Small plane crash lands on freeway in LA area

Larry Dighera wrote:
The story indicates that the California Highway Patrol estimated the
Bonanza's speed at 90 mph. Wouldn't the pilot have attempted to touch
down at about 50 knots? If not, why not.

The Bo won't fly that slow without power.

Having done this twice now, once on a freeway and once on a dragstrip, I can
assure you that the last thing you want to do is get to your point of
intended touchdown needing just another five knots or fifty feet --
ESPECIALLY in something as slippery as the Bo.

In the freeway case, I saw my opening in the lineup of cars, came across
each of them at about 80 knots at 50' agl or so and gave them a chance to
slow up, which they did. I then slowed up to 50 to hit my opening, but
didn't count on the clapped-out Datsun in the right lane going uphill with
six kids in the back at (generously) 30 mpg.

With another 5 knots to play with, I could have leapfrogged the Datsun.
That wasn't an option once the committment was made. Gliders run out of
potential and kinetic energy pretty much simultaneously.

Jim



"john smith" wrote in message
...
Larry Dighera wrote:
The story indicates that the California Highway Patrol estimated the
Bonanza's speed at 90 mph. Wouldn't the pilot have attempted to touch
down at about 50 knots? If not, why not.

("RST Engineering" wrote)
[snip]
In the freeway case, I saw my opening in the lineup of cars, came across
each of them at about 80 knots at 50' agl or so and gave them a chance to
slow up, which they did. I then slowed up to 50 to hit my opening, but
didn't count on the clapped-out Datsun in the right lane going uphill with
six kids in the back at (generously) 30 mpg.


And the rest of the story ....is?

Was the Datsun Green? :-)


Montblack
Owned a used 1984 Datsun/Nissan Stanza - most of the badging on the car had
both names, since they were switching corporate identities at the time.
Always thought that was weird. It was my winter beater ..."Datsun/Nissan."

No, the Datsun was babypoop brown. The rest of the story is that I got as
far over into the left lane as I could to avoid hitting her with the strut
and took the left wing off with the bridge abutment in the center of the
freeway. Airplane began a counterclockwise roll (lift on the right wing, no
lift on the left missing wing) and completed half a roll before coming to
rest inverted on the opposite side of the freeway.

Jim



I then slowed up to 50 to hit my opening, but
didn't count on the clapped-out Datsun in the right lane going uphill
with six kids in the back at (generously) 30 mpg.


And the rest of the story ....is?

Was the Datsun Green? :-)

On Sun, 19 Jun 2005 20:56:34 GMT, john smith wrote in
::

Larry Dighera wrote:
The story indicates that the California Highway Patrol estimated the
Bonanza's speed at 90 mph. Wouldn't the pilot have attempted to touch
down at about 50 knots? If not, why not.

The Bo won't fly that slow without power.

Vs is about 65 knots, isn't it? In ground effect it should be able to
fly even slower.

On Sun, 19 Jun 2005 21:39:04 GMT, Larry Dighera wrote:

Vs is about 65 knots, isn't it? In ground effect it should be able to
fly even slower.

Wouldn't ground effect be less effective without a turning prop? (assuming
total engine failure)

Allen

On Sun, 19 Jun 2005 17:08:54 -0500, A Lieberman
wrote in ::

On Sun, 19 Jun 2005 21:39:04 GMT, Larry Dighera wrote:

Vs is about 65 knots, isn't it? In ground effect it should be able to
fly even slower.

Wouldn't ground effect be less effective without a turning prop?
(assuming total engine failure)

It is my understanding that ground effect occurs when the wing is
within half a wingspan of the runway surface. It acts to diminish
wingtip vortices which reduces induced drag, and permits the aircraft
to continue flying at a speed slower than the speed at which the wing
would normally stall at a higher altitude AGL.

There is some technical discussion of ground effect he
http://whitts.alioth.net/Pagec7landings.htm#GE_
http://www.whittsflying.com/page4.70...%20Landing.htm
http://cafe.ou.edu/flightdeck/app5.html
http://www.avweb.com/news/airman/185905-1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect
http://avstop.com/AC/FlightTraingHan...undEffect.html
http://www.se-technology.com/wig/htm...en=aero&code=0

In article ,
john smith wrote:

Larry Dighera wrote:
The story indicates that the California Highway Patrol estimated the
Bonanza's speed at 90 mph. Wouldn't the pilot have attempted to touch
down at about 50 knots? If not, why not.

The Bo won't fly that slow without power.

When I was flying early Bonanzas, I would use 80 mph as glide speed,
power off. Touchdown was about 60 mph.

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