Thread: This will get ugly. RE: Tehnam stall/spin crash in TX

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I can't remember, does the Tecnam have a BRS?

slsa are in a bad spot here. as long as trainers have rudder pedals the student will always have the potential of abruptly entering a spin or a snap roll (also a spin.) close to the ground there is no time to recover.

the press saying that slsa are not as stringently tested and therefore less safe is a red hearing but it will be accepted by the public.

Before all the witnesses were told to clam up the TV news interviewed a guy who said it looked like they were practicing stalls 1000ft off the ground. May not have been practice.

I have done complete 360 turns while stalled in my CT, using aileron and rudder. I'm a big fan of spring-loaded control surfaces.

Setting aside the instructor error issue, what do you think? Personally, I think the CT is safer. The visibility is a big plus. In a 150, I get the feeling that I see about half what I see in a CT. The other thing is that bounced or otherwise rejected landings are trivial to handle in the CT. Push the throttle forward and up you go. No mucking about with carb heat and flaps. The CT will happily get you away from the surface and back up in the air even with flaps 40.

No doubt the CT is harder to land and harder to fly coordinated than a 150. But hard isn't the question.

I'd like to hear some opinions from more experienced pilots.

That is very sad news. These type of incidents have happened since the development of powered flight, and will continue to happen occasionaly unless we all fly canards or ercoups. In the end it isn't so much about the plane, but about training and flying within the limitations. Some airplanes are much easier to handle, but can still suffer the same fate if pushed beyond limits or pushed when at to low of an altitude. There are some benifits to LSA's having much better performance to get you out of trouble. I have had some not so slim students in 150's and 152's flying at high density altitudes and it creates a high risk environment on climb out. Altitude is your friend and the CT doesn't hesitate when putting space between you and the granite!

Eric

Tecnams do not come with BPS. It is a several thousand dollar option that I have yet to see in one. I did all of my training in a Tecnam before buying a CTLS and it is an extremely stable and easy to fly airplane. It is not as much fun to fly as a CT.

Coppercity, I'm with you. I trained in a 172XP and doing go-arounds on a hot day with just two people in the plane was scary (especially the part where you retract the flaps). Being able to do a go-around in any flap configuration is far safer.

Update...local news says a flashlight was found in the tail cone and had marks that corresponded to marks on the elevator linkage. Ouch.

And a good time to bring this up.... Check closely during your pre-flight, in the far rear area of the tail cone. You know that area that you can peer into from the rear, under the rudder. It's a pretty small area and just about anything in there could jam the controls. Use a flashlight and really look around.

I still have bad feelings concerning something I found in there once. During a pre-flight (after some maintenance had been done), I found a tubular spacer lying in the far rear tail section. It was about as big around as a quarter, and maybe about 1.5" long. It was just the right size to easily get caught up in the stabilizer controls. I had flown the plane a few times since the maintenance was done, and guess that it was a part left over (the spring SD had been done). It, luckily, had moved into a place where I could see it. 2 or 3 inches in another direction could have put it in a very bad place.

It would be easy for something carried loose in the baggage area to drift back and get caught up in the controls.... or bolts, nuts, flashlights, balls, rocks, wrenches.... So make sure the curtain/block is in place and working, and always check closely to make sure nothing is left in that area after maintenance!!!\
Tim

I jam my Bruce's cover all the way back to create a tight seal.