REFLECTOR: Turbine Velocity

Alex Balic alex157 at direcway.com
Wed Jul 14 17:54:33 CDT 2004


Greg,
I think that this is the one that we all were talking about last year or
so...... I agree that the plane is remarkably intact to impart deadly
injuries to the pilot- probably the shoulder harness failed or broke free I
am guessing, and by the description of the injuries, it probably had a high
rate of sink and hit really hard.  The airframe is unbelievably tough- if
you have ever seen the DEA footage of  one striking a telephone pole at
100mph you would not be surprised that the wings are still attached to the
fuselage- the pilot suffered fatal injuries in that crash also, but the
aircraft was also quite intact.   Turbine power is certainly cool and
reliable, but will drink your 80 gallons in a hurry,  I hate to see fuel
exhaustion caused crashes because they are almost always preventable - even
if the fuel is leaking out you should have a well placed fuel flow meter to
let you know that you are going to be in trouble.........

Alex

-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org]On
Behalf Of Greg Poole
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 3:53 PM
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
Subject: REFLECTOR: Turbine Velocity


...seeing I'm on a curiousity roll.....did anybody ever see or know anything
more about  the turbine XL in the attached email that crashed in California
resulting in the owner/pilot fatality? (- see attached).

I'd just like to know a little more about the former flying characteristics
of that plane given its' unusual powerplant (for a canard). I was also very
interested in some more details about the accident - from the photo the
fuselage looks unbelievably intact and I am surprised the wings are still on
the plane given someone died in it. These questions have been bugging me
since I learnt of the accident.

Greg
(bloody curious Australian!)



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