I lost a friend a few weeks back. The NTSB preliminary report was on this forum last week. While it was just preliminary; it did point out a few things that I had already surmized which was: 1. The weather was perfect . 2. the airplane had fuel and the engine was performing normally. 3. there was no failure of any of the controls. What was not in the report was that the pilot was accomplished and a very good stick.
Before I go further I would like to relate an incident that happened to me a couple of years ago. a friend from church had requested that I give him a ride to take some aerial photos of the church property. So we are above the church at 700 to 800 ft AGL in slow flight for him to take photos. It some point he decides to switch lenses and reaches behind the seat in the baggage area to get a different lens. He got his arm caught on something back there and his response was to grab the stick on his side and pull back.
Things got very exciting very fast and it required a hard smack on his arm to get him to let go. The recovery after he let go was uneventful but the experience really scared me. I would also point out that I was much larger than he was which probably helped.
Back to the report: An "eyewittness" siad the plane appeared to be doing an aerobatic maneuver prior to the crash. We know nothing about how accurate that statement is or what was truly going on in the cockpit and we never will.
However I would like to make a point that flying aerobatic maneuvers with someone who is not a pilot or wants to do such maneuvers can get you killed.
You have no idea whatsoever how that person will respond to the maneuver.
food for thought.
1. fly aerobatics by yourself.
2. Have lots of altitude.
3. If you must do aerobatics with a passenger and you are unsure of how a passenger will respond then remove the passenger stick. ( mine is easily removable as are many)
4. Do a very thorough preflight briefing and explain everything about what is going to happen.
5. Make sure that the passenger is comfortable at all times with what you are doing.
My good fortune was that my incident happened in a RV6-A where I could get his hand off the stick. If I had been in a 4 or an 8 I would probably be dead!
Please be careful as I don't want to loose more friends!
John Morgan
Before I go further I would like to relate an incident that happened to me a couple of years ago. a friend from church had requested that I give him a ride to take some aerial photos of the church property. So we are above the church at 700 to 800 ft AGL in slow flight for him to take photos. It some point he decides to switch lenses and reaches behind the seat in the baggage area to get a different lens. He got his arm caught on something back there and his response was to grab the stick on his side and pull back.
Things got very exciting very fast and it required a hard smack on his arm to get him to let go. The recovery after he let go was uneventful but the experience really scared me. I would also point out that I was much larger than he was which probably helped.
Back to the report: An "eyewittness" siad the plane appeared to be doing an aerobatic maneuver prior to the crash. We know nothing about how accurate that statement is or what was truly going on in the cockpit and we never will.
However I would like to make a point that flying aerobatic maneuvers with someone who is not a pilot or wants to do such maneuvers can get you killed.
You have no idea whatsoever how that person will respond to the maneuver.
food for thought.
1. fly aerobatics by yourself.
2. Have lots of altitude.
3. If you must do aerobatics with a passenger and you are unsure of how a passenger will respond then remove the passenger stick. ( mine is easily removable as are many)
4. Do a very thorough preflight briefing and explain everything about what is going to happen.
5. Make sure that the passenger is comfortable at all times with what you are doing.
My good fortune was that my incident happened in a RV6-A where I could get his hand off the stick. If I had been in a 4 or an 8 I would probably be dead!
Please be careful as I don't want to loose more friends!
John Morgan
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