Aircraft down at Albion Park [IRA]

[Thruster87]

ABC radio report of aircraft down at Albion Park Airport [heard the sirens but not sure what went down] T87

 

 

[Guest aaronb]

some more info here;

 

http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=28&ContentID=48505

 

 

[Guest Flyer40]

ditto

 

http://illawarra.yourguide.com.au/news/local/general/ultralight-pilot-crashes-at-albion-park/1093639.html

 

Thankfully the pilot does not appear to be critically injured.

 

 

[Bruce Robbins]

From the Mercury picture (last post) it appears to be a trike.

 

 

[TechMan]

its supposedly a HGFA trike.

 

 

[Guest pelorus32]

Yahoo 7 News says it's a gyrocopter.

 

It will be interesting to see which media outlet has it right.

 

Mike

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

Probably none Mike. One said 'ultralight glider'. Anyway, not good news and a quick recovery to the pilot is in order.

 

 

[Guest High Plains Drifter]

ex ABC news site,

 

A man in his 50s has been seriously injured in a gyrocopter crash at Illawarra Regional Airport, near Albion Park, south of Sydney.

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

Footage about to come up on CH10. Is 100% a trike.

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

May be a brother in law of someone I know in Lightning Ridge. If anyone knows Stan in YLRD (also flies trikes) check to see if his brother in law is ok. Will try to make some calls.

 

 

[Mc Guyver]

We have had two trike accidents/incidents in 24 hours, one at Albion Park and one float Trike at Rose Bay.The purpose of these threads is for pilots to learn from these incidents/accidents and yet there are no comments or suggestions as to the causes of these unfortunate happenings. The purpose is certainly, not to lay blame on any person, or to gloat over the happenings.We are trying by discussion to minimise and eliminate any further incidents that could happen to other pilots in similar incidents.

 

 

[Guest Flyer40]

Updated report from the Mercury quotes a witness saying;

 

"He took off, and rather than just gradually getting altitude, he got nearly vertical.

 

"He went straight up and then went really hard to his right. It looked like he was trying to get it under control.

 

"He did a 180 and came straight back down on his nose."

 

This suggests a stall after takeoff, but I know nothing about trikes. A control or W&B problem perhaps?

 

http://illawarra.yourguide.com.au/news/local/general/ultralight-plane-crashes/1093967.html

 

 

[Guest pelorus32]

I always find this hard: As McGuyver says this thread is to learn and perhaps therefore not get into strife ourselves.

 

On the other hand we have a protocol here of not speculating and not jumping the gun on the investigation. We do this so as to not end up with wild assumptions, out of respect for the dead and injured and particularly their loved ones and in order to let the investigation run its course unsullied by public speculation.

 

Having said all that, I always find myself torn in these situations between wanting to speculate and wanting not to.

 

Regards

 

Mike

 

 

[Guest Decca]

I wholeheartedly agree with sentiments re not speculating, making assumptions, etc as I recall reading the old Aviation Safety Digest (now the ATSB report, or some such, but just as good) avidly to discover what the investigator's finding was. It would be great if we had someone who had the ability to track down the report to the investigation & copy & paste to this forum.

 

This scenario has life-saving potential.

 

Regards, Decca.

 

 

[Bluey]

Albion Park trike accident

 

Hi;

 

I agree with some speculation in this case as an investigation will rely on the same eyewitness accounts that we have access to. However, it helps to have as many facts as possible. Hence, based on the examination of the damaged aircraft at the scence by the CFI at Albion park here are the facts:

 

The aircrat was a new 582 engined trike with wizard 3 wing (3 hrs total time).

 

The unfortunate pilot was new to the sport (< 30 hrs).

 

The aircraft had been properly rigged, hence mechanical problems were not a likely contributor.

 

The prop had 3 badly damaged blades indicating a properly functioning engine at time of accident.

 

No reports of engine trouble by eyewitness.

 

I'll leave any speculation up to you.

 

Best wishes to the pilot and may he have a speedy recovery.

 

Regards and safe flying

 

Giorgio.

 

 

[motzartmerv]

isn't it funny, the media seem to be quite credible untill they report on something that you yourself know a lot about..The local paper and the news reports said 'ultralight' crashes at albion park..The footage clearly showed a trike wing and the remnants of a trike body..I thought they were called microlights??Anyway, the media can't seem to get this 'ultralight' thing out of there heads, and its sad because it transfers directly to the community..I recently took a guy flying in the Jab, and while we were airbourne i asked him" so what do you think about ultralights?"...to which he replied.."ooohh stuff that man...u'll never get me up in one of those death traps"...lol...his face was priceless when i informed he he was sitting in one...lol...anyway...speedy recovery to the pilot...

 

 

[BigPete]

Years ago (about 27 in fact) I used to subscribe to "Choice" magazine. It was one of my main decision makers when it came to buying any white goods etc etc.

 

Then they did a review on the new 8 bit computers - of which I was heavily into. There were lots of mistakes in their information. So I 'phoned them to tell them. Guess what - they didn't want to know!

 

No retractions, no "sorry we got it wrong" nothing. I have become a lot more cynical in my older (and wiser) years. (and I no longer read that magazine)

 

regards

 

 

[Guest Flyer40]

Having said all that, I always find myself torn in these situations between wanting to speculate and wanting not to.

Mike, as an accident investigator I sometimes find myself scoffing at media reports or rumor networks speculating about the cause of something I am investigating. Especially when it's before even I know the cause. Sometimes it can become a serious matter if people are taking misguided action on the basis of a false assumption.

 

But I don't think there is any harm in having a sensible discussion about what "could" have caused an incident. It's a bit like taking the incident and using it as a subject for a case study. It can be a good thing, particularly if someone learns something from the discussion. It only becomes a problem if someone makes assertions about an incident when they don't really know the facts.

 

And this forum is pretty good at jumping on people when they're out of line. Even I've been jumped on.

 

Mal

 

 

[Downunder]

An actual eyewitness posting on here about what they saw should not be a problem.

 

However posting second and third hand infomation can become a case of chinese whispers.

 

Just my 2 cents.

 

 

[Guest Flyer40]

Follow-up story link attached. We don't often get these from the media so it's interesting to hear how things turned out for the pilot.

 

http://illawarra.yourguide.com.au/news/local/general/ultralight-pilot-vows-to-return/1100892.html

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

Good on the man ;) A speedy recovery!

 

 

[motzartmerv]

Good on ya mate...A bit scarry though..his statement said he hit some freak turbulance...thats not the sort of thing i like to hear at all..especially when i regulararly fly in the same area and strip..I have encounted some 'severe' turbalnce on the leysdie of the escarpment there..But nothing that would casue the symtoms that eyewitnesses reported..That leyward turbulance can be a bugga..I spose it pays to have aelerons doesnt it..they can keep there weightshift machines..lol...

 

anyway...good on him for keepin his spirits up i say

 

 

[airborne]

any info yet on the cause of the incident??

 

 

[Guest dracer]

surley turbulance couldnt get any worse than point cook airbase on any given day, take offs and landings are a little scary in a trike.

 

 

[Ben Longden]

One of the biggest sources of media errors is due to a lack of knowledge on the reporters behalf.

 

The latest classic is calling a Metroliner a "light aircraft".

 

Talking with a CFA captain the other day (at an incident) he was bemoaning the same thing with reporters and fires. Most of the problems are made when new and inexperienced reporters work on a story... education is the only answer.

 

Ben