Thread: Crash protection

If you have any doubts about how good the carbon fibre cockpit shell is during a crash, check out this story of a CT in Manchester, England.

Mac

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... en?rss=yes

Wow. Pretty amazing.

Doug

A big "well done" to the pilot. He resisted the temptation to turn around and apparently flew it to the ground in a low enough energy state to almost walk away.

Yeah, but he landed in the patio almost on top of the house and missed the street only 30' away. A 40' long patio is kind of a short field landing I suppose.
Bottom line is he did get to walk away.

What struck me most about the photo and report is that the crash reminded me of a Formula 1 car crash with lots of bits of carbon fibre flying about and dissipating energy, which allows the occupant to walk away. Most impressive.

Mac

Wow
I took my first CTSW lesson with Chris Copple last January in G-CERA.

this video clip shows how well the cockpit cell survived:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl ... 127078.stm

Originally Posted by hhobbit

Wow
I took my first CTSW lesson with Chris Copple last January in G-CERA.

this video clip shows how well the cockpit cell survived:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl ... 127078.stm

Funny we are always worried about the landing mains to be the weak point but they are still attached!

Roger, pending delivery, was reading AOPA ASF accident stats for FD and noted most are landing related. Two questions: 1. Do you have any idea about the European accident rates. Seems like our US fleet is prone to landing phase and a few engine related issues for various reasons. How about the other parts of the world, say Europe, are the numbers and kinds of issues similar or do they fair better because of training or some other reason. Any idea? 2. Landing incidents show the Design seems to flip over more than low wingers, makes sense, but two doors are there for egress. The low wing bubble designs seem like they would be traps. Not a good design in my book. How do you get out of them? Or perhaps flipping one of those over on its back is less apt to happen than a high winger so authories allow that level of risk in the design.

I believe the landing issues stem from a majority of training in the light sport aircraft from CFI's that teach like they trained in a GA aircraft or a high time pilot trying to do the same thing. Too many CFI's are very inflexible in landing techniques, too many pilots are the same way. If someone can't tell you how our planes are different, why they land different and then teach accordingly then I think the student or transitioning pilot ought to stay away. I say this from years of being on both sides of the fence and training the CFI's and transitioning pilots that realize these planes are different. They aren't bad they are just different. When I went from fixed wing to helicopters the learning curve was straight up. Just like any other aircraft you aren't used to flying. Any teacher that isn't willing to learn themselves, well then that's the person to stay away from. I instruct for Arizona Homeland Security and that's an area that is always changing and most instructor's there will tell you they are no expert and realize there is always something to learn and you need to be flexible and make changes in your teaching to accommodate the new issues and transfer that to the students. These so called students are usually very high up the food chain in my classes and aren't dummies to start with.

As far as flipping I have seen both low and high wing flip. Usually both are caused by taking out the nose gear. Depending on the inertia left in the plane and how hard it digs in on the nose kind of determines whether it is going over. A high wing is a little more top heavy with its center of gravity so I believe it is a little more prone to going over. I had a friend flip his low wing top canopy RV and yes it is hard to try and get out from under neath. I think the CT with its carbon fiber cockpit set up is a very survivable area. As they say about passenger cars, there is room to live.

How did your buddy get out, did help arrive or did he cut his way out? I guess there are few catestrophic flip overs compared to other fatal mishaps for mfgs and FAA to be concerned. Our little bird reminds my of the orignial Army OH-6's with built-in roll cage/egg shape.