Small plane crash kills 1 in East Bay
A small plane crashed in Concord, killing one person on Tuesday, authorities said.
RV 6 down concord.
- Thread starter Hengelo
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Flying Keys
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Accident Van's RV-6 N30AK, Tuesday 30 January 2024
On January 30, 2024, at 1029 Pacific standard time, an experimental amateur-built Vans RV-6, N30AK, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Concord, California....
aviation-safety.net
The weather was about as good as it gets, so it shouldn’t be a factor unless it was carb icing (not knowing if this plane even has a carb).
This story is odd. ADSB looks like he did about zillion laps in the pattern. Vans Air Force users say that was *all* he did. Like, ever.
RV6 N30AK Fatal
KCCR: At approx. 10:30 local while doing pattern work a mayday was called upon departure. The owner and pilot was the sole occupant and suffered fatal injuries. He was well known at the field for doing a huge amount of pattern work. His tires never touched down more than 6 inches apart from one...
vansairforce.net
@Dan Thomas , how does this type of usage affect engine longevity compared to more typical usage?
wanttaja
En-Route
If it had an adequate carb heat setup to start with....
"The Van's Aircraft construction and operating manual states that one method of building the carburetor heat system is to 'run a 2-inch air hose from a heat muff and position it to feed into the alternative air inlet of the carburetor] air box,' which is the method by which the pilot constructed the airplane. According to the inspector, the 2-inch hose is not large enough to adequately supply enough heat to the carburetor to sufficiently melt the ice. "
DEN99LA062, RV-6A, 1999
Interesting to look at carb heat-related accidents in RVs. Out of 1998-2021, I see 17 cases...none of which involved RV-7s or -8s. About a third were RV-6s.
Looking at the registry about a third of the RV-7s are listed with fuel-injected engines, and an even higher percentage of RV-8s. Only about 12% of the RV-6s.
(Note: Check performed by looking at how many engine models began with "I". Actual percentage is probably a bit higher, since not every entry includes an engine type, or in a standardized format.)
Ron Wanttaja
schmookeeg
En-Route
Pretty sure I've been in the pattern with that dude at CCR. If it's the same RV I'm familiar with, EVERY landing was a zippy short approach. He seemed pretty good at them, although he got a generous amount of side-eye from me on the parallel as he darted about.
Shame.
Shame.
ColinD
Pre-takeoff checklist
That was echoed by a few locals in the Reddit thread (can't find it now... possibly deleted from r/flying.) They said he rarely left the pattern, did lots of short approaches, low altitude flying, zoom climbs, etc.
ColinD
Pre-takeoff checklist
Dan Thomas
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Flight school airplanes do it all the time. Here in Canada, with some extra inspections, a commercial airplane can run an engine on-condition well past the normal TBO. We didn't, but those engines still had compressions in the high 70s and no metal in the filters when we pulled them at TBO.
Depends on the size of the engine. Cessna used 2-inch SCAT on their O-320s, No problems. That hose might be a bit small for an O-540.
Which suggests he might have been trying to get max Vx, and got a power-on stall and spin instead.
ColinD
Pre-takeoff checklist
His altitude seems to be 100+ feet lower than it was in previous laps, too. Lots of variables there - maybe he touched down further down the runway on his last landing, maybe it was a partial loss of power on climb out. Sure looks like he was making a desperate attempt to maintain his best angle of climb, like you said, or to not relinquish the altitude he had already gained. It looks like his airspeed was decaying rapidly without any increase in altitude toward the end, before he presumably stalls and makes that dive to his left.
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ColinD
Pre-takeoff checklist
Another thought: I wonder if we're looking at his attempt to make the impossible turn. Look how he departs from his typical path to the right, and then begins a turn to the left prior to his typical crosswind turn. All while he's trying to stretch the glide.