Aerobatics are dangerous??.. Please read.
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 46
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From: Left seat of a Boeing... mostly!
Aerobatics are dangerous??.. Please read.
I hope that reading this news article will make you all as incensed as I am!
http://www.buckinghamtoday.co.uk/ful....asp?storyid=1 (copied below should this link not work)
Aerobatics are not inherently dangerous, accident statistics at aerobatic competitions over the last ten years prove this.
It is far from proven that this particular accident was directly related to aerobatic flight. The evidence is pointing strongly at a possible airframe related failure and not pilot error. As always, no judgement should made until the AAIB have finished their investigation and the report published.
I find it sickening, vile and insensitive that Councillor David Rowland has chosen to capitalise on this accident in order to bolster his campaign against aviation activities at Turweston Aerodrome.
Respect has not even been preserved, I understand the victims have not, as yet, been laid to rest.
But why should I expect better morals or behaviour from an individual such as Mr Rowland, when he has used this appalling accident to blatantly further his cause!
Notwithstanding the fact that this accident happened in the open FIR and not within the Turweston ATZ and as such the Turweston aerodrome operator has no control as whether a individual pilot engages on a aerobatic sortie or not. Incidentally aerobatics are not banned by planning permission at Turweston, pilots were politely asked not to practice in the aerodrome overhead (the safest place by far, for a number of reasons I won’t go into here) in an attempt to appease one particularly vociferous complainer who recently moved into a ‘large’ property on the aerodrome boundary! This particular individual has since turned his attention to the height of an earth bund (ten inches too high apparently, an alleged planning infringement, I understand!) on the airfield property! It strikes me that no matter what we do as pilots to keep the peace, some people are determined to destroy our passion to fly!
An excellent pilot and friend was lost last weekend, people like Councillor Rowland should be of extream concern to us all. We all have rights too, if to nothing else... respect and dignity would be a good starting point!
I look forward to all your replies.
CRASH FUELS SAFETY FEARS
The wreckage of the Yak aircraft
FEARS have been expressed over the dangers of pilots performing aerobatics in skies above north Bucks after two men died in an air crash near Towcester on Sunday.
Brothers Ian Hunt, 45, of South Wimbledon, London, and Tony Hunt, 48, of Camberley, Surrey, were killed in a Russian-built Yak light aircraft.
The 'plane hit an overhead cable near the Hesketh estate after earlier landing at Turweston Airfield in north Bucks to refuel. Witnesses claim to have seen it performing aerobatics over Towcester and then it disappeared out of view and smoke was spotted.
Bucks district councillor David Rowlands, who is chairman of the Turweston Airfield Consultative Committee, said he was concerned about the dangers of pilots doing aerobatics near Turweston after a local resident spotted stunts being performed on Sunday afternoon.
He said that, at a recent meeting of the committee, the owner of the airfield had agreed to ban aerobatics within the vicinity of the site and added: "I'm hopeful this will benefit local people and their personal safety."
Turweston Airfield spokesperson Angela Brown said aerobatics had been banned in a surrounding two-mile area of air space because of concerns by residents, but some pilots performed aerobatics over open ground further afield.
She added: "The pilots' deaths have come as a big shock to us.
"We knew one of them, Tony Hunt, quite well as he had a fuel account here and used to stop off once or twice a month on trips. He was a very nice chap and a very experienced pilot."
A post-mortem was carried out into the men's deaths on Tuesday, which showed they died from multiple injuries.
An inquest was due to open this week at Northampton.
After examining the crash site, air accident investigators will draw up a report on their findings.
A spokesman at their London office said: "The investigation is ongoing and our experts will be checking hardware, weather patterns and flight paths."
09/01/2003
Crash Fuels Safety Fears
http://www.buckinghamtoday.co.uk/ful....asp?storyid=1 (copied below should this link not work)
Aerobatics are not inherently dangerous, accident statistics at aerobatic competitions over the last ten years prove this.
It is far from proven that this particular accident was directly related to aerobatic flight. The evidence is pointing strongly at a possible airframe related failure and not pilot error. As always, no judgement should made until the AAIB have finished their investigation and the report published.
I find it sickening, vile and insensitive that Councillor David Rowland has chosen to capitalise on this accident in order to bolster his campaign against aviation activities at Turweston Aerodrome.
Respect has not even been preserved, I understand the victims have not, as yet, been laid to rest.
But why should I expect better morals or behaviour from an individual such as Mr Rowland, when he has used this appalling accident to blatantly further his cause!
Notwithstanding the fact that this accident happened in the open FIR and not within the Turweston ATZ and as such the Turweston aerodrome operator has no control as whether a individual pilot engages on a aerobatic sortie or not. Incidentally aerobatics are not banned by planning permission at Turweston, pilots were politely asked not to practice in the aerodrome overhead (the safest place by far, for a number of reasons I won’t go into here) in an attempt to appease one particularly vociferous complainer who recently moved into a ‘large’ property on the aerodrome boundary! This particular individual has since turned his attention to the height of an earth bund (ten inches too high apparently, an alleged planning infringement, I understand!) on the airfield property! It strikes me that no matter what we do as pilots to keep the peace, some people are determined to destroy our passion to fly!
An excellent pilot and friend was lost last weekend, people like Councillor Rowland should be of extream concern to us all. We all have rights too, if to nothing else... respect and dignity would be a good starting point!
I look forward to all your replies.
CRASH FUELS SAFETY FEARS
The wreckage of the Yak aircraft
FEARS have been expressed over the dangers of pilots performing aerobatics in skies above north Bucks after two men died in an air crash near Towcester on Sunday.
Brothers Ian Hunt, 45, of South Wimbledon, London, and Tony Hunt, 48, of Camberley, Surrey, were killed in a Russian-built Yak light aircraft.
The 'plane hit an overhead cable near the Hesketh estate after earlier landing at Turweston Airfield in north Bucks to refuel. Witnesses claim to have seen it performing aerobatics over Towcester and then it disappeared out of view and smoke was spotted.
Bucks district councillor David Rowlands, who is chairman of the Turweston Airfield Consultative Committee, said he was concerned about the dangers of pilots doing aerobatics near Turweston after a local resident spotted stunts being performed on Sunday afternoon.
He said that, at a recent meeting of the committee, the owner of the airfield had agreed to ban aerobatics within the vicinity of the site and added: "I'm hopeful this will benefit local people and their personal safety."
Turweston Airfield spokesperson Angela Brown said aerobatics had been banned in a surrounding two-mile area of air space because of concerns by residents, but some pilots performed aerobatics over open ground further afield.
She added: "The pilots' deaths have come as a big shock to us.
"We knew one of them, Tony Hunt, quite well as he had a fuel account here and used to stop off once or twice a month on trips. He was a very nice chap and a very experienced pilot."
A post-mortem was carried out into the men's deaths on Tuesday, which showed they died from multiple injuries.
An inquest was due to open this week at Northampton.
After examining the crash site, air accident investigators will draw up a report on their findings.
A spokesman at their London office said: "The investigation is ongoing and our experts will be checking hardware, weather patterns and flight paths."
09/01/2003
Crash Fuels Safety Fears
Joined: Apr 1999
Posts: 1,274
Likes: 0
From: Glen Prosen, Scotland
It seems to me that we try and appease these bastards far more than we should be doing. There's always some tw@t with money moving in next to aerodromes then trying to close them down or curtail their activities. Now I'm no laywer but I can't help thinking there must be some way of going over to the offensive (apart from dropping bombs on the bastards) with more effect than fighting a constant rearguard action via AOPA etc. Is there no way the legal eagles amongst Pprune members can start talking to one another with a view to aggressively opposing these tossers and telling them to FU** OFF! IF YOU BOUGHT A HOUSE NEXT TO AN AIRFIELD YOU WILL GET AIRCRAFT FLYING OVER. END OF STORY? Rant over for now.
I knew Tony from aerobatic meetings and thought he was a cracking bloke; smiled a lot. A very sad loss. He seemed to be a safe pilot and as a BAeA member and competitor was well aware of the dangers of low level aeros. What a pity.
I knew Tony from aerobatic meetings and thought he was a cracking bloke; smiled a lot. A very sad loss. He seemed to be a safe pilot and as a BAeA member and competitor was well aware of the dangers of low level aeros. What a pity.
Sub Judice Angel Lovegod
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 2,460
Likes: 0
From: London
One trick often mentioned is to check with them that they have registered the noise complaints such that they will appear during the due diligence searches performed by the lawyer of anyone thinking of buying the house.
The overall message being "if you compalin about the noise, it reduces the value of your house."
W
The overall message being "if you compalin about the noise, it reduces the value of your house."
W
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 605
Likes: 0
From: Midlands
Rowlands
Hi MR,
Can I urge you to contact the paper immediately and put them straight?
Try to get the paper to agree that he has used them as a forum to further his scummy anti-Turdy campaign when all that happened at Turdy in relation to this accident was - he uplifted some bl@@dy fuel there.
Logically then, he should be attempting to ban flying altogether rather than cause Turdy any more grief than he does already??
HP
Can I urge you to contact the paper immediately and put them straight?
Try to get the paper to agree that he has used them as a forum to further his scummy anti-Turdy campaign when all that happened at Turdy in relation to this accident was - he uplifted some bl@@dy fuel there.
Logically then, he should be attempting to ban flying altogether rather than cause Turdy any more grief than he does already??
HP
Guest
Posts: n/a
Although I certainly don't wish to argue with what has been said about certain people manipulating this sad event for their own ends, I think that there is another point here to consider here.
That is what do we do, as the GA community, to make friends out of our neighbours.
If I did not fly, and thus have a handle on the safety issues, I might be a bit concerned by aeros (or indeed light planes flying around me.)
So how do we get the message across that our activities are pretty non threatening.
I know that I showed a local small boy around our Pup last year, when his mother turned up asking if it was possible to look around the flight line.
She was quite astonised when I explained that engine failures are not a disaster because little aeroplanes can glide and land in fields and she was amazed at the low speeds for take off and landing, as she had assumed they would be jet like!
Her parting remarks were that she was very impressed by (a) how friendly people at the airfield were, (b) how much safer flying was than she'd thought and (c) how much happier she would feel seeing us coming and going in the future.
If we could get to people like this more, then maybe we'd have a counter balance against the others.
Problem is I guess, that it's a lot of work to make the contacts - but I would gladly give time towards doing PR for something I love so much.
That is what do we do, as the GA community, to make friends out of our neighbours.
If I did not fly, and thus have a handle on the safety issues, I might be a bit concerned by aeros (or indeed light planes flying around me.)
So how do we get the message across that our activities are pretty non threatening.
I know that I showed a local small boy around our Pup last year, when his mother turned up asking if it was possible to look around the flight line.
She was quite astonised when I explained that engine failures are not a disaster because little aeroplanes can glide and land in fields and she was amazed at the low speeds for take off and landing, as she had assumed they would be jet like!
Her parting remarks were that she was very impressed by (a) how friendly people at the airfield were, (b) how much safer flying was than she'd thought and (c) how much happier she would feel seeing us coming and going in the future.
If we could get to people like this more, then maybe we'd have a counter balance against the others.
Problem is I guess, that it's a lot of work to make the contacts - but I would gladly give time towards doing PR for something I love so much.
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 537
Likes: 0
From: Northampton UK
AAIB report is at http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/group...ty_024587.hcsp
RC
Synopsis
After a series of aerobatic manoeuvres the aircraft completed a stall turn and entered a vertical dive from which it did not recover. Examination of the wreckage revealed the presence of a short-handled flat bladed screwdriver that had jammed the elevator control such that the elevator control surface could not be moved beyond neutral in the nose-up direction.
After a series of aerobatic manoeuvres the aircraft completed a stall turn and entered a vertical dive from which it did not recover. Examination of the wreckage revealed the presence of a short-handled flat bladed screwdriver that had jammed the elevator control such that the elevator control surface could not be moved beyond neutral in the nose-up direction.
