"Stealth Pilot" wrote in message
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Ron
Acute in the medical sense is quite different from our usual meaning.
typically we laymen use acute to mean serious.
In medical terms acute just means 'of short duration'
we laymen also use chronic to mean serious whereas in medical terms
chronic just means 'of long duration'
so the term "acute mixed drug intoxication" just means a situation
that hadnt occurred for a long period. it doesnt mean that he had a
huge mixed drug intoxication problem, just one that had occurred at
the time.(unless of course the report was written by laymen)
we have little way of knowing what impairment that may have caused
because as others have commented he took lots.

rat poison is probably the warfarin that is used to break up blood
clots.

so yes the canopy was the direct cause, but long before that the heart
problem.

if we were honest the draconian aviation medical assessment for
pilots also played a part in the accident. maybe if it wasnt so
draconian, people would get the medical treatment they needed.
in australia we see lots of pilots change to ultralights and self
assessment during a clear period and go on to fly lots of hours that
would be denied to them all without much problem.
pilot medicals are after all a throwback to the days when governments
kept civil pilots as a fighting reserve and wanted them to be fit to
military standards. it is largely irrelevant now.
if we were really interested in civil aviation safety we wouldnt bar
pilots from flying, we'd more actively treat them.

the other aspect that comes from this fatal accident is that the
canopy design on that aircraft isnt fail safe. the slide back canopy
on the Jodel aircraft (as an example) can pop open or even be
deliberately opened in flight and the worst that happens is that it
flies itself shut. The Thorp T18 has a similar style of fail safe
canopy.
I'll bet not many people would have the intelligence to change the
canopy design on that design to something that was fail safe.

so yes there are lots of lessons that can be learnt from bill's prang.
the question is "will we actually learn them?"
Stealth Pilot


I agree with you on both points, and really doubt that there is much real
reason for medical certification unless passengers are being carried for
hire--and even then a case could be argued that the requirement is currently
more stringent than needed except in single pilot operation.

As to the canopy, the only defense of the tilt forward designs that I have
ever been able to understand is that they do make it much easier to enter
and exit the aircraft under normal conditions, and much the same could be
said of the side hinged designs.

Personally, both have made me just a little nervous when I have sat in them
on the ground at shows and I would prefer to stay with the many sliding
canopy designs--with the addition of hand holds on the windshield hoop or on
the underside of the glare shield and also a ridge across the floor, if one
is not already present, in order to easily heave myself up to a standing
position in the case of the tailwheel types.

BTW, so far, all of the RV builders who I know personally have stayed with
the sliding canopies.

Peter