Pitts Lands on Highway in Yellowknife

[AirFrame]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/eng ... -1.2704510

http://www.thekathrynreport.com/2014/07 ... -road.html

According to the Kathryn Report website, the plane was flown back to the airport an hour after it landed. What "mechanical" issue that could cause an engine to stop in flight, could be fixed in an hour so the plane could be flown out again? While also fixing the tailwheel that was damaged on landing?

[GyvAir]

Carburetor float out of position by half an inch or so?
I guess that thing is likely fuel injected though.. spontaneous fuel pump cavitation related issues?

[Chuck Finley]

That was just CS showing off his ground level acrobatics skills!!

[pdw]

Wrong color for starters ...

Carburetor float out of position by half an inch or so?
I guess that thing is likely fuel injected though.. spontaneous fuel pump cavitation related issues?

Judging by the reduced range for the northerly heading that morning, it's not impossible.

Can't tell the tail wheel's state from the photo but over-speed (high rpm) damage in these situations is often likely, despite the good fortune of a road with great pavement, when such a spontaneous landing decision has only one choice for direction. The turn from direct headwind to make the road behind (lined up for 34) probably ruled out the slowest ground-speed option.

[cgzro]

There are a few possibilities but one that Ive seen is a stuck flop tube, thats the tube in the fuel tank that is flexible and has a weight on the end. Just like the model aircraft fuel systems. Its simple and reliable except if the flop tube is a bit too long or the tank oil cans in a bit. The tube can get stuck at the top of the tank when inverted and stay there. You land, fuel up, go on a cross country and oops, your usable fuel is 1/2 what you expected. You glide in, land and the flop gets moved back with the landing thud... Very tricky to tack down and hard to spot in a preflight.

Another possibility is the secondary to main tank feed gets blocked. You wait 30 minutes to burn about 5 gallons then open the valve do drain the upper tank into the lower but ... And the bloody sight gauge is mostly useless so... Oops.

Of course running out of gas is possible too but its unlikely you could correct that in 1 hour, unless there is 100ll right nearby.

Takeoff with broken tail wheel would not be hard but landing .. Tricky.

Glad he landed out ok very hard to dead stick a pitts onto a narrow road!

[cgzro]

overspeed.....

Almost impossible to overspeed a tailwheel, don't know how you could touch it much above 70mph?

[Colonel Sanders]

Don't try to hang this one on me.

I'm not even in Canada right now.

[Illya Kuryakin]

DM?
Illya

[GyvAir]

unless there is 100ll right nearby.

Deh Cho Boulevard runs along the west side of the airport, so avgas wasn't too far off.
I find it interesting that the article states that the RCMP blocked the road for him to land. I presume that should say they blocked it for him to take off after rectifying his problem.

[Colonel Sanders]

I will try to help set Stef up with a removable front seat ferry tank.

Since his Pitts is homebuilt, TC can't stop him, like they tried to stop us to make us run out of gas, too.

[azimuthaviation]

http://www.stefantrischuk.com/#!tv-show/cqkr

The guy has his own TV show, and a great biography too. Completely self started and self made. Invested in aviation at the age of 12 with money he earned, a reservist who opted out of the ROTP after passing the initial stages of pilot selection. Bought his first aircraft as an unfinished homebuilt and completed it himself... I think his dedication and rapid success should make all of us inspired, and at least one of us a little bit humbled.

[Colonel Sanders]

Next time I am talking to Stef I will mention that he somehow managed to humble you, AA!

J/k

[jspitfire]

Pics of the event. First one was taken from the airport, just as he called that his engine quit. Another airshow performer was escorting him in.

[ahramin]

He alerted airport authorities, who directed him to the nearby road. RCMP blocked traffic for his landing.

I wish the airport authorities around here were that helpful.

I had about 20 seconds to land once that engine quit.

Good job to the RCMP on this one. That they were able to get word, figure out which airplane it was, coordinate vehicles, set up cones and block traffic in 20 seconds in miraculous.

Unless of course it's the more usual problem of an idiot news reporter who can't count to 20 without taking his socks off and wouldn't know a steaming pile of bullshit if he fell in it.

[frozen solid]

DM?
Illya

That rumour was making the rounds, but as you already know, proved to be incorrect.

[GyvAir]

Good job to the RCMP on this one. That they were able to get word, figure out which airplane it was, coordinate vehicles, set up cones and block traffic in 20 seconds in miraculous.
Unless of course it's the more usual problem of an idiot news reporter who can't count to 20 without taking his socks off and wouldn't know a steaming pile of bullshit if he fell in it.

Given that he made it to Deh Cho, I would guess that he was optimistic about making the runway itself, right up to the last minute. I vote for the reporter having got his synapses crossed.

Nice to see that it was taken the rest of the way to the airport on a flatbed, rather than the usual scramble to fix a broken tailwheel, plus the original problem and make the hop over to the airport in an adrenaline tinged rush to get it off the road and out of sight.

[pelmet]

According to his website, he flies an Ultimate biplane.

Hopefully his TV show will cover the incident so we can find out what happened.

[AirFrame]

According to his website, he flies an Ultimate biplane.

It looks like the website may be a little out of date... The plane on the site is black and white and looks like a single-seater... Canopy section over the pilot is shown opening up and back in one photo, with a fixed windscreen. The one in the news story is yellow and black and has a full bubble canopy...

[Colonel Sanders]

He sold the 10-180 Ultimate single-seater
(which has a nice roll rate but limited vertical)
and now has a homebuilt constructed out
of an Aviat S-2C fuselage, and custom wings.

Personally, I would have gone with the neato
eight-aileron Steve Wolf wings (used by Sean
Tucker and Jim Leroy).

Steve Wolf is god. He is not only a superb pilot,
he is also a great engineer and fantastic A&P.

Most people never achieve even one of those
three. And, he's even a highly regarded flight
instructor. Amazing guy.

[lownslow]

...the neato
eight-aileron Steve Wolf wings

Inboards and outboards moving at different rates?

[Colonel Sanders]

Yup. Full-span.

www.wolfpitts.com/wolfprowings.html

[AirFrame]

Yup. Full-span.

http://www.wolfpitts.com/wolfprowings.html

Holy. Crap. Brilliant.

[Colonel Sanders]

Steve Wolf makes the rest of us look like
we have the IQ of a carrot.

I was sitting with him in Marshall Collin's
barn in Ozark, Alabama a few years ago
and he mentioned that we flew two-seat
S-2B's.

Steve mentioned that with the front seat,
the fuselage was not as torsionally stiff
as it could be. You can't run triangulating
tubes through it, of course.

But Steve said he was thinking that when
the front seat was empty - as it often is -
you could install some triangulating clamps
and steel cable and turnbuckles, to stiffen
it up, and not require any paperwork.

Brilliant.

[Geo]

Steve Wolf makes the rest of us look like
we have the IQ of a carrot.

But Steve said he was thinking that when
the front seat was empty - as it often is -
you could install some triangulating clamps
and steel cable and turnbuckles, to stiffen
it up, and not require any paperwork.

Brilliant.

Very.

Out of curiosity, would this produce a measurable (mmm...perhaps the better word is "noticable") change to the handling characteristics of the aircraft? To an airshow pilot I mean. I doubt I would notice the difference, but what would it gain *you*?

g

[Colonel Sanders]

More rigid fuselage during maneuvers
involving high torsional loads such as
snap rolls.

"Less slop"