This is what they were flying...

As I sadly announced a couple of days ago, a friend of ours was killed
in a plane wreck west of Iowa City. He (and a buddy) were ferrying
something called a "Spencer Air Car" back from Seattle, for a third-
party buyer. According to eye-witnesses, the engine failed. (They
had been stuck in Idaho for five days, waiting for parts -- so
apparently this plane was giving them some problems along the way.)

Here's a picture of a similar plane: http://dougnlinap.home.mindspring.com/Home.html
It's basically a homebuilt Republic Seabee, but with one important
difference: It's apparently all-wood construction.

Looking at the design, I'd say an off-airport landing in anything less
than ideal conditions will be fatal, since that big engine and prop is
hanging right above and behind your head. Hit anything moderately
hard on the ground, and you'll have an O-360 with a pair of Ginsu
knives coming right through the cockpit.

No one really knows what happened, yet -- and maybe we never will
know. But in this plane, if you got slow during an engine-out
landing, or tried to pull up over that last fence and stalled, a hard
landing that would be survivable in a spam can would result in a very
bad day in this particular aircraft.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote

Looking at the design, I'd say an off-airport landing in anything less
than ideal conditions will be fatal, since that big engine and prop is
hanging right above and behind your head. Hit anything moderately
hard on the ground, and you'll have an O-360 with a pair of Ginsu
knives coming right through the cockpit.

That could be said of many, many amphibious designs, as far as getting an
engine in the back of your head. This time, the Ginsu knives were not
running, though.
--
Jim in NC

In a previous article, "Jay Honeck" said:
Looking at the design, I'd say an off-airport landing in anything less
than ideal conditions will be fatal, since that big engine and prop is
hanging right above and behind your head. Hit anything moderately
hard on the ground, and you'll have an O-360 with a pair of Ginsu
knives coming right through the cockpit.

The other factor with these high engined seaplanes is that if the engine
fails, you've got to push the nose down *immediately* because they
naturally want to pitch up into an immediate stall. Normal planes have
the thrust line a little below the center of drag so that when the thrust
is removed it pitches down naturally, but these types of planes have the
opposite arrangement.


--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
[Hunt for Red October] also passed the "Is this believable" test.
Such as, software that classes unknown sounds as sea animals mating ...
-- rwp

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ps.com...
party buyer. According to eye-witnesses, the engine failed. (They

Here's a picture of a similar plane:
http://dougnlinap.home.mindspring.com/Home.html
It's basically a homebuilt Republic Seabee, but with one important
difference: It's apparently all-wood construction.

Looking at the design, I'd say an off-airport landing in anything less
than ideal conditions will be fatal, since that big engine and prop is


What happened is yet to be determined and I won't comment on the accident
itself. I'm responding to Jay's comments in general.

An off-airport landing is quite doable and probably more survivable in an
amphibious flying hull, pusher design. First, if the engine has stopped,
then the prop is just another hunk of metal. The design of the Seabee has
the engine mounted pretty low and pretty solidly. It's not going to simply
slide forward dragging the spinning prop through the cabin.

Plus, since the hull is designed to take the punishment of a water landing
in waves, it tends to be beefier than the typical land plane. Wood
construction or not, it has to be solid enough to take a water landing. Land
it gear up in a field and there will be very little damage to repair.
-------------------------------
Travis
Lake N3094P
PWK

("Jay Honeck" wrote)
Here's a picture of a similar plane:
http://dougnlinap.home.mindspring.com/Home.html
It's basically a homebuilt Republic Seabee, but with one important
difference: It's apparently all-wood construction.


(Great site)
http://www.seabee.info/
"The unique Seabee amphibian was a product of legend aircraft designer
Percival H. Spencer selling his Air Car design to Republic Aviation
Corporation, to be their contribution for the expected post WW2 booming
personal airplane market."

(Great site)
http://www.seabee.info/seabee.htm
Look under Timeline:
"After the USA is at war, from the Pearl Harbor attack on 1941-12-07, Spence
put the Air Car in storage and starts working with Republic Aviation
Corporation as a test pilot on their P-47 Thunderbolt fighters."

Homebuilt project:
http://www.whitealbatross.com/plane/DPAIRCAR.html
"The following chapters are a basic attempt to re-document almost ten years
and over 7500+ hours of building, I have had a lot of encouragement and
positive feedback about this website. But the truth is I really prefer NOT
to spend the free time at the computer."

7,500+ hours ...what free time???


Montblack
Add an hour, I just now spent on his website, to that total. :-)

Republic SeeBees (basically the same airplane) had a bad record with
inflight fires. A friend bought one back in the late 70's.
He was aware of the problems and checked everything.
Had it less than a month when his caught fire. He set it down and walked
away, but the aircraft was a total loss.

An off-airport landing is quite doable and probably more survivable in an
amphibious flying hull, pusher design.

Agreed. And the fact that we've got a nice blanket of snow around
here (albeit frozen solid, with high temperatures barely above zero)
*should* have made it even easier.

Blane was an experienced CFII, who was taught to fly by his dad in a
Pietenpol. He was a real stick and rudder guy, who (according to
friends who flew with him) during BFRs always stressed off-airport
landing survivability.

Therefore, many in our local pilot community are leaning toward
something other than a simple engine failure as a cause of this
tragedy. Blane was just too experienced, and the terrain was just
too benign, for this to have been a simple "engine out -- glide into a
field and walk away" scenario.

But, again, we may never know.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"