Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Lusche on August 18, 2008, 12:23:26 PM
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(http://www.faz.net/m/{3E0CEE38-2F67-4DC3-84E2-E3A65DC61284}Picture.jpg)
Last saturday, a 65 years old pilot and his wife spend almost 3h hours hanging upside down in a power line. It's not known yet whether he simply did not see the line, or if a sudden gust was responsibe, but somehow during the landing approach to a small airfield at Durach in Bavaria one gear struck the power lines.
Here you can see a few more pics:
http://www.faz.net/s/RubCD175863466D41BB9A6A93D460B81174/Doc~ED3ADC9B393844D76AF8EE0E22AF272C6~ATpl~Ecommon~SMed.html
And this is the whole article in German: http://www.faz.net/s/RubCD175863466D41BB9A6A93D460B81174/Doc~ED3ADC9B393844D76AF8EE0E22AF272C6~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html
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Obviously he misunderstood the meaning of 'rope' manouver.
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That is one lucky dude.
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Wouldn't want to be in his shoes...... :uhoh
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(http://www.faz.net/m/{3E0CEE38-2F67-4DC3-84E2-E3A65DC61284}Picture.jpg)
Last saturday, a 65 years old pilot and his wife spend almost 3h hours hanging upside down in a power line. It's not known yet whether he simply did not see the line, or if a sudden gust was responsibe, but somehow during the landing approach to a small airfield at Durach in Bavaria one gear struck the power lines.
Here you can see a few more pics:
http://www.faz.net/s/RubCD175863466D41BB9A6A93D460B81174/Doc~ED3ADC9B393844D76AF8EE0E22AF272C6~ATpl~Ecommon~SMed.html
And this is the whole article in German: http://www.faz.net/s/RubCD175863466D41BB9A6A93D460B81174/Doc~ED3ADC9B393844D76AF8EE0E22AF272C6~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html
how close are they to the airfield? we have a set pf high tension wires like that near the flying w, but they're almost 3/4 of a mile away. if we're low enough to hit them, we're already in trouble.
at south jersey regional, we have regular telephone pole wires as we come down short final. i'm usually about 75 feet high when i cross over them. i always have a tendency to look down at them as i get closer to be extra sure i have clearence.....i don't wanna be that guy.
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Kinda makes ya wonder what wifey was doing to take her husbands eyes off the horizen.
Nowadays being 65yo aint nothing a pill cant cure.
Ive handled a few car accidents that happened like that and survived a few on my own. :uhoh
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They're hugely lucky. There's usually a BIG difference between voltage in those lines. Span two and you'll see how easily aluminum burns. :uhoh
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They're hugely lucky. There's usually a BIG difference between voltage in those lines. Span two and you'll see how easily aluminum burns. :uhoh
That looks like an LSA airplane. if so, it's most likely a composite construction.
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Better than being caught in a buried powerline.
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I'd only quote Alvega/Portugal in that situation.
Or as Bill Cosby said "First you say it then you do it."
I hope they lived!
ROX
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That looks like an LSA airplane. if so, it's most likely a composite construction.
Fiberglass or graphite-epoxy?
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Fiberglass or graphite-epoxy?
i'd think fiberglass.....i think graphite conducts electricity?
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Shocking landing procedure imho.
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I watched the video of the rescue last night. One thing i noticed is that
one of the prop blades seemed to be missing.
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i'd think fiberglass.....i think graphite conducts electricity?
It does, but they're fine as long as they don't simultaneously touch another line (Really bad) or the ground (Horrendous).
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Hopefully this is an isolated incident.
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Hopefully this is an isolated incident.
Or perhaps insulated?
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"You have ditched"
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"You have ditched"
:rofl :rofl :rofl
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Hey, almost anyone can walk a tight rope....
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That looks like an LSA airplane. if so, it's most likely a composite construction.
Looks like a bird called a "Sting", which would make it, IIRC, largely fiberglass
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That's one way to avoid paying the landing and parking fees...
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That is in fact a Europa, the trigear version, luckily for the occupants. The other version has a monowheel undercarriage. It's a hombuilt and composite. I remember seeing a picture of a Cessna 150 in the US hanging from powerlines in similar way. Most of the time, hitting powelines doesn't end so happily. You can literally lose your head!
That is also my recurring nightmare, hitting high tension lines. They were very, very lucky. There are powerlines to the east of the runway at the skydive field I operate out of. On approach I like to pass over them at about 500 feet. But they are surprisingly hard to see. But on taking off from the easterly runway on a hot calm day with a full load. They often seem far too close. :O The term 'bending the throttle lever' comes to mind (and the prop lever!)
I just shudder at the thought of them.
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might need 20/20 vision requirements for pilots liscence now :uhoh
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That is in fact a Europa, the trigear version, luckily for the occupants. The other version has a monowheel undercarriage. It's a hombuilt and composite. I remember seeing a picture of a Cessna 150 in the US hanging from powerlines in similar way. Most of the time, hitting powelines doesn't end so happily. You can literally lose your head!
That is also my recurring nightmare, hitting high tension lines. They were very, very lucky. There are powerlines to the east of the runway at the skydive field I operate out of. On approach I like to pass over them at about 500 feet. But they are surprisingly hard to see. But on taking off from the easterly runway on a hot calm day with a full load. They often seem far too close. :O The term 'bending the throttle lever' comes to mind (and the prop lever!)
I just shudder at the thought of them.
the high tension lines are hard to see. the towers are very easily seen.
i use em as a landmark at the fling w if i'm landing on 19. as i approach them, i start m base turn...this takes me ever so slightly past them.....i palallel them, then turn final.
a few years ago when we were on a SAR mission for a crashed helicopter, we were concentrating around some of them about 20 miles south of the "W". we had seen pcs of the heli(homebuilt), and it was equipped with wirecutters. this lead us to believe they were running very low, and "playing".
they weren't near the wires, but were staying low.....which cost them, as they ran out of fuel, and went in. they fell short of a highway by about 1,000 feet.
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Yes CAP1, the towers are easier to see but for some reason these particular ones seem to merge with the scenery. I tend to do the same as you, parallel them before I turn final. It's all psychological really as I should never be that low on final that far out.
BTW, obviously you are a CAP pilot. Does your unit happen to fly the GA8 Airvan? That's what I currently fly. I know the CAP have a few in service. It's commonly used as a skydive plane.
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Can you imagine what that poor guy had to listen to for three hours?
shamus
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Yes CAP1, the towers are easier to see but for some reason these particular ones seem to merge with the scenery. I tend to do the same as you, parallel them before I turn final. It's all psychological really as I should never be that low on final that far out.
BTW, obviously you are a CAP pilot. Does your unit happen to fly the GA8 Airvan? That's what I currently fly. I know the CAP have a few in service. It's commonly used as a skydive plane.
we have one in nj, and one in pa., i know we have more, but don't know wherre they're at. the one in pa has one of our archer systems in it. i've flown in them, but i haven't flown them yet
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The New York wing has one too. I used the excellent website to get familiar with the aircraft before I got my hands on the aircraft or the manual. It's a good rugged bushplane but not great for tall pilots the way the seats are positioned. No vices to speak of, easy to fly, easy to land. The trim needs too much movement and the manual flap means it's an old fashioned real man's aircraft :aok Not very fast though 120 kts. It's a lot more comfortable to drop skydivers out of than the old 182 we had before.
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Can you imagine what that poor guy had to listen to for three hours?
shamus
According to the newspaper, the fire department reported the woman as getting increasingly panicked, particularly after they noticed gasoline fumes in the cockpit...
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Can you imagine what that poor guy had to listen to for three hours?
shamus
The guy's 65 years old right? Probably been married for at least 30 years. My guess is he's been hearing it for a Hell of a lot longer than just 3 hours. In fact, ever think that maybe this wasn't an accident at all? Think about it... after years of nagging, you look up one day and have an epiphany:
"Hmmm... Power lines... Wife... Hmmmm.... :D
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Did it say it took the power company more than two hours to determine which stops they were supposed to turn off to stop the electricity to that set of lines? That seems like an extraordinarily excessive amount of time. Good thing for that guy & his wife that the plane was stuck well enough not to have dropped off during that amount of time. *whew!*
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Hey Mom,
You remember a hot air baloonist a few years back, I think it was here in Texas, who got caught up in high tension lines? That went very badly, but I believe the occupants survived. In all candor, this couple in Germany was extremely lucky.
As far as shutting down the power, it has to be sequenced very carefully when this much electricity is involved. Failing to do so can cause cascading failures throughout the grid. You'd think this would take top priority, but if the power was being supplied to infrastructure items like communications, traffic lights, etc., they might want to think about it awhile before actually pulling the plug. Just a guess.
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Hey Mom,
You remember a hot air baloonist a few years back, I think it was here in Texas, who got caught up in high tension lines? That went very badly, but I believe the occupants survived. In all candor, this couple in Germany was extremely lucky.
As far as shutting down the power, it has to be sequenced very carefully when this much electricity is involved. Failing to do so can cause cascading failures throughout the grid. You'd think this would take top priority, but if the power was being supplied to infrastructure items like communications, traffic lights, etc., they might want to think about it awhile before actually pulling the plug. Just a guess.
agreed......if they simply flipped a switch to stop power flow........well, imagine a fast flowing river. now drop a dam in place....the water stops suddenly, and spikes. electricity would do the same thing. bad bad things would happen then
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Wow, quite a miracle that they got out of that one. :eek:
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agreed......if they simply flipped a switch to stop power flow........well, imagine a fast flowing river. now drop a dam in place....the water stops suddenly, and spikes. electricity would do the same thing. bad bad things would happen then
When you flip the switch, "turn off the electron pump", isn't there a short transient period where the current "rebounds" and wreaks all kinds of havoc?
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When you flip the switch, "turn off the electron pump", isn't there a short transient period where the current "rebounds" and wreaks all kinds of havoc?
ya........even a 12V electrical system on an average car can spike to over 300V for a split second, if you disconnect the battery.
like i said..imagine a wall of fast flowing water suddenl hitting an immovable object.....it's going to backwash, spike, and do lots of very bad things.
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Yeah, you're probably right. The extent of my knowledge regarding electricity is limited to the flipping of the switch on my wall.
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Yeah, you're probably right. The extent of my knowledge regarding electricity is limited to the flipping of the switch on my wall.
i wasn't trying to be critical.........
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I didn't take it that way. ;)
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i wasn't trying to be critical.........
Me neither Mom. We luv ya. :aok
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Squeakers listen up...
This is exactlly why you don't drop your hook while landing on a runway..
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Squeakers listen up...
This is exactlly why you don't drop your hook while landing on a runway..
You know many AF fighters have tailhooks for emergency landing and aborted take-offs.
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Me neither Mom. We luv ya. :aok
:) Thanks~ I really was being serious about the extent of my knowledge regarding electricity though. It's easy for me to expect instant action on the part of the electric company if I don't have any knowledge about what it takes to shut down power lines. :)
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I didn't take it that way. ;)
i'm glad. i sometimes come off as being that way unintentionally......
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i'm glad. i sometimes come off as being that way unintentionally......
My self-improvement goal is to work up to only sounding that way sometimes. ;)