Posted on 03/20/2009 1:02:51 PM PDT by pabianice
North of El Dorado, a Cessna SkyCatcher crashed onto private property Thursday morning. There were no injuries to the pilot.
Cessna furloughs could begin as early as April
EL DORADO - A Cessna SkyCatcher crashed Thursday onto private property north of El Dorado in Butler County.
The pilot walked away from the plane, which was upside down in a ditch, but was taken to a hospital as a precaution, said Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy. No passengers were on board.
The pilot was conducting a flight test of the two-seat SkyCatcher, which is slated to enter the market this year, said Bob Stangarone, vice president for corporate communications for Cessna Aircraft.
Stangarone said Thursday's test conditions are more extreme than typical flying conditions.
The parachute attached to the craft deployed successfully, Stangarone said.
"It operated just as it should," he said.
Another SkyCatcher crashed in September near Douglass. The pilot, who parachuted from the plane, was not injured.
That pilot was performing a spin test of the aircraft when the accident occurred. Since then, the company has increased the size of the plane's tail.
It's too soon to say whether the pilot was spin testing at the time of Thursday's crash, Stangarone said. "We really don't know that for a fact yet."
The tail of that plane is really huge, reletive to the size. If that thing isn’t spin stable, with a tail that size, I could not tell you why,
Interesting that the Boeing 777 was built entirely on computers - all the parts were designed and built that way. The plane was put together and flew the first time. You would think they could do the same with a GA plane. This Skycatcher is supposed to replace the Cessna 152 series plane and also be a primary GA trainer in a light sport classification ... the Cessna 162 will cost around 110K, just right for your pocketbook these days ....
Any landing you can walk away from (even a crash landing) is a good one.
Actually, $ 140K with the standard glass cockpit. Just the right price for a 2-seater you can only fly during the day in good weather.
That parachute thing is a great idea, won’t work on heavy metal types (C-152’s) ...
Yeah, went to a site that showed it bare bones ... just wondering how much stress the airframe can handle. You could equip it IFR though without much trouble ... I don’t like glass cockpits without analog backup though ....
The tail was actually redesigned after the crash of an earlier prototype late last year. Talk about irony.
The BRS chutes work on aircraft far heavier and faster that this LSA Cessna.
Check the Cirrus.
I know about the Cirrus ... that pack weighs in around 250 pounds ... has saved several Cirrus’ though ... but then, why should a new plane have to blow their packs????
They have had problems with spin recovery, hence the enlarged tail.
They were probably trying to expand the safe flight envelope and pushed a bit too far.
There’s a crossover point where an enlarged tail takes away from some other performances ... like when Cessna went to the slant tail on their 152/172’s ... reduced the cross section so you could spin out on final when you do a forward slip .. the body of the plane blocks the wind and you loose tail authority ...
It is surprising in this day and age with the advent of such effective modeling software that Cessna is running into issues like this.
I sat in one at sun & Fun last year.
Not impressed.
Getting in to the L.S.A. market late as per usual.
I like my RV6A
Not true,
I’m landing my plane as I make very good pre flight checks and am well trained.
The 162 is a p.o.s.
and you should go visit south dakota.
I was surprised how much I enjoyed Deadwood, the custer park with a huge free roaming buffalo herd. The devils tower and so much more.
I thought the earlier post was incorrect.
Thanks.
Also I checked your about page,
GOD bless and keep up the great work.
Glad to see good folks are out there.
Spinning a Cessna 152 Aerobat (with the checkerboard wings) was as fun as it ever got for me during training.
(I took 40 hours of flying lessons to get over my fear of flying. I refused to get a med clearance so I never had to solo.)
How does one not fly "the first time"?
Boeing used to advertise “a plane in a box? and had a computer terminal sitting in front of the plane ... most AC up until then went through hours of ground testing before it’s first flight. The 777 flew “the first time” right out of the box ...
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