Foxbat down yesterday at my Base Airfeld

[Phil Perry]

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/local-hubs/staffordshire/penkridge/2019/07/17/crew-taken-to-hospital-as-light-aircraft-crashes-near-cannock/

 

The owner, a partially disabled man in his sixties, had flown the aircraft in from Dorset, near the South coast UK, along with a friend, also in his sixties, to have the importer carry out it's annual permit to fly inspection 

 

After the aircraft had been inspected and test flown by the Importer, it was seen to lift off 'Too Early' according to a witness who also owns an A22 Foxbat himself.  "It wallowed along in a nose high attitude, not climbing well at all, until it stalled just past the end of the runway and nosed into a soft, deep ploughed field planted with oil seed rape, . . from an estimated height of 25 - 30 feet agl.

 

The passenger was able to exit the aircraft unaided, but the pilot had to be extricated by the fire & rescue service. There was no fire.

 

Good outcome, except for the insurance company I guess.

 

 

[turboplanner]

a soft, deep ploughed field planted with oil seed rape

 

In the genteel world of the Y generation Phil, we call that Canola now, but it still stinks terribly.

 

 

[pmccarthy]

Don’t let #metoo hear you saying rape is not rape

 

 

[yampy]

My first port of call every day is the “ Express and Star “ , and saw the report there . I immediately thought of you . Glad there are no serious injuries . 

 

 

[onetrack]

I've done a fair amount of cropping, and I can identify crops pretty rapidly, and I can tell you this much -  the spot where that aircraft is lying isn't oil seed rape (or canola) - it's actually wheat.

 

Another fine example of journalism accuracy at its best. I'll wager the journalist wouldn't be able to identify any crop accurately.

 

 

[old man emu]

It's Phil who can't tell the wheat from the chaff. The report does not identify the crop, although it does suggest that Phil's airfield is just a field.

 

 

[onetrack]

OME - Ahhh, well, that puts a different light on the crash description. Because Phil had included some quotation marks, I thought he was quoting a journalists article. My apologies to any journalist who feels hurt at the unwarranted criticism. 

 

I can't criticise Phil for not knowing wheat from oilseed rape - oops, canola - because I now know, he's obviously not a farming man. Now, if he'd written "Cessna" instead of "Foxbat", he'd certainly be immediately identified as a useless journo .... 

 

 

[Thruster88]

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/local-hubs/staffordshire/penkridge/2019/07/17/crew-taken-to-hospital-as-light-aircraft-crashes-near-cannock/

 

Good outcome, except for the insurance company I guess.

 

Don't feel sorry for the insurance company, they will adjust their premiums to remain very profitable. It is all of us that pay extra for piss poor piloting. 

 

 

[facthunter]

 Insurance is just risk assessment applied to  a premium determination." Actuarial somethingy"...If they get it wrong they go out of business. You have no idea of how good your "cheapest premium" is till you make a claim and read the fine print.  Nev

 

 

[poteroo]

That wheat crop is massive!  Probably in the order of 7-8 T/ha by my eye. I'm just surprised that the Foxbat wasn't held up by the dense crop and the crew simply opened the door and stepped out.  No wonder we struggle to compete with European farmers.

 

 

[Student Pilot]

European crops look glorious, Pom's especially. Looks like you could drive on top of them they are that dense. Sprising that the French produce more wheat than Australia.

 

 

[yampy]

It’s probably fortunate it was wheat and not a Canola crop . If it was Canola in full bloom the Foxbat would never have been spotted .

 

 

[pmccarthy]

I read that Holland produces more food than any other country.

 

 

[Thruster88]

That wheat crop is massive!  Probably in the order of 7-8 T/ha by my eye. I'm just surprised that the Foxbat wasn't held up by the dense crop and the crew simply opened the door and stepped out.  No wonder we struggle to compete with European farmers.

 

Happy with my 3T/ha average yield(of great quality wheat), not struggling. Do not get and don't want any subsidies from the gubmint. 

 

[spacesailor]

I had an acquaintance that was told by the guvment NOT to plant wheat, & got a big handout which payed for a crop of "chickpeas". The chickpea buyer offered $5 m. for the crop, the farmer (Dubbo) hired  the harvester & promptly got the crop in & boxed up,

 

Informing the buyer to take it away. & was promptly told the buyer would have to give him a $million more for the harvesting, which wasn't in the contract.

 

Money in farming if your lucky.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[onetrack]

I dunno, I reckon I wouldn't mind the $$$'s in this very nice crop of wheat that I spotted, just coming into ear, a few kms South of Coorow, W.A., in September 2018. This would've produced 5 tonnes/Ha, I reckon.

 

And on the other side of the road was the best canola crop I've seen in 20 years. 2018 was a good year for the Northern Wheatbelt of W.A., the grain storage points in this zone, are still pretty full from last years crop.

 

 

[Thruster88]

I had an acquaintance that was told by the guvment NOT to plant wheat, & got a big handout which payed for a crop of "chickpeas". The chickpea buyer offered $5 m. for the crop, the farmer (Dubbo) hired  the harvester & promptly got the crop in & boxed up,

 

Informing the buyer to take it away. & was promptly told the buyer would have to give him a $million more for the harvesting, which wasn't in the contract.

 

Money in farming if your lucky.

 

spacesailor

 

Total BS spacesailer. Did you meet this "acquaintance" at the pub ? I have heard some ripper stories in my time. Always smile on the inside when it concerns an area I have some knowledge of.

 

 

[spacesailor]

NO I went to pick up his old 57 chevy,  (Freebie) for a friend. He took me around the farm, because I queried all the New looking diesel motors, strew around the yard & paddock. sat in the cab of the harvester watching little birds scurrying out of the way.(quail ?).

 

Met again in the Dubbo Bowling club "All you can eat restaurant" the following year & He told me He's got the same government incentive again (No Wheat).

 

I have posted this aspect of someone Not using diesels (as maintenance was not only expensive but very slow to get the gear running in the harvesting time.

 

If the NEW diesel powered machine stops for a day he could loose a crop. So he bought a number of ford v8 petrol motors as back up.(out with the NEW in with one He can maintain.

 

PS the farm at Maryvale was sold & the airfield plowed under. But still has the expensive red balls outside the property.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[spacesailor]

PS

 

I Never gave a thought that he was having a bite out of me.

 

BUT he could have been a big liar !.

 

Who knows the working of a farmer's mind.

 

PPs the friend who got the Uncles car was lost to a traffic accident .

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Jabiru7252]

Landing in Canola is like landing in wire netting. I'll take the wheat anytime....

 

 

[Phil Perry]

OME - Ahhh, well, that puts a different light on the crash description. Because Phil had included some quotation marks, I thought he was quoting a journalists article. My apologies to any journalist who feels hurt at the unwarranted criticism. 

 

I can't criticise Phil for not knowing wheat from oilseed rape - oops, canola - because I now know, he's obviously not a farming man. Now, if he'd written "Cessna" instead of "Foxbat", he'd certainly be immediately identified as a useless journo .... 

 

 

 

HAHA . . .   Sorry guys, The description of the crop was verbatim from the eye witness.   I hadn't the heart to mention his description of the crop. . in the circumstances it would have seemed  petty.   The crop surrounding our site is invariably wheat.  ( Except when it's Spuds )

 

 

[pmccarthy]

Ten bags to the acre was a good crop when I was young. I don’t know what that is in tonnes.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Ten bags to the acre was a good crop when I was young. I don’t know what that is in tonnes.

 

 

 

Not having any Farming experience,. . .I wouldn't know I'm afraid mate, .   When we started flying from there in 1991, the ( then ) farmer, was being paid by the EU to leave the field in 'Set Aside' so he had a win win situation,. . our subscriptions as users, and his 'Bung' from the common agricultural Policy, which paid loads of Brit and French farmers NOT to grow anything. . .

 

This is why many of the UK Landed Gentry and Land owning Wealthy aristocrats and Politicians are pi$$ed off about the thought of leaving the EU, as their free money for nothing gravy train will cease to be and they'll have to GROW stuff and Sell it instead.  Their only other alternative, especially if the land is High ground or coastal, is to use their connections and get the energy sector to erect a subsidized wind farm on their property, the ground rent for these windmills is astonishingly high, helping to make the energy they produce very expensive, whether or not the wind actually blows. . .

 

The current owner has the airfield grass cut and Baled, ( the triangular bits between the strips that is ) and sells these bales to the 'Horsey' set for Silage.   Fair play to the man I reckon. . .he could be charging a LOT more for our Lease when compared to other airfields in the Midlands.

 

I am happy to report that the Pilot of the accident Foxbat, whilst still in Hospital, is not seriously injured, the passenger only had minor cuts and bruises.  I have not seen the remnants of the machine,, and I believe that it is being transported off site tomorrow.

 

 

[jackc]

Multipurpose forum here, hang about for some good farming advice ?

 

Cheers,

 

Jack.

 

 

[turboplanner]

Ten bags to the acre was a good crop when I was young. I don’t know what that is in tonnes.

 

Bags were 80 lbs if you rammed them