I imagine something like this
Posted on 09/20/2005 11:56:10 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Darryl Greenamyer has won the sports class for the last three or four years now in a PUMPED Legacy.
John Parker was a close second in the Thunder Mustang.
Both are Age & Gile veterans, ifyouknowwhatimean.
If you ain't cheatin', you ain't trying.
I hope you come back - I'll be racing again next year. Definitely in Bipes and maybe in T6 or Sport - maybe Formula. It's in my blood.
No need to get nasty Mr./Ms. genius.
My condolences Dash.
Thanks.
"Personally, I would kind of like to see what the beer drinking fools would design!"
The SR-71, probably :)
Actually, the cockpit layout was fine as originally designed. The problem was that the builder of the airplane Denver bought decided that he didn't want fuel lines in the cockpit, so he moved the fuel selector from between the pilots legs to the leading edge of the wing.
This change necessitated that a long shaft be installed between the fuel selector and cockpit. The location of this shaft ended up being located behind the pilots left shoulder. Since the shaft used a weird linkage, it was stiff in operation and required the use of a pair of vise-grips to switch tanks. Because of it's awkward location, it required that the pilot assume an un-natural position in order to switch tanks.
When Denver ran out of fuel on take-off, he tried to switch tanks and as the report says, probably stepped on a rudder pedal and sent his airplane into an uncontrolled spiral.
Thank you.
And, too, coming so soon after the loss of Younkin and Franklin.
Been a rough year...
The cause of John Dever's crash was pilot error (FUIL is a big error). The article does not state the cause here. It's probably still under investigation. Being an aerobatic pilot she likely pushed the envelope farther than it would stretch. Home-builts are inspected three ways to sunday and are as safe as any other small aircraft.
Not that it really matters one way or other, but I recall the guy that designed the VeriEze. He was an aeronautic engineer too – and evidently a pretty good one. Plane designed just dandy. Meanwhile it was specifically designed to be light and be flown in clear weather during daylight hours.
First problem was that builders started putting heavier instruments and harnesses in them for night/bad weather flying. Increased weight to the point they couldn’t safely carry a passenger.
Problem two was that evidently there was a very precise amount of “twist” that had to be built into the aft wing and the builders had a hard time getting it right. Don’t know if anybody bought the farm from it but I recall that there were control issues serious enough that Rutan got right to work redesigning the wing with ailerons incorporated in the new design.
Other than those issues people seemed to like it… I recall they did issue several safety bulletins – one related to getting the center of gravity right.
I don’t know how it had been determined originally but evidently several people (including my uncle) had miscalculated it and went up and took it into a stall and instead of nosing back down it flipped over backwards and into a spin. He started the stall at around 3,000 feet and it took him something like 2,700 feet to pull out.
He said afterwards he had to clean his shorts and fix a bent rudder pedal and stick. Still, he liked his VeriEze at the time. I think he later built an UltraEze or some similarly-named plane they had plans for.
I like to look at it – I’ll even sit in it. I ain’t going up in it though. You can look me up in the lounge when you get back from your trip.
Sure has.
Looks like Marta put out her hand and touched the face of God.
May she rest comfortably there...
John Denver was not killed by an experimental aircraft. He was killed by his own absence of judgment. The fuel selector switch was in the wrong position. He would have bought the farm had he made the same mistake in a Beechcraft, a Cessna or Piper produced aircraft.
Awww damn. :-(
I am sorry.
Very sad news.
"Not alone into the sunset but into the company of friends who have gone before..."
How right you are.
SR-71 ------ Kelly Johnson and the Skunk Works at Lockheed. What a bird - still holds speed and rate of climb records(?).
I'll always take the hand of a union craftsman working on any plane I fly on over say a communist chinese tech.
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