Wire Strike! Cessna 182 Holly Ridge Airport Aug 2022
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- Wow! What a somersault! Minor Injuries only!
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Coming down tail first probably saved him from severe or fatal injuries. The crumpling of the tail section slowed the deceleration to a survivable rate. Decelerating back first in the seat and ending up on the gear probably helped as well. Very lucky pilot.
Get ready for the armchair dcs dudes talking sit
Well said.
Agreed...
100% spot on
@@liberalconservative7122 What's a dcs?
on the upside, he's now qualified to do carrier landings
But the LSO is pissed
Tailhook, tailhook!
Ended with all three wheels on the ground and walked away so all good. He might have a new Stall landing record right there also.
Was it the 3 wire?
Uh…..
Having spent 30 years in the electrical transmission and distribution industry, the last eleven of which I worked as the engineering and construction quality control inspector, I can assure you the cost of installing and maintaining the “warning balls” on that transmission line would be negligible comparison to the cost of lawsuits that could occurs from just one such accident. Responsibility and liability created by any electrical infrastructure, be it over head or underground, does not end when the job is completed, it can continue to evolve as land use changes. That said, there is no excuse for the lack of “warning balls” on that line.
Honestly, if the land owner's onboard with it, probably also cheaper for the power company to just eat the cost of burying the lines, compared to the combined cleanup, repair, and potential litigation of keeping them there.
@@xxpoisonblxx If it was a distribution voltage line that would be an acceptable alternative. However the line he struck was a transmission voltage line, though not an impossibility the costs and complexity for just one span would be exorbitant. Looking at the style of the supporting transmission structure, my guess is that it has been in place long before the air strip was created. I’ll reiterate, the most cost effective way to mitigate the liability would be for the installation of “warning balls”.
On my private strip I have a similar line crossing . These are extremely hard to see so I carefully hung visible markers on them. When hydro discovered them they were removed! They seemed willing to install there balls but I didn’t follow up.
I also had the misfortune to strike a power wire without damage to my aircraft but my response when the increadible sight of a window full of wires appeared my instinct was to immediately push nose down and fly under. I had previously practiced this as no power lines are lower than the height of most small aircraft. It is easy to see and avoid the ground where the wires are almost invisible and very difficult to judge height. And distance. The reason I struck the wire was I was flying under a ver high large transmission line ad did not go right to ground level and caught a small line that had hidden poles following a small road. Didn’t think of all possibilities! Moral is probably realize flying low is not advisable, but dam sure is fun💁
@xxpoisonblxx It's unlikely that the power company would pay for undergrounding the lines. The property owner(s) would bear that cost, and as someone else noted, it's far more expensive than you would expect.
We tried to do this in my neighborhood. One of 8 property owners wouldn't agree, so the line remains above ground. Fortunately it's not a flight risk here!
@@rayfletcher3683I’m not sure what you meant by “carefully hung visible markers on them,” but that sounds incredibly dangerous. Do not try this at home!
Cables absorbed the majority of the energy before the miraculous summersault into the tail.
He can say he is one of the very few non Naval aviators with a cable arrested landing under his belt... 😂
But, did he hit the 3rd cable?? 😂
Lol! Nice comic relief!
I'm familiar with the area. There are power lines on both runways. It used to be a privately owned public use airport, but the property was sold several years ago and the current owner didn't want to keep it public because of the costs to keep it up with FAA standards. I went there precisely once when it was still public looking for a place to practice soft field landings. You now see why I never went back. This particular airport has a long history of people hitting the lines, even when it was public and had markers on the lines. Getting on the ground at the airport is easy, having an airworthy airplane to take off again is the hard part.
Even knowing about these kinds of obstacles beforehand, it is all too easy to fall back onto muscle memory in the pattern and aim for a normal touchdown point on a normal glide slope without realizing it. Getting a familiarization flight at these places with someone who knows the airfield well is crucial.
That is one dangerous airport.
So there used to be markers until some halfwit removed them?
Are there not some rather heavy penalties involved in behavior that endangers the safe conduct of a flight, and should the FBI not be investigating that aspect?
If it had markers on the lines why were they removed? Seems like once the markers are installed removing them, due to labor costs, would be more expensive than just leaving them installed.
@@ulbuilder the markers may have deteriorated and fallen off
@Joshua Jones Reflex maybe? Muscle memory is a hell of a thing.
Great approach, great twist and full rotation, stuck the landing. 8.2 👏🏼👏🏼
Jim Ashby's "performance" was awesome. The short field performance of the Cessna, too... Jim must have been a fmr NAVY pilot. He hit the wire. He and his friend have a good story to tell. Regards from Switzerland. 😎
I spoke with the incident pilot not long after this happened. As I understand it; the power company has been told several times to put balls on those wires even back when it was still a public field. That is one of the reasons the security camera was installed. Owner wanted video evidence of such occurrences. This isn't the first time this has happened at that field. Not sure if the power company has done anything yet, but I'd be on the power company's case something fierce if I were the owner of that field.
And the field owner would be told that the safety of his field is not the power company's problem. There is NO incentive for the power company to put the balls up. The wires are a known hazard, and it is the responsibility of the field's owner to share that information with inbound pilots.
@@roberthudson1959 Good luck to the airport owner getting permission to work on the power company's lines. Sounds like a nightmare.
It seems to me either the power company or the landowner need to grow a set of balls to fix this problem before somebody gets killed! If the pilot had a good lawyer he more than likely can get his Aircraft replaced, which would be a huge incentive to have some balls put on that wire!
@@roberthudson1959 Agreed, especially if the power lines were already there before the landing field. If the lines were there first, and the owner (or whoever put the field there back in the day) built the field anyway, who's fault is that?
Maybe the legal concept of "coming to the nuisance" applies here, depending on which came first - if I build a brand-new house next door to a pig farm out in a rural area that's been in business for years, I don't get to complain about the smell and noise...
@@rayg.2431 As I said in a previous post here, I would think it prudent for airport to mark a displaced threshold to remind pilots of reason for displacement and encourage a little higher approach. Here at O61, we have a 1900’ displaced threshold for 31 due to housing and a hill to SẼ of approach end. A little “oh yeah” realization before the oops would be nice. Because of the fact that a displaced threshold is common use for obstacle avoidance, I think the owner of the airport has some liability risk as well. If there is a displaced threshold (wasn’t clear in video), my apologies.
Long time paramedic and pilot here. The tail Crumpling, the give of the power lines and the rolling motion as the plain contacted the ground all absorbed energy. Notice the passenger compartment stayed intact. All there together saved this man's life. We can be thankful for that.....
i bet he's got a sore neck though, got to be some whiplash in that, a jolt backwards and then the final slump into main gears
The way the trees are cleared back in that location, almost creates a trap for an unfamiliar pilot.
looks like its an unreasonably dangerous landing strip.
That pilot was very lucky... the way it flipped to where the tail absorbed all the energy, and also like stunt men land, on his back so that his weight was supported evenly and spread across the seat.
That is probably the fanciest landing that I have ever seen!
@@sparky6086
Roofer?
@@sparky6086 Glad you are here with all limbs intact to talk about it!
@@AndrewBlacker-wr2ve Well he was lucky. But his luck just kicked in a fraction of a second too late to help him clear the lines.
The fact the landing gear are just sitting there like "WTF WAS THAT?" after catching wires, doing some figure skating tricks then having the plane slap back down onto them is impressive.
I live less than 15 miles from Holly Ridge. It’s the closest field to my house. I will not take my Luscombe in there! I’ve walked that runway. Tall pines on both ends, and the wires as well. It’s a friendly place, but the local gouge is fly in there with someone who has experience a few times first. My understanding is that it’s off limits to the local flight schools and student pilots.
The pilot said, “I went to 40 degrees flaps…. I thought I was clear and how I lost that altitude past the pines, I don’t know.” Obviously I don’t know either, but from piloting my flying club’s Cessna 182 I can tell you, if you put in 40 degrees of flaps (the “barn doors”) on short final and your airspeed is a little low, it’s like an elevator whose cable just got cut. I recovered when I did it, but it sure got my attention forever.
There's a reason Cessna eventually scrapped the flaps 40 setting and limited them to 30.
Reeks of BS to me. What are the odds that Pilot didn't know those lines were there and was focused solely on the trees....
The line about it must have been a random downdraft also is laughable.
That dude had 3800 feet to put down a Cessna 182. His buddy was sitting right at the numbers and it looks like he was getting ready to plop it down right on the other side of the trees.
Anybody that knew there were power lines on that approach would make sure they were well clear before getting it down. It wouldn't be trying to do ACS standard short field landings over 50 ft obstacle.
I think some of that report was written from the viewpoint of I made a big oopsie and I want my insurance to pay me and I'm going to say some stuff to make it sound like it was an honest mistake not that I didn't brief the airport and I flew in here unprepared.
But I'm just theorizing shrug either way it was a huge mistake and they are lucky to be alive
I agree with that completely plus coming in over trees on short final gives a sudden downward push.
That crumpled tail likely saved the pilot's life.
Thanks for the video.
For sure. Had he struck the ground nose 1st I don't think he'd of had much chance of surviving in that case! Looked almost soft even though a sudden stop and swing around the wire! Bet it took awhile for his mind to catch up! Glad nobody was hurt.
I choose aluminum over composite aircraft!
I’ll bet he’s the only dude to do a low-level outside loop in a 182 lol! I know this guy. I used to maintain that airplane. Shame to see it destroyed like that.
The power lines you showed from the entrance road are distribution lines, much lowerer than the lines he hit. The h frame lines shown in the security video appear to be transmission lines. They are much taller and the span between support structures would be much longer. The line he hit may have been a static wire attached to the transmission a frames at the top and grounded to allow lightening to strike it, rather than the energised wires below. Looked like the tail crumple distance did a great job of absorbing the energy over a long time to reduce the accelerations involved.
You nailed it. I commented the same thing.
@@JAMESWUERTELE Ditto. If he had hooked one of the high voltage lines, he might well have had a far more serious outcome including possible electrocution and fire.
I was a lneman for 30 years & I agree I think he hit the static on top. Surprised there wasn't any phase to phase contact or phase to static or we would have seen one hell of a flash.
There didn't seem to be any arc flash from the incident so you might be right about the line he hit being non-energized.
Thanks for the detail. I was wondering why there was no arcing.
In 1975, learned to fly at a very similar “Grass Field”….those big “Orange Hazard markers” saved me more than once. One lucky aviator…Every airport should have them…..Very cool video+++….
I used to wonder what those orange balls on powerlines were when I was a kid. Then I heard about a helicopter flying into powerlines and a lack of said orange hazard markers.
Very similar to what happened to Francis Chichester back in 1931 or 1932 in Japan. He had flown from England to Sydney in his single seat airplane and had had other disasters along the way. He later became the first man to sail around the world non-stop single-handed. Times were different then. Every so many hours he had to regrind the valves in the engine. The story is in his book The Lonely Sea And The Sky.
I must have read that more than 50 years ago as a boy.
He had an amazing life.
That's one of the best reads of all time!
A few years ago I was taxing back to the ramp at the local airport and saw a 20' length of 8 gauge copper wire laying half way across the taxi way. I stopped the plane and picked up the wire. A few days before a crop duster had caught a power line top neutral wire. The wire didn't just drop off on the taxi way it found it's way into the grass and was later thrown up about an hour before I got there by the mower. Loops of the wire were high enough off the ground to be picked up by a prop! It was reported and additional fod checks were done in the grass and tarmac.
Going for a wave-off and caught the five wire. Great vid, keep 'em coming.
I witnessed an identical incident in the early 70’s in Australia. The Thorpe T 18 struck the power line with its main wheel legs. Unfortunately the wire contacted the legs at the same moment and the aircraft was pitched nose down striking the ground flatly with the propeller arc. If it had hit at an angle.like this case then the pilot may have had a chance to survive. The pilot had flown his final far too low. It was later determined that the angle of slope to the airstrip threshold was 2.5 degrees whereby ,the legal requirement was 5 degrees from any obstacle within approach.
I was first on the scene and remember it vividly.
Greetings from Downunder
Those Jaws are the Hurst eDraulics, self contained battery powered tools... Everyone remembers Johnny and Roy and the boy's from Station 51 using the GIANT Hurst model 32A spreaders that weighed a ton. Well, these things are like 1/2 that weight, no noisy gas motor, no hydraulic lines and fluid (always makes a mess). Technology is wonderful!
Thumbs up for the Gage and DeSoto reference!
Lucky/Unlucky !
And yet, Luck ruled the day; no funerals, and one heck of a hangar story.
We had a similar accident here at our local airstrip. Pilot survived with minor injuries just like this incident. Balls were installed on the power lines. That Pilots name was Werner, so those were called "Werners balls".
Those big orange balls are a great help. I remember flying over Germany and if there hadn't been orange balls, our H-53 Helicopter would have hit a powerline as well. As it was, we had just enough collective to pull up and over the powerlines in the nick of time. 🚁
“Crumple zone” tail saved his life.
If he had hit the ground face fwd he’d almost certainly be dead. Wow.
Thanks, Mr. Brown. I missed this in the local new in the fall. I can assure you that Duke Power will NOT spend any money they are not required to spend and if you ever have to report on Topsail Island again, everyone in NC (likely incorrectly) pronounces it "Topsul" Island. I always enjoy your reporting.
That tail first landing definitely saved the pilot from serious or fatal injuries. I just slowed the playback to quarter speed and it appeared that the right main gear struck the power line before the left gear, causing the plane to impact the ground slightly off center on the tail. I think if the playback could be slowed down even more, it would show the offset even better. In any case, landing tail first definitely saved him from more serious injuries God Bless and stay safe and thank you, Juan, for showing us this video.
There is no way you can get your carrier qual, end up on all three and do so without a tail-hook. Well, I stand corrected! Okay boys, you can now push that one over the side!
So lucky. The wire caught part of the plane, maybe one of the gear, slowed the plane, and slowed his fall. Landing on the tail was the 2nd piece of good luck.
He had an angel on his shoulder.
I wouldn't say he was lucky to have caught the wire. If he hadn't he would've made a nice landing instead of a summersault short final.
Soooooo. It was the weight of the "angel on his shoulder" that caused him to lose altitude unexpectedly. You gotta watch out for the angels 😎
I think missing the wires completely would be luckier.
it's definitely a story he won't need to embellish when he gets old. Then again, he might want to exercise a little more caution if he expects to get old.
That's the most amazing short stop landing I've ever seen.
Glad pilot is okay! Crazy that they have gone this long without putting markers on the wires.
Elementary, was taught this less than 5 hrs into my initial training! Watch for a downdraft passing over trees, if they are near a runway threshold you need to allow for this. Thanks for all your excellent videos Juan.
My training airport happened to have a forest off the approach to 18, so I suppose this was part of the standard briefing there. This phenomena has come up regularly in articles. At times, things you know escape you in the moment, it is a blessing that the the empennage of the 182 ended up absorbing the impact.
Neighbor down the road from me called the Power Company and they installed the balls for his grass strip. First thing noticeable in the video is no line markers and Zing..... Glad the pilot made it with minimal injuries. Ag pilots have to be point on and aware since you are flying way ahead of your actual surroundings.
Incredible. Very lucky. Crazy there were no markers on those wires.
My dad hit high tension lines in his Hiller helicopter in the UK in the 70s. Walked away with scratches. Many have not been so lucky.
That crush of the tail saved his life.
Hi Juan, sure looks like that pilot had providence looking out for him. What a perfect high wire act that was. Pilot compartment unscathed. And as we all know. Any landing you can walk away from was a good landing.
love the design of this landing strip looks like it was a matter of time before it happened
Great analysis as always. I agree, the crumpling coke can, I mean tail section, probably was a life saver for the pilot.
unfortunately deploying orange markers to give visual reference doesn't eliminate the hazard (of course the pre-obscuration created by the trees also remains since that line of trees are not going to stop growing). a local private strip near me had this same power lines hazard for decades, then back about 20 years ago, the owner worked with the local utility and had just that SINGLE SECTION of the wires that crossed the runway threshold taken down off the poles and run underground. this looks to be a solution that can technically be employed here if/when someone at Holly Ridge decides they're simply not going to take "half measures" when it comes to safety.
problem is because its private who pays, ideal solution to run them underground, totally ridiculous and an accident waiting to happen that happened.
I've commented this on every video. It's no big deal to just bury that section of powerline. Odds are the utility will do it for you, or at least cost share. I bet the owner buys insurance on the plane to protect it from damage. Why not spend a little money on burying the DEADLY OBSTACLE at the end of the runway to protect the humans!!!! Ridiculous!
@@chester8420 I agree that power line should be underground in places like this, but I have no idea what that would cost. I can't imagine it being less than $50k, but I have no experience with this kind of work.
In other GA news Trevor Jacob finally "cops" to deliberately crashing his plane into Los Padres Forest (as if Cali didn't already have a much publicized Wild Fire problem prior to his 2021 bail out). Prosecutors say he will plead guilty to obstructing a federal investigation by cleaning up the site of the crash. Right, me thinks an additional charge is waiting for the helicopter pilot who "aided and abetted" young Mr. Jacob in the recovery of the wreckage (don't tell me they didn't know any better). discuss...
@@chester8420 it’s no big deal as in difficult to do but crikey, that’s going to expensive.
Even though it's a private airstrip anyone that needs a landing zone due to an emergency may miss the powerlines shown on the chart,.
Duke Power, put up the orange marking balls!
Glad this pilot survived this crash. In California when there are low power lines it seems they have big orange or blue balls attached to the lines so that aviators can see them on approaches or even when passing close overhead.
Look like this pilot is one lucky guy that the wire caught him enough to put right side up wishing him speedy recovery Thank again for your wonderful work on this channel
Teaching those Carrier boys/girls how it’s done!
I never would've considered the tale to be a "crumple zones", but if you've got it, it's cool you used it! 😀
Not cool to need to use it, but danged cool when you have to, and it works.
The crumpling of the tail probably helped cushion the impact.
You Have to Love CESSNA ! Another pilot saved ! Thanks Juan !
That's about the shortest short field landing I've ever seen... and I served on cvn's lol.
A pilot my father knew was killed by a wire strike. He suffered an engine failure and elected to force land in a field. The side slip required to make the field hid the wires from view. The impact flipped the aircraft over as in this video, but the lines were lower so the aircraft pancaked down inverted killing the pilot and seriously injuring the passenger. This chap was very lucky indeed.
Glad he's alright, my wifes dad was klilled in 1996 outside of Chico while cropdusting because he hit some lines.
Thank goodness he only had minor injuries!
It was interesting to see the manufactured home nearby, as those barrier islands commonly get hit by hurricanes.
Best wishes to the pilot.
Thank you, Juan, for the excellent reporting.
In Israel we have those orange balls everywhere there is a change of terrain(valleys, canyons etc) without it needing to be next to an airport
He thought he was climbing to miss the wires but it doesn't look like it and definitely he'd need much more power than the plane has to get a climb while slow with 40 degrees of flaps. Guy had tons of strip but seems to of wanted to land near his friend. Nosing up and feeling the inertia changes made him think he was climbing.
What amazing footage! The fact that the tail struck first and crumpled is what saved the pilot's life, without a doubt.
Man, that had to be an insane ride!
Would have been all over before he knew it.
Never saw an aircraft crash tail first
Thank God he wasn't electrocuted JB. Thanks for your time in sharing this incident.
Take care and fly safe. 🖖🏼🤟🏼
Thanks for sharing , Juan.
Acrobat Jim Ashby's "performance" was awesome. The short field performance of the Cessna, too... Jim must have been a fmr NAVY pilot. He hit the wire. He and his friend have a good story to tell. Regards from Switzerland. 😎
Wow, talk about rapid deceleration! I wonder if he caught the 3rd wire on that trap landing? Live to land another day.
Great stuff Juan! Thanks for posting.
He’s got the STOL record for a C182 now. Glad he got out of it.
Juan, came here to see if you had the Lear lost at San Clemente yesterday May 10 at 07:55. I became aware from an LA Times article where it said there were three souls on board. He left Camarillo and was at pattern altitude more or less.
No data yet...
Reminds me of a bicycle encounter with a cable across a bike path entrance to a park. Park personnel had never before used a wire to block the gate, and it was not visible. I somersaulted into the park. Walked away feeling exceptionally lucky, but furious at the idiot who chose to close a frequently used bike trail in such a dangerous way.
He's so lucky. The tail section was his long collision crumple zone, and his pilot's seat literally had his back.
My flight instructor told me: “High and fast can be corrected - low and slow can be another matter”
I am amazed how many airports have powerlines near the end up runways, but no wire markers on the wires. Such as Tana wire markers. Such a simple solution to almost invisible wires.
Short rollout though... lucky turn of fate for the pilot.
Thanks again Juan.
I used a private strip a few times that had power lines going right across the runway threshold and the recommended approach was to fly down the lines and then make a tight turn to the left in order to land. This took you further down the runway but kept you focused on the lines until you had to make the turn, only then did you your focus on a point on the runway to touch down by which time the wires were behind you. These same wires did claim a victim but he chose to ignore the recommended approach and made a straight in approach.
Thanks for posting this.
Thank God he wasn't seriously hurt! Thanks Juan!
The tail taking most of the energy out of that fall is how he got away with minor injuries for sure. If he'd nosed into the ground, might have been way worse. Crazy to see that happen!
Spot on as usual Juan
I remember the now closed air strip in Carmel Valley Village in Monterey County had some power lines similar to this. Orange balls were placed on those lines in the 80’s. The airstrip existed since 1942 without them.
I did my primary instruction out of Smith Ranch in San Rafael. It taught me to watch out for power lines.
But, yeah, this airport was an accident waiting to happen.
That tail crushing portion of the crash looks like it dissipated a lot of energy. It is wonderfully surprising seeing the front and cockpit of the machine intact, I guess he just opened the door (surely somewhat jammed) and just walked out? Incredible video and great outcome of a horrible situation.
I always loved that cheeky ad: "YOUR BALLS Saved My Life." Many years ago, I saw that ad all the time in various aviation magazines, including "Flying." But it seems they totally disappeared...presumably due to PC concerns. Certainly not very "inclusive" when you think about it. Hahaha
The image of that advertisement pops into my head every time that I see power line balls.
Whoever came up with that ad was a genius.
@@straybullitt My thoughts as well. I'm amazed that Juan was able to dig it up from somewhere.
@David Paulin
You'd be surprised by what people keep around.
I might have one or two old aviation magazines somewhere that have the old balls ad. 😇
Captain Juan Browne another great video, thanks for sharing with us! Stay safe out there in them skies.
A habit that I learned in the military was to make an inspection pass over a non-towered airport that I had never landed at previously. It paid off numerous times.
But an inspection pass will get you in deep trouble with the Feds. Just ask Trent Palmer!
JUAN,HELLO,there is an airport in NJ,ANDOVER AIROFLEX do not have the figures now
I see power lines across valleys in Europe with large black or fluorescent orange balls on the lines to improve their visibility. Might be a good idea to have those in this location, as you comment.
Glad the pilot walked away with only minor injuries. This was the shortest landing ever which was recorded I think.
I think this is a good example where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If private strips that have power lines nearby can work with their local power companies or coops to provide balls on the power lines, they'll both be happier. The company won't be as likely to have to clean up after a nasty power line strike, and the airport and pilots won't have as much risk of hitting invisible power lines and crashing to their doom.
Hi Juan, love your channel.
I have frame by frame control over the video using the period and comma keys - makes for a great frame analysis. You might as well.
Landing on and crumpling up the tail probably saved his life. Of all the directions you can take a major hit the human body can withstand the most impact G force if you hit back-first while seated. I have crash data from an Indycar that hit the end of a pit wall backwards, the onboard accelerometer recorded 148 Gs and the driver walked away. For comparison, the nose-first angled wall hit that killed Dale Earnhardt was around 50 Gs.
6:15 -- they've been posting that same Tana Balls ad since I was a kid. Dunno how many hundreds of thousands they've sold, or how many lives they've saved.
The power company will say that, since the wires are a known hazard, they have no liability, but I think it can be argued that it's one thing to know that wires are present, another to be able to identify them and judge the level of hazard they represent. The trees look like they quite effectively block view of the towers on final, and the wires are far higher than most power lines (those are transmission lines).
I had some friend visit my place once in their EC135 helicopter. My property (about 80m x 80m) had powerlines on three sides. We had a *very* detailed briefing about that before they attempted to land there. Happily it all went according to plan. Power lines and aircraft terrify me.
I love your description of standing on an empty soda can. They're too thin to do that nowadays 😂
Wow, very lucky!! I was wondering why there were no balls on the power lines. I cause it's something that need to be required.
I flew into a larger airport with similar power line situation. A plane behind me had engine failure and subsequently hit the power lines. His plane was suspended in the air. Amazing no one was killed. This must happen frequently.
Lucky him. The tail absorb all the impact. Even the doors look to open like normal
Landing on the tail probably saved his life ! That tail cone eased the impact ! How lucky can you get ?
The crumped up tail acted pretty much like the crumple zone in a car would. Like the pilot himself said in his statement, that's where a big chunk of the impact energy went, rather than directly into the his body
If there was EVER a place to put the orange balls on power lines, THIS is it!!!
This is why our power line is buried at the end of the runway. Not sure if any of dad pilots hit the lines, but they have been below ground for over 30yrs now...
Thanks Juan, another good job. appreciate the work.
That's why I always overflew unfamiliar runways, find the obstacles at both ends before landing. His prop probably has a gouge on one blade that found the wires before the gear. I agree tail first saved his life.
Many power lines have coloured marker devices attached to the lines which show clearly where the lines are. Surely in this scenario they should have and now definitely need to be fitted.
I actually drove by on this day and saw the local fire and rescue crews on the field, there was a fatal accident here the year before where a plane crashed just south east of the field. There are balls on the lines on the south east end of the runway.
We have those high power lines before runway 9 and they have those big bright orange hippity-hop style balls on them to make the lines more visible. Aw crud you just mentioned those.