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Jeff,
Regarding the
Nebraska 320, except for a possible control system malfunction, of
which there is so far no indication, engine failure is not the 'final
cause' of an aircraft 'spinning in'. It is loss of control caused by
the pilot pulling (inadvertantly, because without an AOA he can't see
he's causing a stall) the wing's AOA higher than its stall AOA.
Airfoills stall at an angle, at any speed. Hands-off, a wing will
remain at its trimmed AOA, regardless of the plane's attitude. So
it appears, at this point, that the pilot stalled his wing, therey giving
up control of the aircraft and becoming a reluctant passenger, too low to
recover. The Lancair has an excellent L/D, and should provide some gliding
options for emergency landing sites, under control all the way to the
ground, if the stall AOA is not exceeded. So, to beat a dead horse on
this, why after 100 years of flight, are we still not using a stall-vane
indicator that a pilot can easily reference -- outside the cockpit or heads-up
-- for just such a situation? It is so sad and depressing to lose friends
, anguish families, and waste such fine machinery, with thousands of loving
hours invested ... when stalls, prerequisite to spins, are avoidable. How
can this 'lacking AOA info' be remedied? Doesn't this deserve serious
attention?
Terrence O'Neill
L235/320
N211AL
(wiring the glass panel now in
progress)
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 10:14
AM
Subject: [LML] Re: Lancair's Down
Both
seam to be engine failures. So sad....
My condolences to the families and
friends.
Don't be so certain about both being engine failures. The 320 in Nebraska
does not say it is an engine failure just that the egnine slowed then speeded
up and then the pilot spun it in. Conclusion?
The Legacy crashed on its first flight. There were reports of erratic
engine operation from eyewitnesses but the same was true of Dave Hickman's
crash last year and the Chelton data in Hickman's accident showed the fuel
flow was dialed up so high (greater than 50 gph) the engine could not run.
Remember you must set up your fuel system correctly to operate safely before
first flight. TCM has a service bulletin on this.
Don't jump to conclusions before the evidence is in.
Regards,
Jeff Edwards
LIVP N619SJ
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