Re: REFLECTOR: Velocity, Accident at Santa Monica, KSMO

[PenningSP@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/17/99 9:20:12 PM Central Daylight Time, 
ddoshay@cisco.com writes:

<< The only conclusion so far: we have had three near total or total Velocity
 >accidents in the last 7 months with 6 people involved and nobody got even
 >scratched. Certainly, the Velocity has proven its value as a safe cocoon.
 
 Just for completeness, there were 2 just prior to these which
 did not make the airport, and all souls on board were lost,
 and another where a wire strike prior to the emergency 
 landing resulted in an injured pilot.  >>

     I have been reading out Velocity accidents for several years now.  In 
each case I have watched people explain it away as pilot error, an engine 
fault, a plane that wasn't built right, a part that failed and has now been 
redesigned, or some other reason that is usally well thought out and probably 
correct.  What concerns me is that there is not a lot of Velocities flying, 
but there seems to be a high number of them crashing.  This has been 
confirmed by many insurance companies who won't even ensure a low time pilot 
or anyone for the first 10 hours of flight.  
      In most cases, the basic problem appears to be an airplane which lands 
too fast.  I would like to see more empahsis by the factory and also by some 
of the mechanical geniuses on the reflector toward designing a modification 
that would allow a velocity to slow down to 40 miles per hour.  This would 
give us a lot more landing space and would make me sleep better knowing that 
after 8 years my Velocity is about to fly.

Shawn Penning