Prang at mudgee 14/9/14, 2 dead
 

ABC News :(

RV6 ?????......

Yes, it was an RV6.

Sorry, didn't fully read the text, was it a local person?

Going off the fairly unique paint job and a Google Image search, I think it is from the Gippsland region.

Sorry. :(

Visible Propeller blade appears intact. Very sad.

Absolute tragedy. Condolences to the family. RIP.

(Just to clarify, the chap in the photos is NOT the pilot, he is the local Law, giving the media an interview).

www.mudgeeguardian.com.au/story

Horatio is correct, the pilot and passenger come from a very close knit flying community in Gippsland and will be very sorely missed. They were very active flyers, traveling often as a group for fly-always and I can only presume were out for this weekends gathering.

What is concerning is the lack of survivability in an almost intact cabin area. Perhaps the homebuilts don't match some of the design standards of the mainstream manufacturers.

RIP

I think that you will find that is not always true. Apart from a new Cirrus with airbags etc. which makes a marked difference from the rest of the GA fleet.

What matters most is the degree of sudden stopping…Deceleration G and how well you are seat belted in. A driver was killed at Lakeside last year in a relatively slow crash (they had data capture) at urban street speeds. His neck broke from the helmet forces, and a HANS device would have solved that.

There is far more to these things than meets the eye.

Sad day indeed.

Didn't know Terry all that well, other than working in the same company and talking aviation as I flew him to and from work. Will be sad news to all the old timers on Kingfish "B" oil platform. In Gods hands Terry and Bev.

Kathryn's Report: Van's RV-6, VH-TXF: Plane crash couple 'doing what they loved best'

out of fuel?

has australia's wonderful evaporating infrastructure killed another couple?
how many places in the entire country can you buy fuel now?
is it down to about 15 outlets country wide?

Fuel availability
 

DE, I understand the aircraft departed Dubbo. Most certainly fuel available there. Regardless, if, and it is a big if, fuel exhaustion was a factor it is always the responsibility of the PIC to ensure sufficient fuel for the flight is on board before departure. Witness accounts are often problematic and likely are in this case. A sad event.

Consider if you have a flight at maximum range.
there is a paucity of fuel stops along the way, say.
the pilot has done the calculations and thinks that he can make it.

all it takes is an unforecast increase in headwind component, a slight dirtying of the airframe, or some pitting of the propeller paint or flying with the balance ball slightly off centre and said cautious pilot may find himself not quite making the circuit.

in a car you can always, nearly always, find a petrol station along the way.
you can't in an aeroplane with australia's infrastructure as it is.

They don't. I had to stick a placard on my RV-9A just two days ago telling potential passengers that very thing... Though the RV series is considered to have good survivability in most accidents.


What concerns me is the total lack of ground scars, suggesting no ability to dissipate energy. I fear this will turn out to be another stall/spin accident. Even in an engine failure - short of hitting a cliff face head on - a controlled crash in an RV should always be survivable.

Pure idle speculation:

There are a number of scenarios we could all think of that might have a layman thing the engine was "spluttering". Off the top of my head;

- a not-perfect idle mixture could sound slightly lumpy
- an idle base leg and early finals, followed by an increase in power, could sound spluttery as the throttle was advanced

I have no idea what the circumstances were leading to the accident but there are some obvious and mundane reasons for the eyewitless report that are more probable than inventing pathways to make it CASA's fault or "someone else's fault". :=

RV's can be quite noisy and to a non-aviation person would indeed sound rough. A witness said the pilot was trying to re-start the engine as it flew overhead; does that mean it was stopped and he heard the starter motor, or does he mean it was spluttering or idling and the throttle was being manipulated? If we knew that, we would have an idea, but we don't.

I can answer your concerns with a question. What happened to the landing gear? Why is the fence in-tact just behind the aircraft? It's because there was little to no forward speed. It's clear from the picture that to an extent, it pancaked in.

The images seem to show that it didn't come from the direction the tail is facing ( the fence behind is intact) or not in a controlled manner anyway.. it looks more like a hard nose in (bent fuselage) and slump back to the pictured position ..


Either way, people talking about survivability of a nose in are not taking into account our own physical inability to go very fast to an instant stop. If the aircraft remains flying to the impact point we have a good chance, and the "cage" will protect us very well, but very little chance if control is lost..

Can anyone explain the stall characteristics of the rvs? Benign, intense? They seem very popular, so I would assume the former.

In the last year, I have seen one fatal accident and known the occupants of two others.. I have come to the position that these people passed doing the thing they loved most. Although this is no comfort initially for the families and friends, I know it helped me to move on in the longer term..

Condolences to family and friends.

While not speculating on this matter, it has brought back memories of something that happened to me in 1979 when landing my PA-24 250 on runway 04 at YMDG. After an extended trip with a local and not enough sleep from the nights before, touched down and on rolling out the prop stopped. "Mixture mixture mixture" I wonder what would have happened had things stopped a bit earlier, a bit lower, but too late for a restart. Engine splutters, try to extend the glide perhaps, stall spin perhaps. Humans are not perfect but fortunately I had the benefit of learning from my mistake. Very sad for the folks involved.

Frank.. If it was a touch and go, probably good it didn't happen a bit later either..