Private aircraft makes emergency landing on beach

[futuredivot 0]

Not to second guess the pilot or claim that I know what he was thinking.
But-very limited vision-probably not very familiar with the area. SC beaches are not crowded this time of year. It wouldn't be a bad guess that the beach would have a lower population density than the area around the airstrip. Maybe he didn't want to pile into a neighborhood if he totally lost it. There's a golf course just off the airport but he may not have known that.

You are only as strong as the prey you devour

[hcsvader 1]

Makes for a good argument against living a healthy lifestyle doesn't it.
Whats the point in jogging when a plane could fall out of the sky and kill you

Have you seen my pants?
it"s a rough life, Livin' the dream
>:)

[futuredivot 0]

And that, children, is the moral of the story. I think I'm going out for a 3 lb bone in ribeye and some deep fried snickers bars.

You are only as strong as the prey you devour

[billvon 3,088]

> I think I'm going out for a 3 lb bone in ribeye and some deep fried snickers bars.

And get hit by a car? Stay home and order Domino's.

[regulator 0]

Mmmmm Domino's ... I love their Bread Bowls. The one with penne pasta, chicken, and alfredo sauce is da bomb!

[riggerrob 643]

I only hold a private pilot license and only have about 300 hours of experience, but that beach looks much larger than the runway.
I stick with my original decision to land on the beach with an obscured windshield.

[ryoder 1,590]

Quote

Makes for a good argument against living a healthy lifestyle doesn't it.
Whats the point in jogging when a plane could fall out of the sky and kill you

Jogging was not the problem;
The problem is fools who run around in public while deliberately
disabling one of the two senses most useful for detecting danger.
The same applies to cyclists.
(And I *am* a cyclist, but would never ride on a public road with headphones.)

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[riddler 0]

Quote

And get hit by a car? Stay home and order Domino's.

No way - homes are dangerous. Most accidents happen there. I take every opportunity to be away from my home. It scares me.

So far, the safest places I've found are kid's entertainment centers - kids never mug you, and their parents almost never do. And if a kid runs into you at full speed, it doesn't hurt much.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[JohnRich 4]

Quote

> Not just because you're blind, but because your engine is probably
> going to be short on oil.

True, but without a propeller, the level of oil in the engine really isn't going to affect power production.

The articles don't state in what order things happened. It could have been that the oil loss occurred first, which made the engine seize up suddenly, which caused the propeller to shear off.

And obviously, if the propeller departed first, then the idea of continuing on to a further destination is moot.

So, my point that it's a bad idea to try and continue on, is valid either way.

[JohnRich 4]

Quote

Do any of you think that when the aircraft impacted the jogger, it diverted the aircraft into the water? Or would impacting a human not cause enough resistance to force the plane into the water?

Doubtful, considering the huge difference in mass. Like a bug hitting you while you're riding a bicycle.

[pilotdave 0]

Don't forget that losing a constant speed propeller like that is going to be a very very bad thing. It's heavy and located as far forward as you can get. That means the plane's CG will shift back, possibly making the aircraft harder to control. Constant speed propellers use engine oil to move a piston that varies the pitch of the propeller blades. When it's gone, engine oil is coming out the hole it left behind. It's a bad, bad situation. It's unfortunate how it ended up, but it really could have also been worse.

Dave

[Southern_Man 0]

Quote

It's a bad, bad situation. It's unfortunate how it ended up, but it really could have also been worse.

Dave

Not for the jogger.

I'm a runner, I agree that it is absolutely idiotic to wear headphones while running. Although you would think the beach would be safer than the road. Anyway, he probably wouldn't have needed much time to take effective evasive action. Be interesting to know what part of the plane hit him and if he tried to avoid it at all.

"What if there were no hypothetical questions?"

[JohnRich 4]

Quote

Not to second guess the pilot or claim that I know what he was thinking.
But-very limited vision-probably not very familiar with the area. SC beaches are not crowded this time of year. It wouldn't be a bad guess that the beach would have a lower population density than the area around the airstrip. Maybe he didn't want to pile into a neighborhood if he totally lost it. There's a golf course just off the airport but he may not have known that.

The runway is 4,300' long x 100' wide, and has plenty of grass alongside it.

Aerial view attached - trouble if you miss. I can see the allure of a wide, flat beach, compared to an airport surrounded by trees and development.

Still, that's a tourist resort, and the beaches usually have people on them. He could have at least landed in the water a few yards offshore, which would probably avoid the people, still provide a soft landing, and not be deep enough to drown in.

[regulator 0]

Please forgive me for my 'pilot ignorance' but what benefits can be attained from changing the pitch on the blade of the propeller from a fixed wing aircraft...I know in a helicopter when you move the cyclic (its either the cyclic or the collective) but when you move the stick forward it changes the pitch of the blades which tilts the nose of the helicopter downward and propels the chopper forward. How could this help a fixed wing aircraft?

[Bolas 5]

Quote

Quote

And get hit by a car? Stay home and order Domino's.

No way - homes are dangerous. Most accidents happen there. I take every opportunity to be away from my home. It scares me.

So far, the safest places I've found are kid's entertainment centers - kids never mug you, and their parents almost never do. And if a kid runs into you at full speed, it doesn't hurt much.

I read that most accidents happen in or within 10 miles of home so I moved...

Stupidity if left untreated is self-correcting
If ya can't be good, look good, if that fails, make 'em laugh.

[JerryBaumchen 1,451]

Hi ryoder,

The problem is fools who run around in public while deliberately disabling of of the two senses most useful for detecting danger. ***

I'm with you. We had a local 24-yr old mother get killed ~2 weeks ago here. She was walking along wearing headphones and walked right in front of a light rail train ( electric powered ). She was killed outright.

Her mother raised a lot of @#%@ about the area was not safe, yada, yada; but at the end of the day you are responsible for own mistakes.

Now I am not blaming this jogger because he may not have been able to know it was coming even without the headphones.

JerryBaumchen

[ryoder 1,590]

Quote

Please forgive me for my 'pilot ignorance' but what benefits can be attained from changing the pitch on the blade of the propeller from a fixed wing aircraft...I know in a helicopter when you move the cyclic (its either the cyclic or the collective) but when you move the stick forward it changes the pitch of the blades which tilts the nose of the helicopter downward and propels the chopper forward. How could this help a fixed wing aircraft?

A variable pitch (aka "constant speed") prop performs exactly the same function as the transmission of a car.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[davelepka 4]

Just to correct the article, the Lancair in this incident did not have a turbine engine. You can build a Lancair with a turbine, but the FAA has this one listed as piston powered, and the photos in this article -

http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/03/16/1174196/ga-man-running-on-beach-was-killed.html

- that JohnRich posted clearly show the shorter nose of the piston powered version.

One of the other photos also shows what appears to be the access door for the dipstick hanging open as the plane sits in the water. I don't know if it was opened after the landing or if it happened in-flight, but at least for the pilot I would think that would be the last thing on your mind after killing the guy on the beach.

Maybe the feds opened it, maybe the passenger did? The article does report that things happened in this order, 'engine trouble', then 'oil on windshield', and then 'prop falls off'. That would mean that the oil on the windshield was not a consequence of the prop falling off, but it began before the prop fell off.

I'm sure the news people are confused about something. The NTSB will clear this whole thing up. Eventually.

[billvon 3,088]

> but what benefits can be attained from changing the pitch on the blade of the propeller . . .

A propeller is an airfoil, like a wing. It's just spun under power. The same principles of lift, drag, angle of attack etc apply.

When you spin a propeller you force air past it. The angle of attack is determined by the propeller's rotational speed and the air hitting it, which comes from the airplane's airspeed. In a fixed-pitch prop, for any given airspeed there will be an ideal RPM that will generate lift (i.e. thrust) most efficiently.

Unfortunately this is a compromise on fixed pitch props. At low speeds, the angle of attack is too great, and power is wasted in drag. At high speeds, the angle of attack is too shallow, and often the engine cannot spin fast enough to attain the ideal angle of attack.

A variable pitch prop solves this problem by varying the blade pitch. At low airspeeds, the blades are pitched flatter so that the engine can spin at a higher RPM and generate more power; the angle of attack is also ideal to get maximum thrust at the lower airspeed. At a higher airspeed, the prop pitch can be made steeper so that that ideal angle of attack is maintained even at the same (or lower) RPM.

Think of it as a car's transmission - it adjusts the blade angle so the engine can run most efficiently at different airspeeds.

In practice it gives an aircraft a bit more thrust, a higher cruise speed and better acceleration during takeoff. Most variable pitch props are constant-speed props; they regulate their own RPM to some constant speed that's good for the engine, so all the pilot has to do is adjust power and the pitch changes automatically. Some have a beta range that will force the blades to reverse their pitch, thus generating thrust backwards and slowing the airplane down rapidly after landing.

[squirrel 0]

maybe being unfamiliar withe the glide ratio under engine out situations made his decision to go for a longer beach, rather that the airport? as in..."if i go long, at least i still have flat sand to land on, not houses?" just a thought.

flying a weight shift trike...i land probably 30% of the time full engine off...but then again, i know my trike, and at only 300 lbs, i can do more at the "last minute."

________________________________
Where is Darwin when you need him?

[billvon 3,088]

>maybe being unfamiliar withe the glide ratio under engine out situations . . .

Perhaps, but:

1) engine-out training is an essential part of any private pilot's training, both in primary training and in recurrency training/testing

2) it's not very hard to alter your glide (using airspeed, flaps, gear and slipping) to achieve a desired target, even if you don't fly the pattern quite right.

[squirrel 0]

Quote

>maybe being unfamiliar withe the glide ratio under engine out situations . . .

Perhaps, but:

1) engine-out training is an essential part of any private pilot's training, both in primary training and in recurrency training/testing

2) it's not very hard to alter your glide (using airspeed, flaps, gear and slipping) to achieve a desired target, even if you don't fly the pattern quite right.

oh, i agree...its just that the experience level may have forced him into a "target fixation" decision. as in, like, "thats it, thats the only way..."

i have come in so high i actually do a slight stall, drop the nose, and swooped it in to hit a dirt road....but again, i know my wing very well. not something to do if you dont really know your aircraft. but, i have no idea on the experience level of this pilot with this aircraft.

________________________________
Where is Darwin when you need him?

[ZigZagMarquis 9]

Ooops... didn't mean to double post.

[akjmpplt 0]

Quote

I only hold a private pilot license and only have about 300 hours of experience, but that beach looks much larger than the runway.
I stick with my original decision to land on the beach with an obscured windshield.

It might look good, but until you're in the flare you won't see low spots, dunes or a number of other things that can cause you grief.

I've got about 6000 landings, 7 of them after power loss.

SmugMug

[billeisele 130]

Quote

" ... couldn't he use the onboard instruments to continue to his destination, ... to 'fly blind'?

"

.....................................................................

Yes, any instrument panel sufficient for "blind flying" would get him to Hilton Head Airport, but you still need a windshield to adjust glideslope enough to land on the runway. Even a minor error will cause a painful overshoot or undershoot. Except for the fanciest of airliners, IFR airplanes still have a "decision height" say 300 feet above the runway, when the pilot either sees the runway or aborts the approach ... not an option without a propeller.

With an obscured runway, a long, wide, firm beach is a far better option for a forced landing, because it requires less precise adjustment of glide slope and you can see enough out the side windows.

the beach in front of the Hilton was a good choice, they have one of the best beach bars on the island, we used to jump there on Thursdays

Give one city to the thugs so they can all live together. I vote for Chicago where they have strict gun laws.