BD-5T crashes in California

[B52Charlie]

2nd flight for the pilot, he hit the freeway and skidded off into a ravine, sounds like an attempt to land but thats a pretty narrow strip of concrete coming from the direction of CP airpark the runway at CP runs NS and 50 runs EW there and since he ended up on the S side of 50 thats really narrow. Course the local news indicated he crashed in El Dorado Hills thats 10 miles W of CP air but the freeway is all up and down there also like higher up at CP, its all mountainous be a tough landing to pull off in any plane, be lucky to power to a flat portion of freeway let alone ride a bucking bronco and land on your wheels while dodging the traffic that time of the morning. I live 10 miles up the road at CP. As far as the chute thingy goes, I think a roll cage or unibody would be of more use since the greatest danger is on take off and landing. Think that plane chutes for the dummy that like to fly around with 1/2 a tank all the time and 30 oz of water rolling around in it and doesn't know what a drain noodles for.

[ 07-19-2001: Message edited by: B52Charlie ]

[MarkVZ]

I think a roll cage or unibody would be of more use

Right on! Long live tube and fabric aircraft!  Not these spam cans that fold up like an accordian when they crash.

There was once a Tri-Pacer that was taking off from a primitive field.  A stump hit the lower portion of the fuselage, taking many strutural members with it.  The pilot then had a choice of hitting the trees at a high rate or pulling it off.  He pulled it off and that Tri-Pacer took him to a safe landing, thanks to the redundancy and strength of steel tube fuselages.  Try that with a Cessna and you'd be dead, since the Cessna gets it's strength from the skin of the aircraft.  

Did you know the Corsair has fabric covered wings?  The rib stitching is obviously very close together.  It is quite an interesting design.  I wonder if any of the sims properly model the fabric covered wings?