Showplane crash at Nanaimo BC today

[BeechBoy007]

A Steen Skybolt crashed this afternoon at Ycd.
Early news encouraging, pilot evacuated by air ambulance.
The plane was finishing a performance when it crashed beside the runway.

Keep it safe out there.

[DHC5]

Yes the plane was manoeuvering to the east of the runway in a nose down attitude (approx 5-10 degrees) and had just completed an inverted manouever with a slight right wing down attitude when was unable to recover from rate of descent and crashed. No post impact fire, however it took first responders an agonizing amount of time to get to scene (3-4 minutes).

Needless to say YCD was closed to all traffic other than the medivac chopper....

[AJV]

Anyone know who it is? I have a bad feeling it is a friend from the local airfield....

[AJV]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/air-show-pilot ... 24544.html

[bizjets101]

Bill Phipps of Campbell River

C-FIPS Steen Skybolt (1994) Homebuilt by Mr. Phipps.


big vern81/Flickr

[AirFrame]

Best photo of the incident i've seen so far:
http://www.timescolonist.com/Breaking+n ... story.html

I was at Nanaimo yesterday but left before the airshow to go to Victoria for lunch... We didn't want to get stuck there while the airport was closed until 4pm with a game starting at 5pm...

[AJV]

I hope he will be ok....

[cgzro]

Very unfortunate hope the pilot is ok.

Somebody commented that he lost power .. don't see any sign of power loss, the smoke trail was thick and consistent which only happens when the exhaust gasses are hot?

[cgartly]

I unfortunately witnessed the crash, in my opinion there was no power loss as the engine sound did not change, other than the sound of speed building. There are a few youtube video's of the crash. It is very unfortunate, most of his maneuvers were at a significantly higher altitude, this is the only maneuver he attempted that low to the ground. I don't now if he thought he was higher or got disoriented or what.

Maybe density altitude played a roll as it was quite warm out.

I would be interested to here what an experienced acro guy like Hedley has to say.

[AJV]

yes on this video it sounds like there was engine power throughout, looks like he ran out of energy (speed) on the inverted part....

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/201106 ... sh-110604/

[cgzro]

Normally I'd not comment too much and I mean no disrespect to the pilot, however I do that exact same manoeuver several times every weekend at CYND in a very similar plane. I just watched the youtube video. Looks like unfortunately he simply dished out (pulled early during) the last quarter of a 4 point roll. Unfortunately its a very common mistake when you first experience ground rush and the loss of horizon inverted ( the top wing blocks it). The "sudden roll while pulling" mistake is also a common mistake .. the correct thing is of course to just push until you see 10-20 degrees above the horizon and then finish the roll.

The only mechanical thing that I can think of here that could cause this would be down elevator blockage however the elevator setup in these planes usually are prone to up elevator blockage.

Density altitude is not much of a factor for rolls, it does however play a big part in loops because your radius is a function of indicated airspeed which of course varies greatly with density altitude. The ICAS ACE test has a number of questions on computing your pull out radius etc. for various density altitudes but a simple roll, especially in a fast rolling plane like that is not a factor.

Anyway, either he lost down elevator for some reason, perhaps seat belts loose (both primary and redundent belt came undone), or he simply misjudged his angle relative to the ground.

[cgzro]

looks like he ran out of energy (speed) on the inverted part....

Respectfully disagree. He was likely doing about 150 inverted which is about 60Mph more than necessary to roll back upright with no altitude loss.

[AirFrame]

I've watched two videos of this now, and what I see is the start of a four-point roll... He makes the first knife-edge, then gets to inverted but not in the right place inverted... He's not wings level. I've seen this person perform before, I think at Nanaimo even. It seems farther from level than you'd expect even from a botched stop point in a four-point roll. From there, it's not a sharp roll to the other knife edge, it's a slow roll out to the point of impact, and it almost looks like he made it wings level (although the really close photo seems to show a 30 degree wing low attitude is the best he might have hoped for).

This makes me wonder about incapacitation for some reason... Maybe Hedley or others who fly more Acro than I do could answer this: Late in a routine, do the G-forces affect you more? Do you "tire" of it, or would you grey out easier maybe? Or, possibly, a seat-belt malfunction. That would explain why it goes from a seemingly normal maneouver to an odd stopping point and then a strange place and way to roll out of the manoeuver.

[cgzro]

I've watched two videos of this now, and what I see is the start of a four-point roll... He makes

the first knife-edge,

Actually he looks nose low at the first knife edge. You'd expect about 10 degrees nose up in the first

knife edge to maintain altitude. A biplane like that with a big fat fuse at 160MPH will lift its nose up

nicely with top rudder.

then gets to inverted but not in the right place inverted... He's not wings level.

Yes hes not quite inverted and now even more nose low. He does push a bit back to what appears nose level

before starting the 3rd point. Here however you'd expect to see the nose pop up well above level prior to the roll and the nose to stay there into the 2nd knife edge. However it just kept dropping indicating that there was insufficient push before or top rudder being applied during for whatever reason.

I've seen this person perform before, I think at Nanaimo even. It seems farther from level than

you'd expect even from a botched stop point in a four-point roll.

Botching the stopping points, or even the heading does not really matter that much. The only really

critical thing is altitude control. Basically you have to keep the fuse and wings at a positive AOA the

whole way around. This accident looks just like the Decathlon one we saw a few months ago and that P38 one

and ... If you don't push through inverted, if you don't 'toss' the nose up before the knife edge you will

lose altitude, question is why wasn't it done.

From there, it's not a sharp roll to the other knife edge, it's a slow roll out to the point of

impact, and it almost looks like he made it wings level (although the really close photo seems to show a 30

degree wing low attitude is the best he might have hoped for).

The reason the roll rate slowed was likely because he was pulling back on the stick and not keeping the

ailerons full over. Your arm when it pulls back (on a joystick) also tends to pull it inwards and that reduces your roll rate. Basically with the ailerons full over and pulling you tend to pull the stick back towards the center at the same time. It takes careful effort to avoid this.

This makes me wonder about incapacitation for some reason... Maybe Hedley or others who fly more

Acro than I do could answer this: Late in a routine, do the G-forces affect you more? Do you "tire" of it,

or would you grey out easier maybe?

Yes you do loose G tollerance for a variety of reasons. Fatigue, lack of practice, or if you are sick at all (cold etc.). I did not see anything too high G in the 2-3 videos that I saw and certainly no negative G except that slight pause before impact.

Anyway assuming its not just pilot error, the mechanical things that could lead to this would be for example a seat belt (sometimes in a 4 point roll you unlatch your secondary belt but thats why we have two -did he have two?), loss of down elevator - blockage, possibly a broken left rudder cable or a loose large object (fire extinguisher) causing a distraction.

Very unfortunately and as somebody that spends far too much time upside down I definitely hope to find out from the pilot exactly what went wrong.

[AJV]

looks like he ran out of energy (speed) on the inverted part....

Respectfully disagree. He was likely doing about 150 inverted which is about 60Mph more than necessary to roll back upright with no altitude loss.

ok, I see your posts, seems like you know more about it than me. I looked at it again and noticed some spaces in the smoke, could that mean he did lose power but we just can't hear it in the vid?

[AJV]

A biplane like that with a big fat fuse at 160MPH will lift its nose up

nicely with top rudder.

I think he only had 170 horse in it if I remember correctly

[cgzro]

Probably an AEIO-360 at 180HP with fixed pitch prop. The online databases don't say what engine he had. Anyway my guess is performance is similar to a Pitts S-2A but a bit lighter and more thrust from the fixed pitch prop so better low speed handling.

Any news on how he's doing?

[AJV]

I heard he is in stable condition now but is busted up pretty bad.