Buy a Plane, Crash a Plane

LauraE51

LauraE51

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Modesto,CA
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Laura
Well, the first thing you shouldn't do after buying a plane is to crash in upon takeoff, which apparently is what happened yesterday up the hill from me.

http://www.modbee.com/news/article76809077.html

Glad the pilot is ok, but i wonder whether they'd corrected for density altitude. Yesterday was warm and Pine Mountain airport is at 3K feet.
 
bbridges51 said:
Well, the first thing you shouldn't do after buying a plane is to crash in upon takeoff, which apparently is what happened yesterday up the hill from me.

http://www.modbee.com/news/article76809077.html

Glad the pilot is ok, but i wonder whether they'd corrected for density altitude. Yesterday was warm and Pine Mountain airport is at 3K feet.
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And one of the runways is uphill. Not a lot, but you sure do feel it.
 
Hope he insured it.
 
Seems small to be an A36. Lines look more like a Commanche. But is says Beechcraft. F33?
 
Unit74 said:
Seems small to be an A36. Lines look more like a Commanche. But is says Beechcraft. F33?
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Picture shows a door on the left front. Neither A36 or F33 (or the 35s) have a door on that side. Likely a Beech Sierra.
 
Also has wing walk on the right side, so two doors?
 
That looks like a Sierra/Sundowner fuselage but I don't remember them having a back door on the left side that big.
 
Unit74 said:
Also has wing walk on the right side, so two doors?
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Three. Front right, front left and a full size baggage door that gives access to the third row of seats (if installed).
 
N2052L is the tail number. Reg lapsed 9/30/11
 
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Hard to get a Sierra airborne without an engine! :D

Seriously, though, glad they are okay. Look like a bad crash but they managed to escape with their lives. Wow.

planecrash
 
Not sure why someone would cross the country to buy a Sierra that probably sat for a long time.

Two years ago someone crashed a Sundowner in Laurel,MD. It sat for years and crashed on the first takeoff after it ws sold. NTSB found a hornets nest in the carb and a shredded cowl-plug under the cowling.
 
Interesting physics that the fuselage is relatively intact, both occupants walked away, but the crash was violent enough for the engine/prop to separate completely from the airframe.
 
I don't know if this is what happened, but didn't we have a discussion that if you lost a prop blade it would likely cause enough vibration to tear the engine off?
 
Also, the "buy a plane, crash a plane" does not always end with the occupants surviving.
I recall a recent crash in our neck of woods where the freshly-minted MEL pilot was bringing his new twin home from just an hour away and #1 engine ingested an intake hose 2 miles from rwy threshold. His training, even though fresh in his mind, failed to kick in and he ended up crashing in a pasture a mile short of the runway. :(
My instructor always drilled into me: FTDA. I stick with it and so far I keep flying the airplane. I hope I will never stop.
 
I know of two (or 3) incidents of that happening at my local airport.

One a pilot bought a Pitts Special, the pilot ferrying it in ground looped it on landing.

2nd a Pilot bought a Cessana 180 and ground looped it on the test flight before he was going to fly it home.

3rd a pilot sold their Champ and while delivering it to the new owner ground looped it at the destination.

Brian
 
GRG55 said:
Interesting physics that the fuselage is relatively intact, both occupants walked away, but the crash was violent enough for the engine/prop to separate completely from the airframe.
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I had noticed that myself..... is it possible that a tree took the engine and turned the plane without damaging anything else..??
 
brcase said:
I know of two (or 3) incidents of that happening at my local airport.

One a pilot bought a Pitts Special, the pilot ferrying it in ground looped it on landing.

2nd a Pilot bought a Cessana 180 and ground looped it on the test flight before he was going to fly it home.

3rd a pilot sold their Champ and while delivering it to the new owner ground looped it at the destination.

Brian
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At SBA many years ago a guy calls on the phone and says he wants to do a high speed taxi test on the runway but doesn't have radios. Is told ok, we'll give you light signals. It was a VariEze that he been building for over 2 years. Yup, he got it airborne. He wasn't injured badly but the plane was not a pretty sight.

A Mooney inbound from the east to SBA declares emergency, engine quit. He ends up putting it in the surf at the beach abeam downtown. Did a good job ditching, no one hurt. A helicopter was in the area and got involved and tried to scatter people off the beach but that didn't work so he put it in the water. Just about the time he is down the squawk box buzzes. Guy says he is a pilot and would like to come up for a visit. We buzz him in and tell him how to get up to the Cab. When he gets up there he tells us he just bought a new plane that is being delivered and will be getting there soon and he wants to watch it. Yup, his new plane is a Mooney. "Uh, you ain't gonna believe this but............" His reaction was pretty much, Oh well. Musta been well insured.
 
brcase said:
I know of two (or 3) incidents of that happening at my local airport.

One a pilot bought a Pitts Special, the pilot ferrying it in ground looped it on landing.

2nd a Pilot bought a Cessana 180 and ground looped it on the test flight before he was going to fly it home.

3rd a pilot sold their Champ and while delivering it to the new owner ground looped it at the destination.

Brian
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Is it really that hard to keep the plane going straight?

Got a heap of tailwheel time and I just don't get this stuff, I mean if you have some weird mechanical issue, or swerve to miss a deer or something, yeah maybe, but just a normal landing, come on now.
 
James331 said:
Is it really that hard to keep the plane going straight?

Got a heap of tailwheel time and I just don't get this stuff, I mean if you have some weird mechanical issue, or swerve to miss a deer or something, yeah maybe, but just a normal landing, come on now.
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I've noticed that not everyone has a "knack" for it. Some just have no stick and rudder abilities no matter how hard they try or how current they are. I'm glad I'm not one of them because life isn't the same without tailwheel :D

Hell I know a guy that sideloads the crap out of tricycle gear planes every time he flies. Blown tires on multiple occasions... no way he could ever do TW.
 
I have a personal story of the "buy a plane, crash a plane" category, or in my case, "(I) sell a plane, (they) crash a plane"...and they crashed it without ever technically flying it.

Many years ago, I owned a warbug, a 1942 Taylorcraft L2M. It was a beautiful aircraft, with full logs (including military logs), painted with stars and bars, and only about 2000 hours airframe / 400 hours engine. After flying it for a few years, I got tired of only going 85 knots wide open, so I put it up for sale. I negotiated a deal with the new owners, and as part of the deal, we agreed that I would deliver the plane to their flying group.
I was given directions on getting to their second "secret" hangar, because they wanted to introduce the plane in a ceremony the following weekend at their main hangar. Both hangars were at the same field, but at different ends. When I arrived at their field, they ushered the plane into their second hangar. I told them that because it was a very old airplane, I'd like to go over the whole plane with them and explain its "ins and outs". They refused, saying they knew more about the plane than I did. I told them I wasn't selling the plane without going over it for my own piece of mind, and then they reluctantly agreed, but I could tell they were only appeasing me and not really listening.
One of the things I tried to show them was my method for hand-propping when I was by myself. I would turn the fuel on, prime the engine, shut the fuel off, then hand prop. With the fuel off, the plane would only sputter-start for about 4 seconds, giving you just enough time to jump into the cabin and turn the fuel on while being ready on the brakes. As I showed the new owners, they got annoyed and one of them said, "We will NEVER start this plane by ourselves. This is a waste of time."
After going over the rest of the plane, they flew me home, as we had agreed. I found out that during their ceremony the following weekend, they crashed the plane. Seems that two guys were getting ready to bring the plane to the main hangar for the ceremony. With one, a pilot, in the plane, the other hand propping it, and it started. The propping guy then jumped in his car and told the pilot, "see you at the other hangar" and drove off. The pilot gave the cold engine too much gas and stalled the engine. Soooooo.....he got out, hand propped it with no one in the plane (and the fuel ON with full or nearly full throttle) and the plane started, took off with no one in it, and crashed.
 
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Had a similar accident at our field. After fueling a guy, in a cub he had just purchased, hand propped it but had the throttle set a little to high. The plane made it to the runway then weathervaned perfectly down the runway for a nice take off. A couple of people noticed a head set hanging below the door but didn't think much of it. As it was making a perfect downwind in the pattern it suddenly started rolling and balled up hard in an empty field. The people watching called 911 and ran out to see if they help the pilot, they thought he would be dead for sure. Upon arriving and looking for 20 minutes there was no pilot to be found. They went back to the field to search other places closer thinking he maybe fell out, they found him sitting by the fuel pumps with a gash on his head where the tail wheel ran him over.
 
tawood said:
I told them that because it was a very old airplane, I'd like to go over the whole plane with them and explain its "ins and outs". They refused, saying they knew more about the plane than I did. I told them I wasn't selling the plane without going over it for my own piece of mind, and then they reluctantly agreed, but I could tell they were only appeasing me and not really listening.
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That 'not listening' thing seems to be a pilot trait. Over on beechtalk someone told a similar story about selling a Globe Swift to a high-time airline pilot. The seller is a known instructor in the Swift world and offered to give the buyer a checkout. This was declined in a somewhat rude manner. Of course, the buyer managed to swap ends during his first takeoff roll and bent a wing.
 
The first Taylorcraft I had met a not too dis-similar end. The new owner had an offer from me for 5-10 hours of recurrency in the plane but didn't want it.
 
weilke said:
That 'not listening' thing seems to be a pilot trait. Over on beechtalk someone told a similar story about selling a Globe Swift to a high-time airline pilot. The seller is a known instructor in the Swift world and offered to give the buyer a checkout. This was declined in a somewhat rude manner. Of course, the buyer managed to swap ends during his first takeoff roll and bent a wing.
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The "if you can do it, I can do it better" mentality is something I've noticed in aviation. Every pilot think's they're better than the next.
 
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