I did not notice any bias against experimentals in the two articles posted. Could you point any bias out?

Roberta
 
Me neither Roberta. I noticed they actually noted a few positive facts about kit built planes that you usually don't see. :confused:
 
only positive slant noticed

Well... my heartfelt condolences go out to the family and friends. It seems that when they use the term handcrafted... it convays a sense of pride and quality. I'm glad they got Mr Krugers view's from Vans... I wonder what the real cause was... no time of crash was determined. I belive it was at night. I dont believe they filed any sort of flight plan either. I'm also wondering if there was an ELT signal. In the last 4 annuals I've done... I've had to send the ELT's out because nobody seems to be doing the proper G-switch checks and also they are not making proper power. No names.... but when these cheap elts were first made... 6/8 would fail testing right from the factory... I know they have gotten better but I'm still concerned.
Keep flying safely!
Brian
AA-1A Driver
N357BW Reserved
 
Comments on the article

From article:
-------------------------------------------------
Tom Corda, a fourth-generation dairy farmer, said he was not surprised by the crash.

The dairy is under a flight path used by flyers following the Petaluma River, he said.

"Airplanes fly low here frequently to try to get away from the fog," he said. "I knew it was just a matter of time. Flying 110 mph, it doesn't take you long to find dirt."
-------------------------------------------------

The above was not a spacific comment on experimental aircraft, but he does imply there is scud running going on by local pilots to get under the marine layer with rolling hills. There may be some truth to his comments but who knows what happened here. The pilot was a local pilot from what I read, so he should have known the terrain.

Sadly I gather from reading the other article, another plane crashed nearby on the same property about 10 years ago, with similar CFIT appearances (Controlled Flight Into Terrain).

Again thoughts and prayers to the families, and my above comments are in no way reflection on what actually happened, since I don't know, just comments on the articles.
 
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Who knows

Who knows, he may not of even know that he was being interviewed for this incident when he made those comments. The media has a way of twisting everything the way they want it.

I would hope that all he was thinking about was the people not how to promote Vans but as we all know Vans is not a touchy feally kind of company.....
 
caitlinRV said:
:( It sickens me when someone perishes in an aircraft, and I feel for the family that has lost loved ones :( Maybe it is just the way I felt at the time I read the articles posted but I felt the remarks from Vans representative (chief engineer Ken Krueger) came across to me as distasteful when used in the article the way it was reported. To me, I was reading about a tragic event in someones life and in the same article I am reading attributes about the same type of aircraft that just killed these people. Time and place for everything, I felt the only comment that should have been issued by Vans is one of sincerity for the family and a willingness to help find out what went wrong if asked to do so by investigators. :( Caitlin
Click to expand...

No offense, but why say the "plane" killed the people? Is it a known fact, that it's the aircraft's fault? Pilot error, maybe?

I see nothing distasteful with the response from a Van's rep.

Ten years ago, two good friends of mine flew a perfectly flying Van's airplane into rising terrain in moonless darkness. Both perished, but it wasn't the planes fault!

L.Adamson
 
I'm sure Van's first concern, especially Ken Krueger's, was for the family. Just unfortunate the writer of the article failed to convey those feelings.

Roberta
 
the media

they probally didnt even tell ken why they were asking. it has been my experience that all pilots are wounded when another is killed. they know how real all these things are out there and yet as senseless as they may be, can happen to any one of us. all it takes is one mistake. i think we all no that. . they wanted to know about the plane and not much else. at least they didnt point out that an rv 3 went down as well in the past week ACFT ON APPROACH, PULLED UP INTO A LEFT TURN, INVERTED, AND CRASHED, THE
ONE PERSON ON BOARD WAS FATALLY INJURED, LARAMIE, WY. this is no doubt a dangerous hobby. my sincere condolences to the family of all involved. be safe out there.
 
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C-fit and technology

Again in general not spacifically about this crash which was unobserved.

I have flown with enhanced GPS based Ground Proximity warning in jets but have not flown with a new general aviation GPS with a terrain feature. I don't know what happened here or if a GPS terrain warning would have helped, but I am buying a Terrain / Obstacle compatible GPS.

CFIT, control flight into terrain affects not only RV's but military, emergency medical, airlines, ag-flying and any form of flying really. The question is how to avoid it. I'll leave it to each to ponder that question. Clearly terrain and obstacle clearance is harder at night and low visability, factors increasing ones risk to CFIT.

A young local freight pilot was just lost by getting tangled in a large tower guy wires a year ago. A Large military helicopter also suffered a similar fate just recently. Of course you don't want to rely on on a GPS, but it could save your tail someday. The other promising technology are the relatively cheap traffic warning devices. I feel those could be a real saving grace from a mid air.

Both CFIT and mid airs are fairly rare but technology may get closer to almost eliminating these kinds of accidents. The tragedy in Kentucky pointed out some aircraft are fitted with a runway ID device that announces the runway, which may have prevented what appears to be a takeoff on the wrong runway.

We know what mistakes can be made, so lets be careful despite the technology we may be flying with or with out.
 
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