Pilot SUCKED out ....

[jumperconway 0]

I like the media's take on this

Pilot Sucked Out Of Plane
Search Resumes Monday
Posted: 9:12 a.m. CST November 18, 2002
PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas -- Authorities resumed their search Monday for the co-pilot of a single-engine airplane who
fell 9,000 feet to his death.

Authorities say the pilot was making a steep turn in the Cessna 152 when the cockpit door of a single-engine
aircraft opened yesterday and the co-pilot was sucked from the cockpit.

The other pilot radioed the Federal Aviation Administration and safely landed the plane back at David Wayne Hooks
Airport in Spring. That's the same airport from which the plane had taken off -- about 20 miles northwest of
Houston.

The instructor pilot told investigators that both men were strapped in when the small trainer aircraft took off from
the airport.

"He just doesn't know at what point that changed," Waller County Sheriff's Lt. John Kremmer said.

The pilot told investigators nothing seemed unusual about the man.

"We're looking at the safety of the flight," Herwig said. "We'll look at everything that has to do with flight
instruction, the pilot and the aircraft."

Kremmer said a search for the pilot ended at sunset. Crews had narrowed the search area to a 10- mile radius that
includes pasture, woods and several large lakes, he said.

Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers, the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA were helping with the
investigation, Kremmer said.

Kremmer said there was no indication the man had a parachute.

Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed

[quade 4]

I think we're looking at either a murder or suicide case here. Seeing as how the pilot remaining didn't say it was a suicide . . .

It is virtually impossible to fall out of a C-152 by accident under normal circumstances even with the doors open, even during most "unusual attitude" training. A steep turn, a normal training maneuver, may take place at up to 60 degrees of bank, but the centrifugal forces keep you in your seat -quite- well. At 60 degrees of bank you'd experience 2 Gs in-line from head to seat.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[wildblue 7]

Don't most people wear their seatbelts in planes? Isn't that a rule somewhere? And don't you have to try to get the door open? I mean, the door just doesn't "fall" open, does it?

it's like incest - you're substituting convenience for quality

[nacmacfeegle 0]

Hey Conway whasssuuup?

Any how, Waller is up beside Skydive Houston, surely there is someone there who knows what is going on here?
I'm a wee bit suspect of the facts as reported....but 'strange things' do happen..

Cya
Dave

--------------------

He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

[quade 4]

Seatbelts are REQUIRED for taxi, takeoff and landing. In a training environment, you normally wouldn't take them off at all. The doors on a C-152 are a pain in the ass to push open at cruising speeds and steep turns in a C-152 are normally performed at full throttle. In fact, even at full throttle it's difficult to maintain altitude in a 60 degree steep turn in a C-152 because they're just that underpowered.

Additionally, you don't really sit in a C-152 the way you do in a C-172. Your legs are more forward than down. Kind of like sitting in a chair with a footrest. The entire feeling in a C-152 is that of "wearing" the airplane because it's just that tiny.

I have a -LOT- of time in C-152s from when I used to be a flight instructor.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[JDBoston 0]

I think the proper term for this is a suicide... but I suppose we should wait for the authorities to weigh in.

Joe

[Guest]

That sucking sound you hear is the aliens vacuuming the reporter's brains from his skull.

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[Hooknswoop 19]

My vote is the guy jumped, with a parachute, into his or a friends property. The pilot is playing dumb, making up a story, so as to not get violated for dropping jumpers w/o following the FAR's.

He will probably turn up or they will never find a body and leave it at that.

Hook

[AggieDave 6]

Who ever is running the investigation called Todd (Aggieland DZO) yesterday to have him help plot where a body would have fallen to according to the winds, line of flight, etc. I thought that was interesting.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[wildblue 7]

Quote

plot where a body would have fallen to according to the winds, line of flight, etc

Did they really need help with this? It's not like the Cessna was doing mach 1.3 at 40,000 feet.

it's like incest - you're substituting convenience for quality

[AggieDave 6]

Well, apparently they did, since they called him. Also, the uppers in Texas for the past 2 weeks have been doing well over 30knots, so you could imagine that it would be more diffucult for whuffos to figure out where a body would land.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[jumperconway 0]

Sunny to partly cloudy, high today 79!
Xaos 84 is resting today after a busy weekend!
When are you coming back over to the states?
Blue ones,
C 1045

[wildblue 7]

Quote

Also, the uppers in Texas for the past 2 weeks have been doing well over 30knots

Well yeah, but the cessna was probably between 3k and 5k feet?

it's like incest - you're substituting convenience for quality

[AggieDave 6]

9k according to a news report I just read.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[wildblue 7]

Quote

9k according to a news report I just read

Ok, so my reading comprehension and retention isn't the best in the morning.

This had to be something intentional. Would anyone actually climb a 152 to 9k just for giggles?!

it's like incest - you're substituting convenience for quality

[lummy 4]

Quote

Would anyone actually climb a 152 to 9k just for giggles

No kidding, that must've taken what, like an hour or two to get up that high?

I promise not to TP Davis under canopy.. I promise not to TP Davis under canopy.. eat sushi, get smoochieTTK#1

[Michele 1]

When I was younger (ahem...!) I went for a ride along in someone's teeny tiny plane (it was a cessna something or other - two seats in front, with one long bench seat in back). I was scared (I'm scared of planes), and we were going to try to get me used to flying around. HAHAHAHAHAaaaa.....

So there we were. Smooshed into this little cessna, me and the pilot. We taxi down the runway...turn around...get going....and lift off (o.k., it was a take off, but it felt like a liftoff...)...and as we climb through 100 feet, my door swings open. Plop. Oh shit. I press myself backwards into the seat and sort of over towards the pilot. Pilot looks over, grabs my hand from my lap, puts it on the yoke, and says "pull on this gently but enough to get over the freeway, and lean forward" which I did....He leaned over and shut the door, and then went back to flying the plane. Like I said, it was a really tiny plane. Later on, when it was time for landing, he asked me if I wanted to land the plane, too...I declined. Turns out that the door was shut, but not locked, and I may have nudged something at take-off which opened it. Scared me horribly.

Dunno what happened to the pilot, but I do know that doors can come open...mine did, and that was the first and last time I've ridden in that small of a plane. He kept asking me to go again, but I kept telling him I was happy with my feet on the ground. I wonder what he'd think if he knew I was jumping.... He'd have apoplexy!

Ceils-
Michele

~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek
While our hearts lie bleeding?~

[billvon 3,118]

>t is virtually impossible to fall out of a C-152 by accident under normal circumstances . . .

Maybe there was an explosive depressurization, and he was sucked out by the force of the air rushing past him. I see it in the movies all the time.

[wmw999 2,588]

A friend of mine made a bandit jump out of a 172 a long time ago, in an undisclosed location. He said it was really hard to get the door open enough to slide past it with his gear on. Took help from the rear seat passenger. Admittedly this wasn't the most experienced pilot either, but he did manage a cut of some sort.

There has got to be more to this story. Either that, or whatever luck he didn't have went to someone who won a massive lottery that day.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[Hooknswoop 19]

I have....um....understand that in order for a jumper to exit a Cessna 152, the throttle should be at idle, with the aircraft's speed just above the stall speed. A little right pedal helps too, but it is anything but easy to exit, even when you are trying to, much less accidently falling out. With the further facts, exit altitude was 9,000 ft, haven't found anything yet, I still think the guy was wearing a parachute and jumped. You have to want to get out and have help. You really gotta be depserate to take a C-152 to 9k. The pilot probably was pulling someone's leg that asked, "hey what happened to Joe? Didn't he go flying with you?" "Oh ya, he fall out, he, he" And then the police were called, and the pilot is now thinking "uh oh". When they threaten to charge the pilot with murder, the skydiver will show up. They'll get a slap on the wrist, and the FAA will eyeball DZ's more closely.

Hook

[quade 4]

Bill I think you know as well as I do that the only pressurization in a C-152 comes from the flight instructor eating too many burritos before takeoff.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[quade 4]

Michele (et al) --

The doors of C-152s and C-172s (probably the one you were in Michele) have pretty crappy latches and they do, on a fairly regular basis depending on the exact airplane, come open when the plane is rotated for takeoff. Basically the airframe bends just ever so slightly and they pop out of the door latch even -if- they are locked.

Now, the really scary part of this is that a lot of folks try to fix this when they're at 100 feet or so just after takeoff -- bad move being distracted too close to the ground. The plane flies just fine with the doors popped open and there's really no danger of falling out. Far better is to wait until you're out of the traffic pattern, trimmed up in a steady climb and above 1,000 feet agl.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[airann 1]

Hey, just got a phone call about this crazy thing.

They say they are still looking for the 'jumper' and that the dude jumped out without rig. As of this hour the dropzones in that region Waller, A&M, etc are trying to figure out where some-body would wind up.

The whole thing is alarming. I hope the guy was not a skydiver. I wish he would have spoken to me if it was suicide I could tell him about my life and his wouldnt seem so bad.

Weird things. I have heard many stories about jumpers who end their lives at the dz. By whatever means. It is an unspoken theory, however can depression run high within the skydiving family? I think it does, and we dont talk about it = it may prevent one of us from jumping.

I am not saying this leaper was a jumper per se, but its just a theory I have observed around the dz's.
The unfortunate suicides at dz's were not jump related, in that they ended their lives another way.

~AirAnn~

[SudsyFist 0]

oooh, looks like it made cnn...

steve

[howardwhite 6]

I recall some real newspaper headlines about passengers extracted by depressurization.

One was:

"Passenger Sucked to Death Over Atlantic."

HW