Statistically, takeoffs are more lethal than landings, even though
landings take more skill for a good "show". During initial takeoff a
typical aircraft is just above stall and climbing. An engine failure
on takeoff near ground could easily put you in a stall where recovery
is slim and nose down is more probable - and you "collide" with the
earth. In a conventional aircraft I prefer rotating at a higher speed
than customary, and get the extra speed edge to glide down to earth in
case of engine failure.

In landing problems landing speed itself is not much of a factor
unless you collide with something. Aside from fire or tiping over
remote possibility, higher landing speed along the runway simply
results in a longer slide. Recently an individual came down in a storm
and busted their landing gear on touchdown with same type of aircraft
as mine and resulted in no injury and relatively little damage to
aircraft. This was inspite of the fact that the touchdown speed is 90+
mph.

--------------------------------------------
Paul Lee, SQ2000 canard: www.abri.com/sq2000

"Pete Schaefer" wrote in message news:Btqpc.53022$536.9082680@attbi_s03...
Landing speeds are a big driver for the amount of injury. I think that the
FAA has a lot of data on this. Can't think of a reference off-hand, but you
can search the NTSB site. But anyway, here's the math: KE = (1/2)mv^2. The
basic conclusion is that accidents occuring at lower landing speeds do less
damage. This was a driver for the design of the RV series aircraft. If you
want safety, get something with STOL capability, make sure there's nothing
in the cockpit that's going to smack you in the back of the head if you
screw up, then practice, practice, practice (with an instructor until you
feel confident).....then practice some more. Avoid low-level aerobatics
until you're a really ****-hot pilot.

You really need to forget about structural protection in a home-built. The
key is to prevent (by flight procedure, pilot skill and knowledge, and by
appropriate vehicle design) accidents from happening in the first place.

Pete
[RV-8A in the planning stages....new shop under construction]

"anonymous coward" wrote in message
news
I agree this sounds impossibly fraught. What I would like (ideally) would
be the results of something akin to the car-crash tests that show how the
test-dummies fared in various scenarios - e.g. side impacts etc... I saw a