unbelievable..what a place for a road!

[dazza 38]

If I was them. I would have sold the film footage to the highest bidder.Could have made some serious coin with that footage.

 

 

[eightyknots]

quote"Pilot William Davis was completing his first solo flight, and his wife happened to be filming his landing when she captured the collision. For his part, Davis says he'll never fly a plane again, after this near miss."

How does he define a near miss??? I would call this a direct hit.

 

 

[eightyknots]

If I was them. I would have sold the film footage to the highest bidder.Could have made some serious coin with that footage.

It would have paid for a few more flying lessons, so he could get back into the saddle.

 

 

[facthunter]

Why no flaps then, if it was a first solo.? Nev

 

 

[Sapphire]

Maybe he forgot his flaps among a few other things

 

 

[facthunter]

Anythings possible. With no instructor to add weight and no flaps used it would be a wonder that he managed to do the lowest posssible approach at close to the minimum speed. Nev

 

 

[eightyknots]

 

unbelievable..what a place for a road!

 

What I find even stranger (or more unbelieve, take your pick) is that here in New Zealand, they may have a railway line crossing a runway. I am not talking about near the threshold but right in the middle. For instance in Gisborne (not to be confused with Nev's Gisborne in Victoria) the railway line intersects the runway. Usually (but not always) the aircraft are required to give way to trains because trains are heavier.

 

In the case of an emergency, the aircraft controllers in the tower also become train controllers and they can stop the trains in order to expedite the emergency landing. Here are a few pictures to illustrate this:

 

 

 

 

[facthunter]

Lot of unlevel ground in NZ. Railways and aerodromes like level ground. Many runways have another runway crossing them. another plane is just as dangerous Nev

 

 

[Robmus]

With all this conjecture about this accident, I clearly believe that the SUV driver was totally at fault. He/She should have stopped, whether there was a sign or not, and made sure no aircraft were coming in, before proceeding. The fact that the aircraft was low was not the issue. As far as I was concerned it would have made the threshold. All remember back to your first solo. It wasn't easy and was probably not perfect.

 

 

[Zibi]

With all this conjecture about this accident, I clearly believe that the SUV driver was totally at fault. He/She should have stopped, whether there was a sign or not, and made sure no aircraft were coming in, before proceeding. The fact that the aircraft was low was not the issue. As far as I was concerned it would have made the threshold. All remember back to your first solo. It wasn't easy and was probably not perfect.

It all depends on the signs that are around that airfield.

Even if it was a stop sign just on a road, without any warnings about low flying planes, a normal car driver would not expect planes to go flying across the road, and even if that driver would stop, looking to the side, over some fence isn't the usual action and even looking left and right he or she may have not noticed an incoming plane, as you hardly ever look up in a car.

 

At Caboolture you have the Bruce highway just next to the end of the runway (ok, maybe not just next, but no more than 300m) and there are no stop signs or anything, and until I started learning to fly, I had no idea there was an airfield there.

 

 

[eightyknots]

At Caboolture you have the Bruce highway just next to the end of the runway (ok, maybe not just next, but no more than 300m) and there are no stop signs or anything, and until I started learning to fly, I had no idea there was an airfield there.

I did! I was fascinated that when I drive past on the highway how many plane movements there are at that point.

 

 

[Zibi]

I did! I was fascinated that when I drive past on the highway how many plane movements there are at that point.

Yes, because your a pilot yourself.

Now whenever I drive I check the sky as well, either checking the conditions, or just being envious of people (or even birds) that get to fly, while I have to drive, but before I started flying my focus was completely on the road, or at least at ground level.

 

 

[Gentreau]

..... The fact that the aircraft was low was not the issue. As far as I was concerned it would have made the threshold. .....

I suggest you check that airfield on Google Earth. 33.056 N, 97.232W.

 

There is a displaced threshold 130m from the road, exactly to avoid passing low over the road !

 

 

[boleropilot]

well ya know i hate to be down on someone who stuffs up his first solo (considering what happened to mine- tis how i got the nickname Cropduster Dave) - but...

 

man was he short - and no flaps, surely he would have had the basic downwind and base leg checks imprinted firmly in his mind, i was taught BUFFEL - brakes, undercarriage, flaps, fuel, engine, lookout

 

now, i do understand also the drama associated with first solo - but it's a LOT worse in a Drifter

 

first, the takeoff is SO much quicker without the instructor in the back seat - so the rudder pedal reactions have to be spot on (mine were not on my first attempt)

 

then, at the end of the downwind leg, when you pull the throttle to idle (glide approaches are normally taught in Drifters) the aircraft feels like it just hit a brick wall and you'd better get that stick forward FAST

 

looking at the video, it seems to me the aircraft is travelling at a reasonable descent just before impact, but then it drops like a rock

 

i doubt he would have chopped the throttle so far from the displaced threshold, so i reckon he stalled - if the Volvo hadn't been there to "soften" his landing, i reckon he would have hit HARD - a LONG way from where he should have touched down

 

my instructor made it very clear to me before my second attempt - if you stuff up the approach, don't p#ss about, hit the throttle and go around - and that goes for EVERY approach until you're comfortable with your situation

 

as i said, sorry to be down on an aviator, but personally i think it's not a great loss for the the aviation fraternity to lose this bloke from our ranks

 

or - maybe his instructor should have been a little more cautious about the skills of his student before releasing him for solo - seems to me he wasn't quite ready.....

 

cheers

 

BP

 

 

[Gentreau]

How about this for an unbelievable place for a road..... (Gibraltar)

 

 

 

[eightyknots]

How about this for an unbelievable place for a road..... (Gibraltar)[ATTACH=full]19859[/ATTACH]

...you also can't short or long on that runway (unless you don't mind wet wheels)

 

 

[planet47]

Obviously the possibilities of similar incidents doesn't occur "only in America".

 

 

[Sapphire]

Just widen the road, block off each end, and use it as a cross strip. Instead of cars and planes potentially colliding, only planes now will potentially collide.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Surely the pilot would have seen the car in his peripheral vision. Power up and climb a couple of feet would have saved the aircraft and the car. Bloody SUV drivers. He should have looked for the plane as well. Both to blame? Hope we see the official outcome.

'Ang on Desk. . . . . command seat is on the left side of the aeroplane ( oh, this is in the USA isn't it . . . so I mean A I R P L A N E ! ) he might have been a small bloke ( lady ? ) and the car came out just at the moment when, if it had been me,. . . I'd have been looking ahead and already holding the throttle at full power. . . .. . . Peripheral might have been blocked by the right hand corner window frame, ?? ANyway, a bad connection of events, I blame the vehicle driver for not stopping and or checking to see if there was anyhing ccoming in to land, CARS in the US are driven from the LEFT side, so no real excuse there either.

 

I'm sure they will come up with an idea which works, maybe flashing lights and a barrier ????? ( ! ) I DO remember that an aircraft on a night training sortie bounced off the roof a semi trailer on approach to Moorabbin in the mid seventies, no injuries or damage fortunately, must have misread the PAPI lights, as the threshold must be at least 250 metres from the road !!

 

 

[Gentreau]

.........I DO remember that an aircraft on a night training sortie bounced off the roof a semi trailer on approach to Moorabbin in the mid seventies, no injuries or damage fortunately, must have misread the PAPI lights, as the threshold must be at least 250 metres from the road !!

Similar situation in this one Phil, only it was in daylight so don't blame thre PAPIs.

 

The threshold of that runway is 130m on from the impact point !

 

 

[Phil Perry]

I didn't blame the PAPIs on that one CLive, come on you Francophile. . . . READ IT . . . . . I do agree that the guy in the 172 / 182 ? didn't get a close enough look at it, but IHAVE had a look at their airfield on Google Earth and the runway appears to big enough to accommodate a small airliner, SO. . . . I have to wonder why the commander decided to try and skim the boundary fence by a couple of feet,. . . . bad training ? lack of recent experience ? Lack of concentration ? pilot distracrtion ? new type - not familiar with rate / ange of descent. . . .? total Idiot ? I dunno Clive. . . . . whaddyer think ? ( Mind you, maybe a Pom and a Frog shouldn't be discussing this on a Cobber forum. . . ! )

 

 

[ayavner]

keep in mind it was his first solo Phil, so I am sure all of the above applied - lack of experience, distraction, new, etc etc...

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Ouch. . . . First SOLO ?????

 

How did I miss that bit of info, it was obviously somewhere in the report. . . . . ( Pin yer lugs back Phil !!! ) It was fortunate, that I didn't call the pilot a wally then I guess, I reckon the car driver was a tiny bit out of order though.

 

I hit a barbed wire fence a bit ago, dragging about fifty metres of rusty wire right back to the parking area, in an Arrowflight Hawk, tandem seat 3 axis, low tailboom, 503 High thrustline pusher microlight, ( They probably call the thing something different in the U.S. ) I was flying it from the rear seat, with a phographer sitting in the front. . . and I used this ( to all my club friends who were rolling on the floor in hysterics ) as an excuse for making a Low 'N' Too Slow rubbish approach ! ! !

 

We cured THAT "obstacle - to - superb - pilots" . . . . by removing the fence

 

Phil