Shadrach Posted May 26, 2024 Report Posted May 26, 2024 https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/small-airplane-crashes-saturday-afternoon-near-butler-missouri-airport Pilot bales out leaves 6 passengers (presumably skydivers) on board. Everyone survives. 1 Quote
A64Pilot Posted May 26, 2024 Report Posted May 26, 2024 Way I read it was everyone jumped. In a statement Sunday, the National Transportation Safety Board said preliminary information indicates the plane was flying a skydiving mission, where "all passengers and the pilot were able to exit the plane before it crashed." The article did make it sound like the pax rode it in though 1 Quote
dkkim73 Posted May 26, 2024 Report Posted May 26, 2024 I was just watching "Masters of The Air" last night, including a scene with a high-speed, low-altitude bailout from a P-51 (one of the Redtail characters). It got me thinking about manual egress from GA planes, specifically the Mooney. At the risk of thread-jacking, is anyone aware of a bailout from the M20 airframe? I imagine if you thought it was even possible, you would want a helmet to not get whacked by one of the stabs. Quote
Shadrach Posted May 26, 2024 Author Report Posted May 26, 2024 13 minutes ago, dkkim73 said: I was just watching "Masters of The Air" last night, including a scene with a high-speed, low-altitude bailout from a P-51 (one of the Redtail characters). It got me thinking about manual egress from GA planes, specifically the Mooney. At the risk of thread-jacking, is anyone aware of a bailout from the M20 airframe? I imagine if you thought it was even possible, you would want a helmet to not get whacked by one of the stabs. I think I read about a test pilot bailout during factory flight testing in the sixties, but I could be conflating several different stories. Quote
toto Posted May 26, 2024 Report Posted May 26, 2024 2 hours ago, Shadrach said: https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/small-airplane-crashes-saturday-afternoon-near-butler-missouri-airport Pilot bales out leaves 6 passengers (presumably skydivers) on board. Everyone survives. My understanding is that there was a premature parachute opening by one of the jumpers that caused damage to the plane. So all of the jumpers went out, followed by the pilot. 1 Quote
A64Pilot Posted May 26, 2024 Report Posted May 26, 2024 52 minutes ago, dkkim73 said: I was just watching "Masters of The Air" last night, including a scene with a high-speed, low-altitude bailout from a P-51 (one of the Redtail characters). It got me thinking about manual egress from GA planes, specifically the Mooney. At the risk of thread-jacking, is anyone aware of a bailout from the M20 airframe? I imagine if you thought it was even possible, you would want a helmet to not get whacked by one of the stabs. I have a good friend, Dr Ralph Kimberlin that jumped from the Experimental Aero Commander 112 when during a Vd test dive the empennage got into flutter and disintegrated. The flutter Engineer in the airplane with him did not make it out. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/2731 I’ve seen an in cabin video of NASA spin testing a Bonanza, it wouldn’t recover and the test pilot got out. I don’t know if those doors were rigged to be jettisonable or not, because I don’t see how you could get out at high speed if they weren’t, between being thrown around or pinned from G’s etc having to push that door open against airflow enough for you to get out would be tough I think. FAA required a helmet and boots, not sure why boots. Also required a chase, always wondered what the chase was for, witnesses? When I did high risk test flights for Thrush I had the door rigged so it would jettison by pulling a cable, of course I never had too. We had to wear chutes when doing high risk test flights in the AH-64, but none of us thought that jumping was a likely option. Quote
Shadrach Posted May 26, 2024 Author Report Posted May 26, 2024 28 minutes ago, A64Pilot said: I have a good friend, Dr Ralph Kimberlin that jumped from the Experimental Aero Commander 112 when during a Vd test dive the empennage got into flutter and disintegrated. The flutter Engineer in the airplane with him did not make it out. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/2731 I’ve seen an in cabin video of NASA spin testing a Bonanza, it wouldn’t recover and the test pilot got out. I don’t know if those doors were rigged to be jettisonable or not, because I don’t see how you could get out at high speed if they weren’t, between being thrown around or pinned from G’s etc having to push that door open against airflow enough for you to get out would be tough I think. FAA required a helmet and boots, not sure why boots. Also required a chase, always wondered what the chase was for, witnesses? When I did high risk test flights for Thrush I had the door rigged so it would jettison by pulling a cable, of course I never had too. We had to wear chutes when doing high risk test flights in the AH-64, but none of us thought that jumping was a likely option. Pretty sure that during testing, all aircraft are rigged with quick release hinge pins making it easy to jettison the doors. The Bonanza F33C is equipped with quick release door hinges. 1 Quote
M20F Posted May 27, 2024 Report Posted May 27, 2024 On 5/26/2024 at 11:21 AM, Shadrach said: Pilot bales out leaves 6 passengers (presumably skydivers) on board. Everyone survives. Shanna, they bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say, let 'em crash. 3 Quote
A64Pilot Posted May 27, 2024 Report Posted May 27, 2024 22 hours ago, Shadrach said: Pretty sure that during testing, all aircraft are rigged with quick release hinge pins making it easy to jettison the doors. The Bonanza F33C is equipped with quick release door hinges. One would hope, but using our Mooney’s as an example it would take significant modification to make the door easily jettisonable. I wish that V tail spin video was still available it was quite interesting. However it was not required by the FAA for me, something I had done, but on a Thrush it wasn’t hard as it had an emergency door jettison system meant for if the door got jammed in a crash., only requirement they had was the chute that had been repacked within some time frame and a chase plane, no hard deck altitudes etc. AH-64 had det cord around the windows that would cut the windows out, again meant to give you a way out in the event of a crash and jammed door. Both military and the FAA required a parachute for high risk test flights. Quote
dkkim73 Posted May 27, 2024 Report Posted May 27, 2024 25 minutes ago, M20F said: Shanna, they bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say, let 'em crash. I re-watched that movie with my kids a few years ago; want them to be familiar with cultural canon. Great film, even funnier in this cautious age. 2 Quote
M20F Posted May 27, 2024 Report Posted May 27, 2024 45 minutes ago, dkkim73 said: I re-watched that movie with my kids a few years ago; want them to be familiar with cultural canon. Great film, even funnier in this cautious age. Bill Walton just died. Gonna be a lot harder dragging his ass up the court every night now. 1 2 Quote
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