Aeronca down, East TN

[WBI Flyer]

Consider me ignorant and wanting to learn...

http://www.wkrn.com/story/26709626/2-injured-in-blount-county-plane-crash

http://www.wbir.com/story/news/loca...-small-plane-crash-in-blount-county/16735369/

-hopefully they will both be ok. One was treated and released.

from the WBIR article:
"The pilot, .... , 65, of Newbergh, Indiana told deputies he was attempting to land on a strip off Greenwich Drive when he realized the plane was too low. He said when he attempted to pull up, the plane crashed into trees because the plane didn't have enough power."

- could be reporter ignorance paraphrasing the pilot. How quickly would adding power arrest your sink rate in an Aeronca flying behind the power curve? ... or would it continue to sink for a while. If all he did was "pull up"... I can see how he hit the trees.

 

[FormerHangie]

That's not a lot of information to go on, but it shouldn't take very long for any of the Aeroncas to arrest their descents. I'd think full power get the job done almost immediately unless he'd allowed his speed to decay more than it should have.

You can get a look at the area here: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Greenwich+Dr,+Maryville,+TN+37803/@35.6967274,-84.0117657,3705m /data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x885e9ea11ecf3fcf:0x3b40f3b982eb2ef3 It looks to me that the landing strip is next to the powerlines, near the large house with the pool.

On Saturday, a cold front had recently passed through, and it was breezy and cool. There may have been some mechanical turbulence from the trees when low, which may have contributed to his difficulties. At that time of day there may have been some sink as well. My guess is that he just misjudged his approach, got a little low and slow, and didn't react soon enough to stop the descent.

One of the things that happens to us as we get older is that our perception changes. Most of us wear some sort of multifocal glasses, and I can attest that those sort of glasses to make depth perception more difficult.