Lancaster California: Another Fatal Cirrus Crash

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...nes-california
January 10, 2006 latimes.com : California Print

2 Killed in Lancaster Plane Crash
Flight instructor and student were practicing takeoffs and landings in
craft with a safety chute.

By Jill Leovy, Times Staff Writer

A flying instructor and his student were killed Monday when a small
plane equipped with a safety parachute crashed northeast of Gen.
William J. Fox Airfield in Lancaster.

The two men, who authorities did not identify pending notification of
relatives, were practicing takeoffs and landings just before their
Cirrus SR20 aircraft went down at 1:42 p.m. in what Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Lt. William Hindman called "open desert" near Avenue F and
40th Street West.

The plane was registered to Todd Olson of Henderson, Nev., according
to the Federal Aviation Administration. Olson could not be reached for
comment...

Just like Richard Collins says. The chute is a great way to make the
wife feel safer about flying but most accidents happen too close to the
ground to make a real difference.

-Robert

On 10 Jan 2006 09:08:02 -0800, "Robert M. Gary"
wrote in .com::

Just like Richard Collins says. The chute is a great way to make the
wife feel safer about flying but most accidents happen too close to the
ground to make a real difference.


It would seem that a forced landing in the desert would cause little
damage; after all gliders do it routinely. As the aircraft was on
final approach at the time, an unrecoverable stall/spin may have been
a factor. Perhaps the distraction of attempted 'chute deployment was
also a factor in this mishap? At any rate, I would expect seat-belt
harness to have precluded substantial injury in a forced landing in
the desert.

How many Cirrus crashes is the NTSB concurrently investigating now?

Hmmm, I don't see any indication of a 'forced landing'. Looks like a crash.

Anyway, that doesn't look like routine glider off-field landing country.
That's, "oh ****" chew up your glider country. But no matter.

Thanks for the link

Larry Dighera wrote:

Just like Richard Collins says. The chute is a great way to make the
wife feel safer about flying but most accidents happen too close to the
ground to make a real difference.

It would seem that a forced landing in the desert would cause little
damage; after all gliders do it routinely. As the aircraft was on
final approach at the time, an unrecoverable stall/spin may have been
a factor. Perhaps the distraction of attempted 'chute deployment was
also a factor in this mishap? At any rate, I would expect seat-belt
harness to have precluded substantial injury in a forced landing in
the desert.

1. From the local TV news, the plane's engine quited when it turned
crosswind. It immediately dove down to the ground after engine quit.


2. Prior to the crash, it's done many touch and go on the William Fox
Field (KWJF).

3. Note that the temporature here in Southern California was over 76
degree in downtown LA. I would guess it must be close to high 80 or
even 90s in the desert. (The crash happend on 1:40PM)

4. From the TV news, local sheriff saw the chute ejected after it hit
the ground. But can't be determined by official yet.

5. The plane was a rental at VNY Gene Hudson Aviation.

My friend's SR22 had experienced engine quit last summer when he took
off from Las Vegas in a hot day, with fully loaded, with air-condition
turned on. It was caused by engine vapor lock. Fortuntely he ws high
and was close to JEAN ( 0L7). He made a successful dead stick landing
at JEAN. His wife on the side sreamed ...pull the chute..pull the
chute...but he did not attempted.

On 10 Jan 2006 22:23:21 -0800, "cpu" wrote in
. com::

1. From the local TV news,

Perhaps that story is available on their web-site. Can you provide
the TV station's web address?

the plane's engine quited when it turned crosswind. It immediately
dove down to the ground after engine quit.

That observation would be consistent with a stall/spin.

2. Prior to the crash, it's done many touch and go on the William Fox
Field (KWJF).

3. Note that the temporature here in Southern California was over 76
degree in downtown LA. I would guess it must be close to high 80 or
even 90s in the desert. (The crash happend on 1:40PM)

4. From the TV news, local sheriff saw the chute ejected after it hit
the ground. But can't be determined by official yet.

5. The plane was a rental at VNY Gene Hudson Aviation.

My friend's SR22 had experienced engine quit last summer when he took
off from Las Vegas in a hot day, with fully loaded, with air-condition
turned on. It was caused by engine vapor lock. Fortuntely he ws high
and was close to JEAN ( 0L7). He made a successful dead stick landing
at JEAN. His wife on the side sreamed ...pull the chute..pull the
chute...but he did not attempted.

Wouldn't turning the fuel pump on be expected to clear the vapor lock?

Larry Dighera wrote:

Wouldn't turning the fuel pump on be expected to clear the vapor lock?

Interestingly, many of the local A&P comments in response to the 2002 fatal
crash of a Cirrus north of Syracuse, NY, suggested that these high
performance engines were not designed for repeated full power/low power
settings, as what happens over numerous touch and gos or, in the case of
the 2002 crash, repeated stall practice.

--
Peter

5. The plane was a rental at VNY Gene Hudson Aviation.

That was my first thought, since they are the only ones I know of that train
in Cirrus around here, but that plane was not their tail #.
As far as I know they only have 1 SR20 for rent, and it's a different tail
#.

It was a windy day in S. Ca., which tells me the gusts were really high
around Fox (normal cenario), but news reports said wind was calm.
I have never seen a windy day in S. Ca. where it wasn't even windier at Fox.

I have been hit by gusts in that pattern that really made me pucker up.
I'm sure we'll be hearing more about it.
Alex

They've removed the crashed aircraft, quickly. You can still see the
cached version in Google by typing N526CD and click their cached
version web content.

That's tragic. Hitting a little close to home for me. I'll bet I met the
instructor at the last Cirrus demo in Van Nuys. I noticed only one other
instructor on the web site now too, so yeah, they removed her name already.
That's if it is who I think it is.
The local news will probably release the names in the next couple days.
Alex
"cpu" wrote in message
oups.com...
They've removed the crashed aircraft, quickly. You can still see the
cached version in Google by typing N526CD and click their cached
version web content.