Quote:
Originally Posted by Naug
As you remember Kelly Landrum damaged his airplane a few month's back. He
writes the following: (snip)The flyspeed went
course pitch. There was not enough time to clean up flaps and
reprogram the Flyspeed all while just barely clearing obstacles. The
wings stalled 50' above trees (snip)
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I think I understand this accident, but it seems to be as much a design/setup issue as a pilot error/human factors one.
It seems obvious that the workload was unnecessarily high, which contributed to the pilot error.
I'm bothered though, that this RV couldn't make a go-around even with the flaps down and the prop in coarse pitch. RVs have really sporty power:weight ratios and the flaps just aren't that big.
Fixed-pitch RVs with cruise props are always in "coarse pitch" and they don't have any trouble outclimbing typical Cessnas. This airplane was apparently unable to maintain altitude, much less climb.
Does the Quinti setup have a coarse pitch stop? It seems to me that it was too easy to have the airplane configured in such a way that it wouldn't climb.
I'm reminded of some old Citabrias that had the mixture and carb heat knobs close together and similarly shaped. If a pilot (who shall remain nameless) forgot the carb heat until turning base, and grabbed it quickly while looking over his shoulder at the runway, he might be rewarded with silence. Always a good vocabulary builder...
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