Rocket crash

[chrisk]

I'm sure glad to hear the pilot is ok.  I can't imagine what it would have been like to be strapped inside the plane with all those power lines draped across it.   I certainly would have been afraid to exit the plane. --But I would have been afraid to sit there too, .....just thinking about it bursting into flames.

[Alan Fox]

We met him at N57 , it is an earlier Conversion , had no avionics to speak of , I remember this was for sale on EBAY about 3 years ago , Scott , I'm sure that being on the evening news is a thousand times more exposure than here , aside from the "stupid" comments , there will be a lesson to learn here , and that is why I posted this.......Not to ridicule the pilot.......  

[Danb]

It was a good post. Knowledge is golden

[kmyfm20s]

No evidence of prop chord damage. Engine was probably not running.

It looks like power lines wrapped up in the prop which stopped it and dented the spinner.

Sent using Tapatalk

[rbridges]

Why would they lift it by the tail?!!

 

 

I don't think they're lifting by the tail unless I'm seeing it wrong.  I think the forklift is raising the power lines in the 3rd pic.

 

 

edit--nevermind, I saw the video.

[scottfromiowa]

It is not unusual for more damage to occur during retrieval vs. the actual incident, unfortunately!  Hopefully the plane can fly again... we'll see.  (FWIW, I have a good tailcone and empennage that can be had cheap!   )

 

Glad the pilot is fine, and I'll sure want to hear what happened as well... sounds like an engine and/or fuel issue.  I've flown a friend's Rocket a couple of times and he had a LOT of trouble getting the CMI fuel injection system setup properly...and it would frequently die completely after landing.  I suppose it could die on approach as well if going to idle and lead to a land-short scenario.

TRUE-When I GUP'D my plane the runway was shutdown. This resulted in FAA/Tower in Cedar Rapids being notified and triggered the FAA actions (check-ride's). The airport is focused on GETTING THE PLANE OFF THEIR RUNWAY. Can you imagine the DOT and local officials AND utilities hyper concern on getting road open/wires/power restored? Your airframe takes a "Backseat" to expediting removal. I am Gld I was there and was pro-active. They would have put a strap around the coowl and tail and lifted it...CAN U IMAGINE THE DAMAGE? I removed cowl and they secured to motormount. We used the tail tie-down to rig another lift point. I assured them that once lifted I could drop and lock the gear...which I did. Easy-peazy to get toed back to the hanger...THAT is a long ride looking back at your wounded bird...knowing you were the culprit.

This driver may or may not want to "discuss" his event. I don't think this thread with all the photos is the proper way. I don't ever want to see a photo of my plane on it's belly. Can you imagine seeing the footage of the forklift lifting/dragging your plane? I am done commenting. I stand by what I said. This was NOT the way to do this. Glad no one died. I am more interested in teh pilots condition than how/why at this point.

[N601RX]

Here is a picture from the other side.  The gear was down, but then collapsed.  I think he landed on the road and then clipped the power pole or something else close to the road and then went off the road. 

 

http://www.the-chesapeake.com/2014/05/19/delaware-plane-lands-roadway-near-georgetown/

 

If he did hit the wires midair, he is very lucky the plane set down level and didn't nose over.  If it hit the wires in the air, it had to stop very quickly to end up where it did.

[KSMooniac]

Ugh.  Poor Rocket... I suspect it will be an easy decision to total-it-out.  Thankfully no hospital or funeral expenses to pile on to the claim, though!

[bonal]

So i think I should point out that the so called Power lines are in fact Phone and CATV cables as an electric distribution engineer its always the same with the news people they see wires and "OH MY GOD" power lines.  I checked out the location on google street view and you can see where the electric primary distribution lines end on each side of the approach end of the runway. people always call them telephone poles until something is wrong and they call the power company. Glad no one was hurt.

[bonal]

When in doubt you must assume they are power and they are hot. Exiting can be fatal so it's always better to wait unless there is fire. I always find it interesting when they talk about first responders when power lines are involved and the fire crews usually wait until we show up to clear the lines. Don't know what happened but I'm glad no one was hurt.

[Cris]

That is Joe Gund who is based at Cape May. He put a factory reman. in that Rocket a couple of years ago. Glad he was not hurt. I'd suspect mechanical issues as he is a very experienced aviator.

[mulro767]

Ok so if I'm ever so unfortunate to crash my precious Mooney please don't post my name and photo until I'm ready to talk. This thread seems very disrespectful to a guy who has probably just said goodbye to his airplane. If he's a Mooneyspace regular, he'll most likely come forward and share his story so that you won't have to experience it.

Seriously if I knew that my name and photo would be posted on this page so quickly after a crash I'd probably quit Mooneyspace forever. I'm here to learn how to avoid accidents. Not find out what the guy looks like who just had one.

[Hank]

Well, for better or for worse, you can pretty much rest assured that if you crash your Mooney and there is media coverage of it that you will end up here too.

 

Member or not. We want to learn from ALL Mooney accidents, so that history will have a chance to not repeat itself.

 

Some of the interest in the case was because the pilot wasn't named, and we were concerned about a possible friend.

[bonal]

I agree Jim and Hank. We all hope and pray it never happens to us that being said this forum is at least populated by pilots that understand the different circumstances that cause accidents as opposed to the news media who really only care about getting a story and ratings and often like to put GA in a bad light. All of the comments I have read hear on the space have been about concern for the people involved and their well being. Also a desire to learn from it to make us all better pilots.

[orionflt]

you guys were just talking about media spin and that really hit home after reading a story from last week. 2 commercial airliners were transiting between LA and Hawaii, one heading east one west. apparently they were close enough to have the TCAS direct evasive action, according to the article the airplane made an abrupt 600 fpm dive for 60 seconds to avoid the other plane.  passengers were apparently flung from their seats and screams of terror erupted from the cabin. .....hears my interpretation of the event, TCAS goes off, pilot instinctively follows the recommended course of action and initiates an abrupt descent (passengers get light in the seat maybe even lift out some), holds descent rate at 600 fpm, traffic passes event over. passengers in the back... gets light in the seat from the initiated decent and and is startled, several people in the airplane scream leading to more screaming and panic, several people see other aircraft pass overhead at 1000+ feet and say we almost hit another aircraft..we almost died...imagine what the must have been saying by the time they got on the ground. to me reading the article it was really a non event, the warning systems ensured a safe separation and if the initiated decent had been smoother the passengers would never had know.

 

mind you this is just my opinion

 

Brian  

[chrisk]

you guys were just talking about media spin and that really hit home after reading a story from last week. 2 commercial airliners were transiting between LA and Hawaii, one heading east one west. apparently they were close enough to have the TCAS direct evasive action, according to the article the airplane made an abrupt 600 fpm dive for 60 seconds to avoid the other plane.  passengers were apparently flung from their seats and screams of terror erupted from the cabin. .....hears my interpretation of the event, TCAS goes off, pilot instinctively follows the recommended course of action and initiates an abrupt descent (passengers get light in the seat maybe even lift out some), holds descent rate at 600 fpm, traffic passes event over. passengers in the back... gets light in the seat from the initiated decent and and is startled, several people in the airplane scream leading to more screaming and panic, several people see other aircraft pass overhead at 1000+ feet and say we almost hit another aircraft..we almost died...imagine what the must have been saying by the time they got on the ground. to me reading the article it was really a non event, the warning systems ensured a safe separation and if the initiated decent had been smoother the passengers would never had know.

 

mind you this is just my opinion

 

Brian  

 

My 15 year old daughter used to be afraid to fly on commercial planes.  She would jump at any little bump, a change in the engine, or the gear coming down.  That was cured after her first flight in the right seat of my plane.      My point is it's all perspective.  A 600 FPM descent sounds like a lot, but it is nothing to us. --Some might even call it a stabilized approach.

[hindsight2020]

My 15 year old daughter used to be afraid to fly on commercial planes.  She would jump at any little bump, a change in the engine, or the gear coming down.  That was cured after her first flight in the right seat of my plane.      My point is it's all perspective.  A 600 FPM descent sounds like a lot, but it is nothing to us. --Some might even call it a stabilized approach.

 

Also rember that VS/VV is GS dependent. So with these big boys scorching air molecules at 7 miles a minute, a 600FPM delta on either airplane going 7 miles a minute ground (for the sake of no-wind simplicity), puts you at a pitch attitude of 0.85 degrees nose up or nose down. That's less than one degree, for the math challenged. In other words, the damn pax farting cause themselves a more noticeable G-effect than 600fpm on an airliner at cruise.

 

The media sucks almost as much as the pedestrians who buy their propaganda suck at life. Cowards shouldn't be allowed to vote. /stirpot

[fantom]

Seriously if I knew that my name and photo would be posted on this page so quickly after a crash I'd probably quit Mooneyspace forever.

 

What makes you think that having 'your' possible story details posted would have anything to do with you being on MooneySpace?

[Alan Fox]

Bunch of crybabys......

[mulro767]

What makes you think that having 'your' possible story details posted would have anything to do with you being on MooneySpace?

Your question makes no sense to me.

[Alan Fox]

Basically he's saying that its getting posted , regardless if you are a member or not...... Bottom line it serves the greater good....

[scottfromiowa]

By greater good you mean guessing about what happened with no facts? That greater good?

NOPE

Rather be a crybaby than a gossipy knucklehead. Post your damn full names addresses, photos. Then there is credibility. Better yet, tell me again what has been learned and communicated here to prevent a similar event...that would provide value. None of that so far on this thread.

Signed

Crybaby Scott

[scottfromiowa]

Broken record. If you don't get it from my statements you are not going too...

Cry baby

[Alan Fox]

Greater good Scott , I read about the "possibility of hot wires"  in a panic I wouldn't have even thought of this..... But if it happens to me in the future , you can bet your ass that I will think of it should the situation arise....... This little reminder could save someones life......As this unwinds and more people read it will raise peoples awareness of what they could do in a similar situation, or more importantly , what not to do ....... That value alone exceeds anyones "Bruised ego" ........  I was in a similar situation , and I was embarrassed at the time , but if my misfortune benefits another human being , than screw their ego , or mine or yours for that matter......  Unlike most pilots , I don't consider myself an expert or authority on how to pilot an airplane , I look to others to learn from , and hopefully be a safer pilot myself.....This isn't the first time we have disagreed , and it wont be the last.......Hopefully we can disagree for many years to come.......

[Marauder]

I will vouch for Alan on the disclosure part. He has been open about his incident and shared why it happened. Most of us are not rubber neckers. We just want to learn why it happened and make sure we don't repeat it. I fly Into Georgetown regularly. What bit him?