Plane crashes near home in Greenville, SC

My mother's '91 Buick Park avenue would do more damage to the house wall than that kite coming down under canopy lol.

Joking aside, glad the dude is alive and relatively unscathed. Live to crash another day :D
 
Can't see what kind of airplane it is.

"Must be one of them 172 thingies".
 
From my take of the flightaware log, it doesn't look like he just pulled the chute to me. Looks like he turned toward the closest airport and setup for a landing, then at 2k feet (1000' agl maybe? ) when he realized he couldn't make it, he pulled the chute. He was headed straight for GMU, looked to be near straight in for the runway. Sorry it didn't make the runway, but glad he's OK.
 
Rgbeard said:
The cause was “obvious” according to his post but won’t expand on it. Hmmmm.
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Sounds like it was related to maintenance and my guess would be either magnetic plug or oil tank drain plug backing out …
 
His description matches the adbs track, sounds like he handled the flying part well. The 'obvious' part? Sounds like somebody made a mistake, or something broke, that caused total oil loss. First flight after annual. Maybe just a coincidence...but I'd bet it's related.
 
I'm guessing either the cap was left off the oil tank, or the oil filter was loose or double-gasketed.
 
If he was 10 miles away at 4500' MSL and it kept running for 7 miles he probably could have made it if he had kept his altitude. If its still running, stay up high so if the fan quits at 3 miles from the airport you have a chance - or at least more options. At least he walked away, thats the main thing.
 
10 miles North of the field with power he should have easily made the field. It would be nice to hear if the OP pitched for best glide.That should have been step 1. I suspect he was focused on the fact he felt the oil pressure gauge had failed. The simulation appears to show a normal decent and approach to the field until the engine actually quit.
 
What’s the minimum height for the chute in that aircraft? I don’t think I have the balls to pull a chute at 450 feet
 
OK, so the oil pressure goes to zero, but the engine keeps running for a while before it seizes. While it's running, I figure you still pitch for best glide, correct? With power from the engine, your descent would be shallower allowing the plane to cover more distance before it gets quiet. Good thinking?
 
Salty said:
What’s the minimum height for the chute in that aircraft? I don’t think I have the balls to pull a chute at 450 feet
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These are light planes (LSAs) …for instance this one seems pretty low … I would say about 500 feet or so.
 
Maybe I'm mixing up the stories, but I could have sworn the pilot did a write up on this one somewhere. That the engine was acting squirrelly or something, and he had already turned around and was headed straight back to the airport. On the way, the engine stopped. He determined he couldn't make the airport, so he pulled the cute. If that's the story, it all seems reasonable to me. Once you setup for best glide, it's pretty simple to figure out more or less if you're not going to make the airport, if you can see it.
 
Yeah. I can't remember where I read it. There was something about suspecting the oil sending unit or something like that because the pressure instantly went to zero with no change in the engine. No different noise or anything. So he turned around and while he was heading back the engine stopped. IIRC, there was some confusion with the controller thinking he was on the opposite side of town or something like that.
 
donjohnston said:
Yeah. I can't remember where I read it. There was something about suspecting the oil sending unit or something like that because the pressure instantly went to zero with no change in the engine. No different noise or anything. So he turned around and while he was heading back the engine stopped. IIRC, there was some confusion with the controller thinking he was on the opposite side of town or something like that.
Click to expand...

https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/crashed-my-flight-design-ctls.135220/

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2021/10/flight-design-ctls-n121yt-accident.html?m=1
 
Bill said:
OK, so the oil pressure goes to zero, but the engine keeps running for a while before it seizes. While it's running, I figure you still pitch for best glide, correct? With power from the engine, your descent would be shallower allowing the plane to cover more distance before it gets quiet. Good thinking?
Click to expand...

With a engine still running and 10 miles North of the field I would have left the power set exactly where it was when he noted the problem and turned toward the field. Engines starving for oil often quit on power changes. I would have maintained cruise speed and altitude until I was assured I could make the airport and then brought the motor back to idle and maintained altitude until reaching best glide speed. At any point the engine quits you decel to best glide. There are some opinions on if you should pitch up to get to best glide after a engine failure but to me that just creates multiple control and trim inputs to maybe gain 10 feet of glide range and should you get to slow you will lose a bunch of glide distance. I would hold altitude, decel to best glide and evaluate if I could make the field or not. Once that’s done you squawk 7700 and if comfortable talk to ATC. If you are not going to make the field you turn toward your best looking open area and deploy the chute as high as possible. I would want at least twice the minimum recommended to provide a margin.
 
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