Thanks Gerry!

I would love to meet the designer of that little arrangement and shake him warmly by the throat - CRM my @rse! it was a single pilot aircraft by design.

[ 05 December 2001: Message edited by: tqnct4cwp ]

Reg, I take yer point and withdraw the term CRM and replace it with 'common sense' and a sense for personal survival!
Behave out there!