On Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:16:14 -0700, Ron Wanttaja
wrote:

Stealth Pilot wrote:

I was wondering about that as well. I was also wondering if she was
able to give an account of the accident yet.

a bump on the head will more than likely lead to some amnesia at that
point. dont push her to remember the traumatic events that led to her hubby
buying the farm.it will be kinder for her to forget.

Unfortunately, without her, we'll never know what happened. The NTSB
preliminary report says observers saw clothing and other objects coming
off/out of the airplane soon after takeoff. This implies the canopy had
opened.

This has happened to other Lancair owners, and they claimed the airplane
was still flyable. Yet a nearly-identical Lancair accident occurred at
Sun-N-Fun earlier that year. One witness saw the pilot having trouble
closing the canopy before takeoff. After takeoff, objects floated down.
Another witness saw the plane after takeoff...the canopy was moving up
and down as if the pilot was trying to re-lock it.

Was the airplane in Florida unflyable...or was the pilot distracted by
trying to re-latch the canopy? We'll never really know, since the pilot
died in the crash and there was no passenger in this case.

Had Bill encountered canopy latching problems before? A downwind
takeoff with winds gusting to 20 knots implies that he might have been
in a hurry and not latched it properly. But if he'd had canopy problems
before, it's less likely the NTSB will attribute the accident to a
faulty preflight.

Was Bill wrestling with an uncontrollable airplane? Or was he
concentrating on trying to get the canopy closed instead of flying the
plane? Or did the blast of wind throw an object into his face, covering
his eyes and disorienting him? Or did the engine quit, with Bill
deliberately popping the canopy to keep from getting trapped in the cockpit?

Janice is the only one that could know.

Ron Wanttaja


be gentle on her.

look it isnt rocket science.

canopies like on the corby starlet,most jodels and the Thorp T18 that
have a fixed front piece and a slide back bubble are the safest
because an unlatch in flight means nothing. they just fly shut.they
can be flown with the canopy all the way back if desired.

canopies that hinge sideways will blanket the wing if they come open
and a crash is almost inevitable.

canopies that hinge forward wont be latchable in flight because of the
lift generated (about 10% of total lift) easily overpowers any human
attempt to pull it back in position.

canopies that hinge backwards will just be blown away but may take the
pilots head off as they depart the aircraft.

some homebuilts have less than optimal design features but that is
part of the character of them.
every single homebuilt is different and lessons from one are seldom
transferrable to another.

from my perspective who cares what the NTSB attributes the crash to.
Bill wont care. It wont bring him back. It wont stop people making
poor design choices in homebuilts.

as I say be gentle on Janice. she is grieving the loss.

Stealth Pilot