RV-10 off airport emergency landing in CA

[rhill]

I agree, Good job getting this one down,given the number completed, the number of accidents seem higher for the 10. My first question is where did the oil go? What let loose? I have not heard of a 10 nose wheel dig in and cart wheel like a 6,7,9 is want to do.Sorry to see a new project down,Glad everyone walked away.

[EDog]

Just cam upon this in my local San Diego News. So happy the guys came out without any injury.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUm3aIuzuZE
http://fox5sandiego.com/2013/01/05/p...h-near-julian/

[rapid_ascent]

I'm curious about this one. It appears to be a new aircraft since the first flight was around 12/27. I assume it was still in the first phase of flight testing and it flew out of Ramona. I would wonder where the flight test area was since it was reportaedly at 10,000 feet and ended up 10 miles away from the airport. I'll admit I don't know the process yet in depth, but this just struck me as being odd.

[RVbySDI]

Originally Posted by rapid_ascent

I'm curious about this one. It appears to be a new aircraft since the first flight was around 12/27. I assume it was still in the first phase of flight testing and it flew out of Ramona. I would wonder where the flight test area was since it was reportaedly at 10,000 feet and ended up 10 miles away from the airport. I'll admit I don't know the process yet in depth, but this just struck me as being odd.

If you are referring to the altitude and distance from the airport as the "odd" thing, well neither is odd for Phase I flying. The Phase I flight restrictions are solely based upon the discretion of the DAR/FISDO examiner and the pilot to determine based upon the environment, pilot, airplane, etc.

[EDog]

Originally Posted by rockwoodrv9

Man, looking at the pictures and video, it looks like there were not a bunch of happy places to put it down. That road looks pretty narrow. I will be interested in finding out more about this. It looks like the pilot did a nice job of slowing and putting it in the best place he could.

I know this place very well. I have spent the last 15 years hiking and climbing the surrounding mountains, and have mountain bike the entire road in the background. The terrain in the area is very rocky, and surrounded by very large mountains and hills. How he was able to not kill himself in this extremely unforgiving terrain is a miracle. Great job landing in this area and being able to walk away uninjured.

[Wayne Gillispie]

Originally Posted by rapid_ascent

I'm curious about this one. It appears to be a new aircraft since the first flight was around 12/27. I assume it was still in the first phase of flight testing and it flew out of Ramona. I would wonder where the flight test area was since it was reportaedly at 10,000 feet and ended up 10 miles away from the airport. I'll admit I don't know the process yet in depth, but this just struck me as being odd.

I had 75 nm radius, stay out of populated areas and towered fields. That is maximum. I set my own personal maximum of staying within glide range of my home airport for the first 10 hours. After that I ventured out, but always kept nearest private strip or better in my "direct to". This provided distance, heading, time, glide range marker on my GRT. Also kept 11-12 qts in the sump which may buy you some time or make the fire bigger. I always hoped for more time. Everyone's risk assesment is going to be different.

[Wayne Gillispie]

Originally Posted by rhill

I agree, Good job getting this one down,given the number completed, the number of accidents seem higher for the 10. My first question is where did the oil go? What let loose? I have not heard of a 10 nose wheel dig in and cart wheel like a 6,7,9 is want to do.Sorry to see a new project down,Glad everyone walked away.

We have had two nose gears broke off in the past two weeks, one on pavement and one in dirt. I would think that the heavier airframe, longer fuselage, larger HS/Elevator makes a big difference. It does make me feel a little better about an emergency landing now.

[Wayne Gillispie]

I spoke to Jerry Jackson on the phone today. *He's a friend of my airplane partner and was gracious enough to describe his recent forced landing in a lot of detail for me, and said I could make a post about it to the Matronics list. *AirCrafters wasn't involved in his build in any way, except that Jerry got a ride from my partner a few years ago and decided to build based partially on that experience. *From my notes:


Jerry had been flying his plane for one week. *It was his fourth flight with six hours on the Hobbs. *He had flown for two hours the day before. *His habit had been to decowl after every flight to look for trouble. *He landed at two airports in his test area and practiced some steep turns. *He departed Aqua Caliente (L54) and climbed to 8500 feet. *Note that the terrain in the area (33 *00.143, *-116 *42.912) includes very little flat land, peaks above 6000 feet, and deep canyons. *He was headed back to his test base, Ramona airport (RNM), when he noticed oil pressure dropping. *The plane is equipped with a 3-screen Garmin G3X panel, which includes a complete engine monitor.


He said at first he thought the reading was erroneous, but it kept dropping evenly. *20 miles from RNM he called the tower and declared an emergency. *There was no smell of oil and no visible oil leak. *As the pressure went to 0 his RPM rose, since the governor had no oil to work with, and at that point he knew he had a true emergency.


17 miles from Ramona, the engine seized and stopped.
He slowed to a good glide speed and being already on frequency, he requested vectors to anything flat. *He was given a heading to Flying T Ranch but realized immediately he couldn't glide that far. *Just ahead he could see a deep North-South canyon (San Diego River). *He estimated he could glide into it but not over it. *Opting not to glide to the bottom of a rocky canyon, he turned south to parallel the canyon rim. *He saw a road (Eagle Peak Rd.) and followed it south. *On seeing a few parked cars, he picked the most gentle hillside and glided into some low brush, uphill, with flaps down at 50-55 knots.


The nose gear tore off almost immediately. *He later found it sticking out of the ground ?like a plumber's water pipe?. *He noted that his 406 MHz ELT had activated. *He was concerned that the authorities would call his home looking for him, only to reach his wife who didn't know what was going on. *He got out and attempted a call to Ramona on a handheld. *This part is cool?an RV-4 in the area had heard his distress call and headed his way. *The -4 found him and was able to relay some info from Jerry to Ramona, and pass on the exact location to ATC. *It took a hiker with a smartphone to get a text message to his wife, however, right after the Air Force called her. *The fire department arrived 45 minutes after landing and gave him a ride back to town.


In Jerry's estimation, the airframe is most likely destroyed. *He said there were buckles in the sheet metal in many places, including the tunnel and the panel (wow!). *But he said over and over that he thought Van's designed a great plane that protected him when he needed it, bent where it should have and stayed together where it had to.


This was his third engine from Aerosport Power. *He's a repeat offender having built a Murphy Moose and a -6A. *He put 1600 hours on his last RV. *All the oil was concentrated on the right side but he hasn't been able to determine yet what happened. *If I hear I'll try to post any news.


Personally, I think he did a great job flying, navigating, and communicating, in that order. *He took appropriate action, slowed to glide speed, didn't stall too high, he found a place to land, and he managed to be found by ground, air, and space. *And he walked away. *Good job!

Dave Saylor
831-750-0284 CL

[Janekom]

Thank God for this outcome and well done to the pilot! AC can be replaced.

[pierre smith]

Thanks Dave.... shows what clear, level-headed thinking and an RV can do for us! Thanks to his Guardian angel.

Best,