I haven't seen much discussion around here about this, but Geoff Peck
was killed in a plane crash on his way home from Oshkosh this year.
We all owe him our thanks - Geoff was the founder of the rec. aviation
groups.

Condolences to his family and friends

Tony

--

Tony Roberts
PP-ASEL
VFR OTT
Night
Cessna 172H C-GICE

Has anyone done research into the annual number of accidents and fatalities
afflicting pilots flying to or from Oshkosh? During the past few years that
I've been lurking around here, it seems there's one or more every year. The
next question is why?



"tony roberts" > wrote in message
news:nospam-193E7A.21113706092006@shawnews...
>I haven't seen much discussion around here about this, but Geoff Peck
> was killed in a plane crash on his way home from Oshkosh this year.
> We all owe him our thanks - Geoff was the founder of the rec. aviation
> groups.
>
> Condolences to his family and friends
>
> Tony
>
> --
>
> Tony Roberts
> PP-ASEL
> VFR OTT
> Night
> Cessna 172H C-GICE

From what I see, hear and am told, the EAA do not advertise this data.
Between Oshkosh, Sun & Fun and Arlington, there are several accidents
each year. When you consider the number of aircraft flying to and from
these events, the numbers are not really out of line with national stats.

But - consider that many of those aircraft arriving are not even used to
flying in controlled airspace - and now they are controlled and landing
staggered, short and long with tremendous pressure to get it right and
clear the runway, plus given the fixed dates of the event, some are
perhaps flying when under different circumstances they would have
awaited better conditions - I really don't think that their accident
stats are out of line.

Still sad though - we all want to see a safe event.

Tony

--

Tony Roberts
PP-ASEL
VFR OTT
Night
Cessna 172H C-GICE

In article >,
"Dice" > wrote:

> Has anyone done research into the annual number of accidents and fatalities
> afflicting pilots flying to or from Oshkosh? During the past few years that
> I've been lurking around here, it seems there's one or more every year. The
> next question is why?
>
>
>
> "tony roberts" > wrote in message
> news:nospam-193E7A.21113706092006@shawnews...
> >I haven't seen much discussion around here about this, but Geoff Peck
> > was killed in a plane crash on his way home from Oshkosh this year.
> > We all owe him our thanks - Geoff was the founder of the rec. aviation
> > groups.
> >
> > Condolences to his family and friends
> >
> > Tony
> >
> > --
> >
> > Tony Roberts
> > PP-ASEL
> > VFR OTT
> > Night
> > Cessna 172H C-GICE

Very sad news. Thanks for sharing the information.


tony roberts wrote:
> I haven't seen much discussion around here about this, but Geoff Peck
> was killed in a plane crash on his way home from Oshkosh this year.
> We all owe him our thanks - Geoff was the founder of the rec. aviation
> groups.
>
> Condolences to his family and friends
>
> Tony
>
> --
>
> Tony Roberts
> PP-ASEL
> VFR OTT
> Night
> Cessna 172H C-GICE

And if "Arlington" refers to the fly-in at Arlington, Wa (AWO), that is an
airport that is normally untowered (I know some are trying to get away from
the term "uncontrolled"), but they have a "tower" for the fly-in, and that
tower won't refer to planes by "numbers" but as "Green and White Cessna on
Downwind", and heard that people get scolded for using their tailnumber on
the radio while trying to land there... Which may make sense, as they don't
have any radar at that airport, thus they wouldn't be receiving any
information from any transponders, and are just controlling aircraft by
looking to see who is in the pattern and who is nearby wanting to land...

-Wade Hasbrouck
PP-ASEL
http://wadehas.spaces.live.com

"tony roberts" > wrote in message
news:nospam-537890.21515706092006@shawnews...
> From what I see, hear and am told, the EAA do not advertise this data.
> Between Oshkosh, Sun & Fun and Arlington, there are several accidents
> each year. When you consider the number of aircraft flying to and from
> these events, the numbers are not really out of line with national stats.
>
> But - consider that many of those aircraft arriving are not even used to
> flying in controlled airspace - and now they are controlled and landing
> staggered, short and long with tremendous pressure to get it right and
> clear the runway, plus given the fixed dates of the event, some are
> perhaps flying when under different circumstances they would have
> awaited better conditions - I really don't think that their accident
> stats are out of line.
>
> Still sad though - we all want to see a safe event.
>
> Tony
>
> --
>
> Tony Roberts
> PP-ASEL
> VFR OTT
> Night
> Cessna 172H C-GICE
>
> In article >,
> "Dice" > wrote:
>
>> Has anyone done research into the annual number of accidents and
>> fatalities
>> afflicting pilots flying to or from Oshkosh? During the past few years
>> that
>> I've been lurking around here, it seems there's one or more every year.
>> The
>> next question is why?
>>
>>
>>
>> "tony roberts" > wrote in message
>> news:nospam-193E7A.21113706092006@shawnews...
>> >I haven't seen much discussion around here about this, but Geoff Peck
>> > was killed in a plane crash on his way home from Oshkosh this year.
>> > We all owe him our thanks - Geoff was the founder of the rec. aviation
>> > groups.
>> >
>> > Condolences to his family and friends
>> >
>> > Tony
>> >
>> > --
>> >
>> > Tony Roberts
>> > PP-ASEL
>> > VFR OTT
>> > Night
>> > Cessna 172H C-GICE

Wade Hasbrouck wrote:
> And if "Arlington" refers to the fly-in at Arlington, Wa (AWO), that is an
> airport that is normally untowered (I know some are trying to get away from
> the term "uncontrolled"), but they have a "tower" for the fly-in, and that
> tower won't refer to planes by "numbers" but as "Green and White Cessna on
> Downwind", and heard that people get scolded for using their tailnumber on
> the radio while trying to land there... Which may make sense, as they don't
> have any radar at that airport, thus they wouldn't be receiving any
> information from any transponders, and are just controlling aircraft by
> looking to see who is in the pattern and who is nearby wanting to land...

Yeah, but having been one of four blue and white Cessnas in the pattern
I can tell you there are serious drawbacks to this system.

"tony roberts" > wrote in message
news:nospam-193E7A.21113706092006@shawnews...
> I haven't seen much discussion around here about this,
> but Geoff Peck was killed in a plane crash on his way home
> from Oshkosh this year. We all owe him our thanks - Geoff
> was the founder of the rec. aviation groups.
>
> Condolences to his family and friends
>

I didn't know him, but I appreciate his contribution to computer science,
and aviation.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/peninsula/15303610.htm

Dice wrote:
> Has anyone done research into the annual number of accidents and fatalities
> afflicting pilots flying to or from Oshkosh? During the past few years that
> I've been lurking around here, it seems there's one or more every year. The
> next question is why?
>
I did it one year. There are easily a couple of dozen accidents going
to or from that I can identify from the initial FAA reports. This is
not surprising. There are something like 12,000 aircraft at OSHKOSH.
This is a significant amount of the aviation activity. Couple that
with a lot of pilots and aircraft where this is their ONLY long cross
country of the year.

This was a bad year for me. In addition to Geoff, we were taxiing out
in the aftermath of the TBM running over the RV and we heard the pilot
calling mayday on Gary tower who ditched in the lake.

Tom Conner wrote:
> "tony roberts" > wrote in message
> news:nospam-193E7A.21113706092006@shawnews...
>> I haven't seen much discussion around here about this,
>> but Geoff Peck was killed in a plane crash on his way home
>> from Oshkosh this year. We all owe him our thanks - Geoff
>> was the founder of the rec. aviation groups.
>>
>> Condolences to his family and friends
>>
>
> I didn't know him, but I appreciate his contribution to computer science,
> and aviation.
>
> http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/peninsula/15303610.htm
>

In addition to what is mentioned, Geoff wrote both the flight planner
and the plain language translator on the CONTEL/GTE DUATS sites as well
as the web page wrapper that shows up duats.com and the AOPA member's
site for this service. Back before Geoff got busy with Enflight he
regularly marshalled us together (via Ham radio and other means) at
the tower for lunch and dinner every day during Oshkosh. It was at
one of these dinner Geoff showed me the prototype of the DUATS flight
planner on his powerbook. Geoff's packing lists (he didn't pack light
either in the plane or what he carried on his person walking around
Oshkosh) were the master list for many of us who attended there.

tony roberts > wrote:

> and now they are controlled and landing
> staggered, short and long with tremendous pressure to get it right and
> clear the runway, plus given the fixed dates of the event, some are
> perhaps flying when under different circumstances they would have
> awaited better conditions -

I would also speculate that flying to these events might be some pilots'
only x/c for the year.

--
Peter

On Fri, 08 Sep 2006 04:09:00 GMT, tony roberts >
wrote in <nospam-193E7A.21113706092006@shawnews>:

>I haven't seen much discussion around here about this, but Geoff Peck
>was killed in a plane crash on his way home from Oshkosh this year.
>We all owe him our thanks - Geoff was the founder of the rec. aviation
>groups.
>

His legacy lives on:

http://geoffpeck.com/previndex.html
A principal area of my independent software development effort has
been aviation software. If you're a U.S. pilot and you'd like to
see the current generation of released software, visit
http://www.duats.com. The web interface, plain-language weather
translation software, and the flight planning system are all
software which I've produced.
http://www.enflight.com/


Here's the link to Mr. Peck's aviation page:

http://geoffpeck.com/aviation.html
In 1985, I had moved from the northeast to the San Francisco bay
area, and noticed that there was a small airport, Reid-Hillview,
very close to home. One weekend, I said" why not?" ... well, I did
get bitten by the bug. Private Pilot certificate in 3 months,
instrument rating 2 months after that, commercial a few months
later, then instructor, instrument instructor, and so on.

With more than 4,000 flight hours since 1985, I've flown my
airplane all over the continental US; I've also flown (other
aircraft) in Hawaii, Australia, France, New Zealand, and in the US
and British Virgin Islands. I hold the following US pilot and
instructor certificates: ATP-ASMEL, Com-Gli; CFI (Gold) -ASME,
-IA, -Gli; AGI, IGI. I also hold both Australian and New Zealand
PPL certificates, based on US certification. My most frequent
short-range flight is RHV - TRK (Reid Hillview Airport, San Jose,
CA to/from Truckee, CA). By now, my cats can almost fly that route
by themselves. I've attended the EAA AirVenture convention and
annual meeting in Oshkosh WI annually since 1987, and have flown
there in my Arrow all but three of the years.


Here's the NTSB link:

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20060810X01143&key=1


Sectional chart with accident site depicted:

http://skyvector.com/#12-18-2-5263-1828


Mountain Mail article:


http://www.themountainmail.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=8625
There was no fuel leakage or fire when the plane crashed.


More articles:

http://m.rho.net/TWIKI/bin/view/Main/MiscLinks

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/peninsula/15303610.htm


Memorial gathering:

http://m.rho.net/TWIKI/bin/view/Main/MemorialGathering
Memorial Gathering
Dear friends and colleagues of Geoffrey,

Please join us to share our sadness and our stories of Geoffrey
Gilbert Peck on Sunday, September 24th, 2006 at the Computer
History Museum in Mountain View, CA from 1 P.M. to 6 P.M.

Greet friends and family at 1 PM.

We'll have an informal program for people to share their memories
and some of Geoff's favorite music at 2 PM, a reception follows.

Bring your stories to share.

Please RSVP by September 15, 2006, to confirm your attendance,
please send an email to rsvp-accept[at]kino-eye[dot]com

If you would like to help, please send an email to Alice Apley at
alice[at]kino-eye[dot]com

Please forward this invite to others who might want to join us. We
have tried our best to reach all of Geoff's contacts, however, he
had an extensive social network and not everyone may have gotten
our email invitation.

Links:

Computer History Museum
Directions to the museum
We hope you will be able to join us,

Laura Peck, Alice Apley, and Phill Apley

-- AliceApley - 02 Sep 2006


Obituary:

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/15303610.htm

E-mail:
Password: thelover

Other news articles:

http://m.rho.net/TWIKI/bin/view/Main/MiscLinks


Stories from Geoff's students:

http://m.rho.net/TWIKI/bin/view/Main/FlyingWithGeoff

tony roberts > wrote:
> I haven't seen much discussion around here about this, but Geoff Peck
> was killed in a plane crash on his way home from Oshkosh this year.
> We all owe him our thanks - Geoff was the founder of the rec. aviation
> groups.
>
> Condolences to his family and friends

Geoff also moderated the following moderated Usenet groups:

rec.aviation.announce
rec.aviation.answers
rec.aviation.questions
rec.aviation.stories

I don't believe there has been any real activity on any of these groups
since about 2002 (lots of forged approvals, alas). These groups may or may
not still serve any useful purpose; in theory they could, in practice the
aviation groups seem to be surviving without them.

But if anyone is interested in taking over moderation of the announce,
answers, or stories groups (a proposal to remove the questions group is
being discussed on news.groups), post your offer to news.groups (to
preserve your sanity, my advise is to not read any other thread on that
group other than your own). I would also be willing to provide technical
assistance to anyone desiring to attempt said moderation.

People who have been posting long cross-country and student pilot stories
would presumably be posting them to *.stories. FAQs like Ron Wanttaja's
homebuilt FAQ (which he posts to the homebuilt group) would presumably be
appropriate to the answers group.

> I would also speculate that flying to these events might be some pilots'
> only x/c for the year.

Judging by what you hear on the radio, you might surmise that it is
some pilots' only *flight* for the year.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

> I haven't seen much discussion around here about this, but Geoff Peck
> was killed in a plane crash on his way home from Oshkosh this year.

Does anyone have an NTSB link for the accident? What happened?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

tony roberts wrote:
> I haven't seen much discussion around here about this, but Geoff Peck
> was killed in a plane crash on his way home from Oshkosh this year.
> We all owe him our thanks - Geoff was the founder of the rec. aviation
> groups.
>
> Condolences to his family and friends
>
> Tony
>
> --
>
> Tony Roberts
> PP-ASEL
> VFR OTT
> Night
> Cessna 172H C-GICE

This is sad... I wonder why he chose to cross the Rockies at a spot
where the mountains are so high?

"Jay Honeck" > wrote:
>> I haven't seen much discussion around here about this, but Geoff Peck
>> was killed in a plane crash on his way home from Oshkosh this year.
>
> Does anyone have an NTSB link for the accident? What happened?

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20060810X01143&key=1

> http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20060810X01143&key=1

Thanks for the link, but it seems to ask more questions than it
answers. Was he flying into the canyon purposefully? Why was his
landing gear down?

I suppose we might never know, unless the survivor can remember the
details?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" > wrote:

>> http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20060810X01143&key=1
>
> Thanks for the link, but it seems to ask more questions than it
> answers. Was he flying into the canyon purposefully? Why was his
> landing gear down?
>
> I suppose we might never know, unless the survivor can remember the
> details?

According to a wiki site set up to share stories to remember him, not much
is known yet:

http://m.rho.net/TWIKI/bin/view/Main/AccidentInfo

http://m.rho.net/TWIKI/bin/view

In article . com>,
wrote:

> tony roberts wrote:
> > I haven't seen much discussion around here about this, but Geoff Peck
> > was killed in a plane crash on his way home from Oshkosh this year.
> > We all owe him our thanks - Geoff was the founder of the rec. aviation
> > groups.
> >
> > Condolences to his family and friends
> >
> > Tony
> >
> > --
> >
> > Tony Roberts
> > PP-ASEL
> > VFR OTT
> > Night
> > Cessna 172H C-GICE
>
> This is sad... I wonder why he chose to cross the Rockies at a spot
> where the mountains are so high?

Anyone know a good weather archive site for cross reference?

wrote:

>
> This is sad... I wonder why he chose to cross the Rockies at a spot
> where the mountains are so high?

Actually, it is not such a bad place to cross. From Salida, you follow
the valley northwest to Leadville, then turn west across a pass to
Glenwood Springs. After that you are home free. I have gone this way
several times, and this is the route we took when I took the Mountain
Flying Course from the Colorado Pilots Association.

On 09/08/06 16:16, Andrew Sarangan wrote:
> wrote:
>
>>
>> This is sad... I wonder why he chose to cross the Rockies at a spot
>> where the mountains are so high?
>
> Actually, it is not such a bad place to cross. From Salida, you follow
> the valley northwest to Leadville, then turn west across a pass to
> Glenwood Springs. After that you are home free. I have gone this way
> several times, and this is the route we took when I took the Mountain
> Flying Course from the Colorado Pilots Association.
>

I just took a mountain flying course from a guy in Alamosa, which
started with a landing in Salida, then on to Leadville (and on from
there).

The crossing was very easy (although we were in a Cessna 206 Turbo).



--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers
Sacramento, CA

The NTSB report lists it as a "forced landing" so he was perhaps having
engine troubles. In that case flaps and gear down would make sense.

--Dan


Jay Honeck wrote:
> > http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20060810X01143&key=1
>
> Thanks for the link, but it seems to ask more questions than it
> answers. Was he flying into the canyon purposefully? Why was his
> landing gear down?
>
> I suppose we might never know, unless the survivor can remember the
> details?
> --
> Jay Honeck
> Iowa City, IA
> Pathfinder N56993
> www.AlexisParkInn.com
> "Your Aviation Destination"

Mark Hansen > wrote:

>>> This is sad... I wonder why he chose to cross the Rockies at a spot
>>> where the mountains are so high?
>>
>> Actually, it is not such a bad place to cross. From Salida, you follow
>> the valley northwest to Leadville, then turn west across a pass to
>> Glenwood Springs. After that you are home free. I have gone this way
>> several times, and this is the route we took when I took the Mountain
>> Flying Course from the Colorado Pilots Association.
>>
>
>I just took a mountain flying course from a guy in Alamosa, which
>started with a landing in Salida, then on to Leadville (and on from
>there).

From the report the crash was at Maysville almost due west of Salida.
It appears that he was trying to go over Monarch Pass. It is also
interesting that the provided time from departure until crash (16
miles away) was 45 minutes.

Had he gone NNW towards Buena Vista and Leadville he could have
climbed over the valley.

Ron Lee

On 8 Sep 2006 17:14:57 -0700, "Dan" > wrote in
. com>:

>The NTSB report lists it as a "forced landing" so he was perhaps having
>engine troubles.


http://www.themountainmail.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=8625
There was no fuel leakage or fire when the plane crashed.

>From the report the crash was at Maysville almost due west of Salida.
>It appears that he was trying to go over Monarch Pass. It is also
>interesting that the provided time from departure until crash (16
>miles away) was 45 minutes.

>Ron Lee
>
Apparently the Monarch Pass route is incorrect. From another article
"The crash site is surrounded by Pomeroy Mountain, Calico Mountain and
Sewanee Peak."

That is about 10 sm north of Monarch Pass and does not appear to be a
direction that minimizes exposure to mountainous terrain.

Ron Lee

> But - consider that many of those aircraft arriving are not even used to
> flying in controlled airspace - and now they are controlled and landing
> staggered, short and long with tremendous pressure to get it right and
> clear the runway, plus given the fixed dates of the event, some are
> perhaps flying when under different circumstances they would have
> awaited better conditions - I really don't think that their accident
> stats are out of line.

Granted the system might need work, but I don't think the arrival procedures
are the cause of many accidents at all. There was a stall/spin on the
grounds of Airventure this year (a Europa), but you very seldom hear of
accidents happening in the "controlled" airspace. Most accidents are in
Kentucky or Iowa or some such while in route.

You will usually hear of someone putting it in the lake due to running out
of fuel, but again, not really an arrival procedure problem (well, not for
the rest of us :) ).

>>>>> "RN" == Ron Natalie > writes:
RN> Geoff's packing lists (he didn't
RN> pack light either in the plane

This may have led to his demise.

("Andrew Sarangan" wrote)
> Very sad news. Thanks for sharing the information.

>> I haven't seen much discussion around here about this, but Geoff Peck
>> was killed in a plane crash on his way home from Oshkosh this year.
>> We all owe him our thanks - Geoff was the founder of the rec. aviation
>> groups.
>>
>> Condolences to his family and friends


Yes, very sad.


Montblack

tony roberts wrote:
> I haven't seen much discussion around here about this, but Geoff Peck
> was killed in a plane crash on his way home from Oshkosh this year.
> We all owe him our thanks - Geoff was the founder of the rec. aviation
> groups.
>
> Condolences to his family and friends
>
> Tony
>
Oh my god No!

Geoff took this newly minted pilot for a ride around San Francisco Bay
when I was out there on Business in the early 1990s. We landed at Half
Moon Bay and had a very nice dinner.
When he came to DC area we had dinner.... At the time I worked for
Contel. I was the one who put the system on the Internet, he was the one
who wrote the plain language translator.


He will be missed. :-(

Michelle P