Andrew Phillips

[Jamie]

Wow, this is so sad.

For me personally this type of accident is the most troubling -- apparently in cruise flight and something goes terribly wrong. Hopefully Transport Canada will find the cause.

Condolences to all who knew Andrew.

[pluff]

Colin, my heartfelt sympathy to you and Andy's family. My name is Peter Luff. I fly out of the Ottawa Flying Club and am a co-owner/pilot of a Beech Sierra. Around the Spring'2008 I contacted Andy when I was looking into building an RV7A. He invited me out to Smiths Falls to try a flight in CGNDY. He let me fly it for quite some time and long before returning to the airport I was hooked. ( I have some photos of that day if you would like to see them). Later that day he flew from Smiths Falls to Carp in readiness for a trip to Lindsay with his son. He loaned me all his books on RV7 building and offered all kinds of help. He was a great guy and I just can't believe he is gone. Please could you post the funeral arrangements when you have them so we can pay our respects to a warm and generous fellow pilot.
Peter Luff.

[koallo]

There will be a memorial service at the Hangar in Smiths Falls at 2:00 on Saturday. The obituary will be in the Ottawa Citizen on Thursday and Friday.

[BTD]

I am terribly saddened by this news. I was Andrew's Flight Instructor throughout his private. We became good friends outside of training as well. Although we haven't spoken a great deal in the last 2 yrs or so, I would be interested to find out if/where a memorial service will be held.

I am devastated for his wife and children.

Please PM or post details of any service.

Thanks

BTD

[prkaye]

just look at the post immediately above yours... memorial on sat at YSH 1400h.

[skidmk]

Andrew was my friend, I enjoyed test flying his RV, I enjoyed our friendly banter back and forth about the Chang and the RV.

I'm really at a loss, as we all are, to express how I feel. Andrew was gifted, a good stick, a good friend, and a wonderful family man. He never missed an opportunity to talk about his kids to me. He shared my drive to change children's lives through aviation, and for that alone his short time with us made an enormous difference.

Andrew, buddy,,, I know you're listening and watching and feeling for our sadness. We miss you, till we meet again.

Mike

[Snowflake]

Somehow I missed this thread when I posted mine a few minutes ago... If I can find a way i'll delete my duplicate post. Sorry to hear about Andrew. I have read many of his posts here, this truly is shocking. Without prompting any speculation, I hope we can determine the cause.

To that end, please note that the Transportation Safety Board (NOT TC) considers Amateur-Built-Aircraft the lowest priority in their hierarchy of accident investigations. They're not trying to slight Amateur-Built owners, it's a matter of putting the resources where the largest benefit can be found. Investigating commercial operations carryign hundreds of passengers gives a much larger return, so they get priority, and TSB is currently understaffed for the amount of work that comes their way.

If we want to know what happened, the best way is for some technically competent people *from the RV community* to visit the crash site and inspect and analyze the wreckage. TSB will probably appreciate the help, and will recognize that the community in general has more knowledge about these aircraft than their investigators.

If the local TSB isn't going to look into it, and someone close to the family is interested in pursuing this, I may be able to put you in touch with the right people. I investigated an in-flight breakup accident of a wooden airplane last fall here in BC with the full support and cooperation of the TSB. My article on the investigation appeared in the last Recreational Flyer, for anyone who is an R.A.A.C. member.

[RickWoodall]

I do hope there are some follow up details. I know Andrews plane was top notch, no expense spared for quality, he kept it up beautifully. As a pilot he was well trained, lots of recent hours, working on his night rating, flying the rv lots....so...that likely puts him ahead of lots of us as a good current competent pilot. Further, he took the time and expense to fly out west and get Mike Seager to do transition training prior to flying his own bird. That says a lot about his concern for safety and respect for flying. A trip out to the western US from Ottawa Canada is not a simple weekend adventure, or chump change. There just has to be something to learn or get from all this. People doing low level aero, or silly stunts, or poorly maintained planes or t/o, landing stalls etc are fairly common reading. Good young healthy pilots in good planes falling out of the sky with not so much as a radio call...just so wierd.

If any of the Ottawa rvers can think of something we can do for the family or as a sign of respect to Andrew please let us know. I have lost a couple flying buddies over the years but this one is the oddest.

[CGNDY-BRO]

I am Andrew's younger brother Justin. In this time of unbelievable shock and sadness, it is comforting to me to hear the wonderful impact he has had on all of you. Flying was his passion and the silver lining here is that he passed away doing what he loved. Our father was a private pilot and flew until late 70's and I went through training in 1990 right out of highschool but unfortunately ran out of funds to complete the course half way through my training.

Andrew lived and breathed his RV. I had the chance to go out with him and as some of you have pointed out, he was competent, cool and collected. At some point I hope to have some closure to this event and find out what happened. More for my curiousity than anything else. It won't bring him back but I, like the rest of you, would like to understand how the airplane fell out of the sky.

On a side note, I just want to share with the community that Andrew was an amazing brother. He taught me so much of what I know today about all aspects of life. He was a great friend and mentor to me. My life will be empty without him, a void that many of you will surely feel.

Please be safe!
Justin

[Pitts]

Unfortunately I will be away from CYSH this weekend, but perhaps some of the RV Ottawa community could organize a safe simple fly-by of the Classic Wings hangar at a pre-determined time.

It's none of my business but I can't imagine a better tribute to a pilot than having airplanes in the sky - in Andrew's case, preferably RV's.