N988TS Involved In Non-Fatal Landing Incident (April 2005)

I still don't know the full details, but a report appeared on the faa.gov site (go there) of an accident involving N988TS, which the FAA lists as a 9A registered to TruTrak Flight Systems, Inc. Hit a wire. I'm hearing there were no serious injuries, thankfully.

Does anyone have any more information?

B,

TruTrak is a customer of mine and I called and they confirmed that no one was injured. They are all at Sun-N Fun including the pilot of the RV-9 so that is great news. I flew in the RV-9 about a week ago and everything was fine with the plane at that time.
Jim Wright RV-9A wings 90919 Arkansas

I have an update....(from Jim Younkin of TruTrak)

Alex De Dominicis talked with Jim this morning and then Alex called me.

The RV was not destroyed....they clipped a wire while hand flying the plane (which fortunately broke) then continued flying until they could make a precautionary landing at the nearest airport. There was some damage to the spinner and cowl, but other than that the plane is OK. The preliminary NTSB report led me (and others) to believe the plane was destroyed, which luckily isn't the case.

Jim and the TruTrak employees are at SnF now and away from computers, so maybe we'll get something when they return and get caught up.

Regarless, glad everyone is OK and that the damage was minimal.

B,

Hit a wire?

Buzz job?
Low on final approach?

How do you just hit wires?
-High tension power lines
-Guide-wires from radio towers
-Power lines streatched across a river

You have to be flying fairly low to hit these.

George

N988ts

I think we should wait for the facts before we start judging... how this could have happened. Jack N489JE

Fly in the middle of the air, avoid the edges

Build9A said:

I think we should wait for the facts before we start judging... how this could have happened. Jack N489JE

Click to expand...

I don't make judgments of others, unless I am getting paid for it. Since I have made many mistakes myself, and don't have time to make all of them myself, I want to learn from others. I also know after 20 years of flying that the good info can come from any pilot, regardless of experience.

I did not say they were doing a Buzz job. However that is a common reason pilots and their planes hit stuff on the ground. My goal is to fly in the middle of the air and avoid the edges.

I am asking how do you hit wires? (I think it is a good question)
If you answer this honestly that would be great, since I want to avoid this.
Obviously if you saw them in time you would avoid them. That is it.
Obviously facts or not, the result of this flight was not satisfactory. You agree I am sure. Since they flew off I have to assume they were under their own power the whole time.

More importantly than making a judgment about me and scolding me is asking "How can I avoid this?" My point, fly high and if you must fly low do it over known terrain, day time with good vis. OK (BTW - I will not personally fly into airports at night without a PAPI/VASI.)

I guess people are sensitive when there is a hint of critizing. I am just use to it, since I have a check-airman critiqe and evaluation of my flying 3 times a year. It is just normal part of the process of being a pilot, learning all the time.

?Ye aviator, fly-ith with care, lest ye ground comith up and smite thee mightily"

Cheers G

Ok

my mistake G. You were asking questions. and good ones. I guess we all get a little touchy when we see a fellow builder bang up their plane or get hurt. I know how devastated I would be. Jack N489JE

Hitting wires

Good point G. I make my living in an Air Tractor (PT6 turbine) ag airplane, hauling 500 gallons of toxic mix on cotton and peanuts, now in my 35th year of ag.
There are no "high" wires/powerlines. I work all day at 140MPH and two feet or so above the crops, with the "high" wires being the ones I fly under, so G's point is valid. I'm neither judgemental nor condemning of these guys but they HAD to be low, either in approach mode or something similar.
As a point of interest, I once tore up an electric fence wire while demoing an ag plane at a customer's private grass strip. He kept cows and the wire ran across the approach end without my knowledge. He said afterward that if he'd known that I was gonna land so near the end, he'd have told me! Another friend hit a cow as it was spooked and severely dented the Cessna 172 as it touched down. Beware those private grass/farm strips.
Pierre

I was at S&F this morning and asked one of the Trutrak guys about it. He said they were filming a demo for their product, flying through a valley and didn't see the wire til it was too late. The wire wrapped around the spinner and flailed a bit, hitting the wing before they landed uneventfully at an airport. As stated before, the wire obviously broke.

animals

hit a cow as it was spooked and severely dented the Cessna 172 as it touched down. Beware those private grass/farm strips.
Pierre[/QUOTE]

We used to buzz the animals several times to chase them away from the strip. I can remember once that there were so many cow pies on the strip that the plane was a real mess after landing though!

Birds don't like towers either

Here is a link showing a plot of antennas by state.

http://www.towerkill.com/issues/consum.html

Although the site is more towards the hazard towers pose towards birds, it is useful to pilots. At the bottom of the page are state ID's. Click on them to see where the high towers are. Some of these are 2000 feet above AGL!

Your prime protection against hitting hard stuff is the sectional MSA. For those (like me) who forgot, the sectional, MSA: Minimum Safe Altitude, minimum altitude that meets obstacle clearance. The MSA is the two-digit number found in each "quadrangle" in light blue print.

I wonder if the new Garmin GPS, Anywhere Map and other GPS have all the tower hazards? I know they are always putting up new towers, and they are getting taller. Charts and electronic databases are not 100% accurate.

2000 feet AGL is apparently the self-imposed limit and the status quo for tall towers. According to the above site just one radio tower can kill thousands of birds each year! If a tall tower is smack in the middle of a migratory route, it can be bad news for our feathered friends. Apparently some birds migrate at night or in IFR conditions, so they prone to hitting these hazards and obstructions, just like we are. We are just like birds, except they "don't need no stinking badges (license) to fly", and were given their wings by God not the FAA.

Just last year a young pilot flying freight hit a radio tower near my house (snippet below):

"Airplane was on a Part 135 non scheduled cargo flight, when it collided with a 1749 ft AGL (2149 ft MSL) communications tower. The airplane was flying "westward or into the sun." At the time of the accident, the sky was clear, and the tower was visible. Airplane impacted the tower at the 1425-foot level. At the time of the accident the sun was at an altitude of 22 degrees on a bearing of 250 degrees from the accident site. The accident airplane was being flown on a magnetic heading of about 265 degrees."So you don?t have to fly real low to hit things. The MSA in the accident area above was 2,500 feet, which would clear the tower that was hit by only 350 feet. However another set of 2349? MSL antennas, plotted in the same quad, giving only 150 foot of obstacle clearance flying at MSA.

In Washington State:
"One of the world's most powerful VLF (very low freq) transmitters, this million watt Navy radio facility communicates with submarines at sea using very low frequency radio waves. Built in 1953 in the foothills of the northern Cascades, ten massive antenna cables, all more than a mile long, span the Jim Creek valley (East of Arlington, Wa), suspended by twenty 200 foot tall towers."

I have seen these cables. They are 3000 feet MSL, well above the valley floor and stretch horz across and extend vertical to the valley floor. They are marked with special note on the sectional. Wires across deep canyon rivers are simular and common, which has brought a few pilots to grief. I have read several pilot stories about flying down low over a river and notice wires flash past them, above their aircraft's altitude! They never saw them until under them!

Flying low, like we all like to do sometimes can be risky, unless you know exactly what is in front of you. Also talking of birds, I think you are more likely to hit a bird at low altitudes, which can hurt you. Of course many combine low flying with fast flying, increasing the danger.

Cheers George

Even worse, in some areas near migratory routes, towers are not lit during migration season.

Did anyone ever find any details on this incident? This plane is for sale again but the logs don?t mention anything about a prop strike. The prop was replaced 2 years later, but no mention why and nothing in the engine or airframe log. The cowl paint doesn?t match the rest of the airplane so I would have to guess it was repaired/replaced and repainted.