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Thoughts on ditching after a big accident with my RV7 in 2015

You may recall a big accident happened in Italy on 31st May 2015 during an Airshow along the Adriatic sea. My close friend and formation flying pal, Marco Ricci, died in the accident, I could ditch my RV7, I-AMEL, in the sea and come out with a minor brush on my left hand.
There’s a great analysis that AOPA USA have made on it, just to help to recall and there are some interesting thoughts that I would like to share with you on the ditching itself. Here's AOPA Live:

AOPA Live 4 June 2015

Few words on the accident itself which was deeply analyzed by our national NTSB (ANSV): we flew this routine so many times during our formation training with the help of formers Frecce Tricolori pilots (Frecce Tricolori are the Italian Blue Angels), including the day before for the saturday “test” of the Airshow. Therefore it was absolutely a surprise (for me) the abrupt “recovery” from the inverted flight of my pal (while I was flying under it), Marco Ricci. That was not the plan, no radio call for distress and no usual recovery from inverted flight without loss of altitude.
Everything has been X-rayed from the italian NTSB: “luckily” (in order to understand the probable cause of the incident), that day we had many GoPro mounted, including one in the cockpit of Marco, directly facing the pilot. The GoPro was initially lost in the sea, but found by someone and sent anonimously to the Italian Coast Guard 2 days after the accident. From this video and the post mortem, the probable cause has been found on the incapacitation of the pilot for a “stroke” (not exactly a stroke, I am not a cardiologist).
You can download (unfortunately in Italian) the full PDF report on www.ansv.it., maybe using Google Translate.

Why am I writing only now?

Well, first of all, I restarted flying with my own plane (actually an Extra 330 LT). I continued flying almost immediately; a friend of mine, just 1 month after the accident, lent me his RV10 for a tour in Italy and I continued flying as a flight instructor on Tecnams, but it’s not like having your plane.

Another reason is how valuable is this forum and, as you will read later, there are lessons that I have red on this forum which came handy (and actually remembered!) during my ditching (believe it or not). I am sure that I can give some suggestions in the unlikely (as the PA on airliners say) of ditching with an RV.

Quick note, I have a full video (which is not pubblic) of my ditching (one GoPro was mounted facing forward on the back of my RV7), so what I am writing here, is clearly visible, so no “allucinations” after an accident.
Anyway you can see a lot of videos on YouTube (there were TV and more than 50K people on the beach), just search for “Incidente Alba Adriatica” (Incident in Alba Adriatica, which is the city along the coast where the Airshow took place).

My experience on RV7 is consistent, I made my FAA License in 1994 then European one in 1995 and I logged more than 1.000 hrs as a PIC on my RV7 (sliding canopy, O-360-A1A and Sensenich then Hartzel Scimitar Prop), flying X-countries (also from Italy to Morocco, which is not a short hop), pylon races with the 3R British Association and a lot of short grass fields in Italy, usually 1.500 ft, no IFR. One thing that should be mentioned is that just 2 years before my ditching, I have made a water egress training test with a professional guy in a pool (although I am a good swimmer, I am 1.90 mt tall and thinking of ditching in the relatively small cockpit of the RV has been always something that I thought possible due to long X-country on open waters).

The whole thing from the mid air collision to the egress from the cockpit lasted a little bit more than 2 minutes (2 minutes and 20 seconds), but lot of things happened and many things were thought, analyzed and made.

In the whole process of ditching, things were really calm (until a certain point that I will explain) and that’s not because I have steel nerves, but just for one simple and understandable reason.

A catastrophic mid air collision is something that you can hardly tell and that’s what I thought during the big collision: I clearly remember (you can see from the video) a lot of noise, litterally falling from the sky with a lot of negaive g's, a big shade in the cockpit, my canopy obscured by the wing of the other aircraft and the nose down 30 degree (starting at just 500 feet AGL) with the sea approaching. I thought: OK, now it’s going to finish. This is so vivid.

For pure luck, although left wing was really damaged, prop bent, engine out, left flap bent and after a difficult recovery at just 40 feet from the sea, I found the aircraft controllable (almost) with light again “ON” in my cockpit.

I was so surprised (after being 100% sure that I was going to die) that I thought: “OK, I have to ditch, but the worst has passed, prepare yourself”.

Part 1
 
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Luigi,

THANK YOU for posting this. I can't imagine how gut wrenching all this must have been for you, your family and friends. Thank you for taking the time to detail your thoughts so that we can learn from it.

Kindest regards,
Doug
 
Luigi,

Thank you for posting this. A lot of thoughts go through your head after a crash, and hearing your story helps me, as I am sure it will help many others.

Kudos to you for talking about it.
 
Wow. I have watched that video taken by beach goers a few times before. I am eagerly awaiting the part 2.

Thanks for sharing. I hope to learn things that could help me in the event of a similar ditching that I hope to never encounter.
 
I also have seen this video in the past many times and wondered about the story. Thank you very much for posting your tale!
 
I cannot remember my airspeed, but it was sure high (I cannot remember exactly how much), because we were performing at IAS 150 knots @ 500’ and considering the sudden descend (let’s call it in that way), I am sure that I picked a lot. Starting an emergency with plenty of airspeed is surely a good thing, especially if you are few feet from sea surface. More time available to pick the best suitable place for the emergency, it was immediately clear to me that my engine was out.
It was not the “silence” of the engine, it was the sight of my prop. The Hartzell was simply completely bent, very similar to turboprops when the pilot “flags” the props. It was just moving very slowly and I will tell you one thing that is unbelievable, but it’s 100% true: I thought “OK, now the props are giving very low resistance, expect a better glide ratio”. I am still surprised on what I thought in those few seconds, especially considering the other things that were performed afterwards.
Again, no particular steel nerves, aircraft untangled and controllable, that was the miracle and I had only to do what my instructor always said, “just fly the airplane”.
By the way, the props was “free castoring”, it was really giving low resistance and I actually had the feeling of a better glide ratio.
The really awful image was my left wing and my left flap, you can see them from the photos, actually I could see the spar so my first worry was losing the wing, that’s why (again, really intended) I just blew off speed by flying low over the sea (in case of teared off wing, I thought to minimize gravity).
And that’s why I did not deployed flap: the idea of one flap lowered (the right) and the other now (the left), I thought could be a snap roll (maybe not, but that what I have thought).
Then there was the spot to choose to put down the airplane. There were a lot of people on the beach (again, big airshow, around 50K bystanders), but around 10 meters from the beach it was fenced (good policy of the airshows in Italy) so, theorically, it would have been possible to land there.
My main concern was the aircraft: would I lose the wing in seconds? This is what I really thought: a big disaster on bystanders. So the choice was made: I will land as close as possible to the beach, but in the water, where the area has a tipically few inches of depth (again, swimming was fobidden during the airshow and also no boats or whatever is permitted in the waterfronts).
It was time to organize the aircraft, mixture pulled off, but I forgot the Master (more on that later).
Open the canopy?
Big deal and this is what I remember from some topics in Vansforum regarding that. What you can see from the video is that I open slightly for an inch or something, holding it to see what happens for some seconds and then I fully open it. No big deal, as far as I can remember, but for sure my airspeed was bleeding off, maybe in the area of 100 knots.
Then the headsets (which were expensive almost new Bose A10): I thought (or I red somewhere that they could be an obstacle in the egress, because could entangle you), so I throw them at my right side outside the airplane.
Ironically, again clearly visible from the video, I broke the cord of the A10 one month before while exiting the aircraft (my feet “pulled” the cable and broke the connectors), while the A10, during the emergency, remained attached, hanging on the right side of the fuselage. I recovered them (but not repaired).
Last thing, I pulled as hard as I could my seat belts (5 points, standard) and here I was.
First (maybe useless suggestion) whenever you have to land in a short field or soft field or any area where you think that RV might flipover, pull those seat belts as hard as you can, I had no absolutely consequences (head against the cockpit during the flip).
All the things that I have mentioned were done in less than 1.5 minute, it seems unbeleivable to me too, but that’s the reality.

Part 2 (at 3 ends, no worries).
 
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I'm glad you posted this. My one immediate takeaway from the videos back when the accident happened was I would ditch further offshore if I had to. It looked like the shallow water would lock the canopy on you and you could drown trying to get free. I always wondered what your opinion was after the egress.
 
Outstanding handling of the emergency. Given the options it seems like you did almost everything right. With the crowd right there to help I think close to them was the right call. If you were unconscious, deeper water would have been a death sentence. As a guy on the beach my first thought would have been to flip you back over the prop and get you upright and away from the water unless you were already unbuckled. Thanks for sharing the story.
 
As a person with an uncontrollable, irrational fear of water, this incident represents my worst nightmare in aviation. I watched the video when it first was published and can hardly describe how it made my guts churn and my pulse race.

Thank you, Luigi, for taking the time to walk us through this horrific series of events. Your calm explanation is hugely helpful to me.

By the way... I agree with you completely. Headset cords only break when you really need them to work - the rest of the time, like when they are tangled around your feet, they won't break no matter how hard you try. Excellent decision to get that headset out of the cockpit. I marvel at your clarity of thought under such dire circumstances.
 
What I remember most about that video was seeing the canopy slid back before touchdown... And being 100% certain that it would slam shut when contact was made with the water. I have to duck a bit to close the canopy in a friend's RV-6, if that happened in his plane it would take the top half-inch off my skull. Mind you, he has jettison pins, so if it came to that we could be rid of it before water contact... In theory.

It's great to get such a detailed report from the actual pilot... And also great that you could walk away from this relatively unscathed. It's very sad that your fellow aviator did not survive, although it sounds possible that may have been decided before the planes even touched. A tragic accident, with an outcome as good as can be expected in the circumstances.
 
I'm glad you posted this. My one immediate takeaway from the videos back when the accident happened was I would ditch further offshore if I had to. It looked like the shallow water would lock the canopy on you and you could drown trying to get free. I always wondered what your opinion was after the egress.

I'm no expert by any means, but this is a tough one...I actually think *closer* to shore would be better...if it flips in 2' of water, you shouldn't drown (not accounting for wave action, just musing). Might be difficult to get out, but lots of people around to help.

Further out, and all it would take is 4-5' of water, and you could be trapped and, if it sinks, drown, because you probably couldn't get the canopy open.

Further out still, and unless you got out immediately, *before* it sinks, you're in the same predicament: plane upside down on the seafloor, unable to open the canopy.

Of the 3, I think I'd take *right at the shoreline*, in the shallowest water possible, *assuming* a beach landing is flat-out impossible, so that even if it flips, it won't fill with water. Then egress with help from bystanders, or hack open the canopy whatever tool you carry to do that and exit.
 
I'm no expert by any means, but this is a tough one...I actually think *closer* to shore would be better...if it flips in 2' of water, you shouldn't drown (not accounting for wave action, just musing). Might be difficult to get out, but lots of people around to help.

Further out, and all it would take is 4-5' of water, and you could be trapped and, if it sinks, drown, because you probably couldn't get the canopy open.

Further out still, and unless you got out immediately, *before* it sinks, you're in the same predicament: plane upside down on the seafloor, unable to open the canopy.

Of the 3, I think I'd take *right at the shoreline*, in the shallowest water possible, *assuming* a beach landing is flat-out impossible, so that even if it flips, it won't fill with water. Then egress with help from bystanders, or hack open the canopy whatever tool you carry to do that and exit.

Some interesting counter-arguments. I guess in my mind, I imagined his circumstance as deep enough to drown, but not deep enough to get the canopy open because it was resting on the bottom. Certainly not an event I want to have to go through ...;)
 
Last part

Sorry for the delay of part 3, but here I am.

And then I hit water. I cannot remember exactly the moment, despite the strong braking effect of water, I do not recall it (while when I see the video makes my palms sweating).
The "flip" was there, again, no particular issue, but then something happened: tha canopy was closed.
I was inverted, I could see the "roof" of the canopy completely covered with sand, realizing in that moment that I was lying on the "bed" of the sea, actually some mixed sand and water with bubble was coming in from the perimeter of the hole of the canopy handle.
What really scared me, it was what I could see on the lateral side of the canopy. In Italy we have marvellous carribbean style blue water in Sardinia and Sicily, but not in that area, more "ocean" style with brown. So what I could see was brown water. I was, let's say in half a meter water deep, but that's enough for an inverted RV to see only water. It seemed like seeing an acquarium from the RV.
First question was: did I make a mistake? Am I lying in 3 meters? Somebody will pick me up?
I could hear the pump of the smoke running (remember? I told you that master was left on) and there I was, I unbuckle and I could not open the canopy or brake the canopy.
From the camera, you can clearly see the last portion of the canopy "pushed" while I was trying to escape.

No, it was impossible to die (water will have arrived at a certain maximum), but that was an awful moment, maybe worse than the collision itself.

Then, suddenly the light came, because bystanders lifted the wing, allowing me to see that I was actually just where I planned to.
During the lift, I heard a "crack" and then I pushed hard with my left hand, the canopy finally cracked and I could escape from a big "hole" on the left side of the canopy.

And that's the end of the story, now some considerations.
 
1st Consideration

As already said, if you open the sliding canopy (with no special mods) of an RV and then you "flip" it, 110% it will close and, as in my case, it will trap you if it's laying on the ground.
The hit was so violent that it was hard to open it when I recovered the aircraft, remember I came out from a hole in the plexiglass.

Is there a solution for that? I don't know, a hammer or other tools would have helped, but in the limited space of the RV might be challenging.

The only advice that I could suggest is that if you are landing with the remote possibility of a "flip" (i.e. soft ground, emergency etc.), it would be great to consider someone around to help.
Egress might be very difficult or time consuming.
 
Canopy jamming after accident

Ciao Luigi, I've read that some recommend keeping the canopy closed during an off-field landing for exactly the reasons you mentioned - it will slide shut quickly, and possibly jam. Really glad you got out of there ok.

BTW, I was in the Oristano area of Sardinia a couple of weeks ago on vacation and it was fantastic!
 
...and then I hit water. I cannot remember exactly the moment, despite the strong braking effect of water, I do not recall it (while when I see the video makes my palms sweating).

Luigi, do you recall, when you contacted the water, decelerated, and ultimately flipped, was it more of a gradual change, or did it feel like a very sudden, jarring stop?

I fly over water regularly in my RV, and ditching has always been in my mind. One treatise on surviving aircraft accidents that i've read suggested that the greatest survivability was achieved by hitting the softest thing you can as slowly as you can... When you get the speed down, water becomes a lot softer.

I have been wondering if intentionally putting a wingtip in the water, *after* your tail or main wheels have touched and started to slow you down, would be enough to bleed off some of your inertia by converting some of the forward motion into rotational motion... The wingtip will stop quickly, but the fuselage will start to rotate towards it, bleeding off that energy.

Of course, this all requires that you have the time, and the presence of mind, to precisely carry out such a manoeuver.
 
Rob. I?ve had that same idea. I?ve seen videos of model airplanes where a flat ?water loop? put the energy on the most forward wing which prevented flipping over.
The biggest consideration that I?ve thought of against such a maneuver is that our seats and restraints are designed to protect the occupants in every direction of energy except lateral. Airplanes don?t get T-Boned like cars. It seems to me that a sudden impact of lateral energy could harm the liveware to a greater degree than forward deceleration including a flip.
 
It seems to me that a sudden impact of lateral energy could harm the liveware to a greater degree than forward deceleration including a flip.

Definitely a consideration, which is why the thought was that you'd try to get the tail into the water first to bleed off some speed, then the mains and one wing the same time... Gut feel is that you'd get a lot of forward deceleration anyway, even if there's a sideways component as it starts to rotate. But again, getting it just right is probably a lot harder than just letting it flip straight ahead.
 
conditions matter

I guess it would depend a lot on the conditions. I recall the Ethiopian Air crash video where it looks like the pilot put a wingtip in to dissipate energy and while many survived, it was not as successful as the Hudson water landing. Avoiding a pancake while keeping it just above stall will be my strategy - let the landing gear take some energy as it comes in. Tighten the harnesses as much as possible, and get ready for some disorientation after impact.
 
Ciao Luigi, I've read that some recommend keeping the canopy closed during an off-field landing for exactly the reasons you mentioned - it will slide shut quickly, and possibly jam. Really glad you got out of there ok.

In our Tiger, AA5B we carried a 12" piece of 1" PVC pipe that had a longitudinal section cut out allow us to snap it in place over the rail, hopefully preventing the canopy from slamming forward in a crash. I am planning on carrying the same with me when we finally get our new RV-7A home to AZ from PA! East coast weather sucks!
 
I hear you Steve---I've got my canopy where it can be jettisoned also. BUT---Will it take the tail off if one does that??:confused:
 
canopy jettison

Purely speculation...but I can't envision a likely scenario where serious damage to occupants and aircraft tail doesn't occur when a tip-up canopy is jettisoned....damage might be limited to the tail surfaces for a slider. The canopy is heavy and when propelled by the slipstream represents a huge amount of kinetic energy.
 
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I hear you Steve---I've got my canopy where it can be jettisoned also. BUT---Will it take the tail off if one does that??:confused:

anti-splat vert stab straps may help prevent that. slow down and jettison, flip over, unstrap and swim away. simple as that.

put on your safety glasses before jettison.
 
I hear you Steve---I've got my canopy where it can be jettisoned also. BUT---Will it take the tail off if one does that??:confused:

anti-splat vert stab straps may help prevent that. slow down and jettison, flip over, unstrap and swim away. simple as that.

put on your safety glasses before jettison.

A thought exercise....shoot a canopy and frame at the tail of your airplane with a velocity of 150+ mph and see if any catastrophic damage occurs..... ;)

But, maybe the canopy wouldn't hit the tail with that amount of force since both it and the plane started out traveling at the same rate.....but who knows.....a bird strike sure can cause a lot of damage.....bet a canopy strike would be much worse.
 
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well, obviously you have to duck when you pull the canopy release handle. jettison at 80 kts.
 
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If your RV can be controlled enough to slow it down, then roll it on command to facilitate an easy exit, why would you want to jump out instead of flying it to a survivable landing?

A fire is the only reason I can think to leave a plane where pitch and roll control is still possible.

Apologies for massive thread creep...
 
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anti-splat vert stab straps may help prevent that. slow down and jettison, flip over, unstrap and swim away. simple as that.

put on your safety glasses before jettison.

Thanks Much Steve. I didn't know about this. I went to Anti Splat and watched the video. As a result, I'm going to order them from Anti Splat. Oh, and it's "Vertical stabilizer Bracket Mod"

Thanks again.:cool:
 
A thought exercise....shoot a canopy and frame at the tail of your airplane with a velocity of 150+ mph and see if any catastrophic damage occurs..... ;)
Try keeping an aerodynamically indeterminate shape like a canopy in a straight line at 150mph... Given the starting orientation, it's likely it will climb as it departs, possibly clearing the tail.

And, it could only accelerate from 0mph to 150mph (relative to the aircraft) in the 10 feet between the aft canopy latch and the vertical stab if it stopped dead when released... It will start out with the speed of the aircraft and decelerate until it gets to the tail. It may only have 20mph difference at that point.

For a tip-up water landing, unlatching everything may be enough... It'll probably open when you hit the water. Maybe with enough force to depart from the airplane.
 
anti-splat vert stab straps may help prevent that. slow down and jettison, flip over, unstrap and swim away. simple as that.

put on your safety glasses before jettison.

I think it would be foolish to assume that the only damage to be concerned about if a canopy were to contact the vertical stab, would be failure of the fwd attach point.......

It would also be foolish to assume that anyone that just flipped in an airplane... into water.... at high speed with no protection from a canopy (I.E., your face / upper body takes the full brunt and force of impacting the water) will be clear minded enough to unbuckle seat belts and then swim out of the airplane.......
 
To Snowflake

As I mentioned, I do not have a clear recall of the flip, I think (but I am really not sure) that I have perceived the first "touch", again no big decellaration (but, maybe, adrenaline was pumping enough to feel it unreal).

A factor might be the flaps which, in my case, were at 0 and also the the damaged wing could have made the stall speed slightly higher.
Flaps do not make a huge difference in RVs (not as much as 40 degress in a C172), but, maybe, could have prevented the flip? I don't know, for sure I did not deploy flaps due to high risk of "changing" something in the weak equilibrium that I perceived in that moment looking at flap itself and wing.

My consideration is that the most dangerous situation is ditching in shallow water where the aircraft can easily fall inverted on the bottom of the sea with almost zero possibility of egress.
 
My consideration is that the most dangerous situation is ditching in shallow water where the aircraft can easily fall inverted on the bottom of the sea with almost zero possibility of egress.

Luigi,

Ironically, the closed canopy may have kept you alive in this instance as it created an air pocket for you while you regained your senses and orientation.

May sound like a crazy idea, but maybe having a snorkel tube/hose/mouthpiece which you can manually extend through a removable plug on the cockpit floor would buy you time while the hydrostatic pressure around the canopy equalizes facilitating opening. Would be easy to stow for flights over water.

I can easily imagine how running through that event in your mind may give you nightmares. I'm really glad you survived to tell the tale and give us all something to think about. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
 
Worthwhile device

I've used a HEED both in dunker training and working
in my pond. If I ever fly much over water I'll buy one of my own.



Gary Kohler
Ohio
 
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