Small plane buzzes boaters in Colorado before crashing

I think the title in the first link probably sums it up pretty well.
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Seems a shame that we aren't allowed to use the public whipping post anymore ...
 
Please tell me this wasn't the Youtube guy that bailed out of the Taylorcraft.
 
Ski boat assisted flying
 
farmrjohn said:
Please tell me this wasn't the Youtube guy that bailed out of the Taylorcraft.
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I kinda hope it was. The fewer nuts flying, the better. Best would be if it wasn't a pilot at all, but someone unrated or a student.
 
After the FAA gets done with this fool I hope the owners/FBOs insurance company financially ruins them.

We already have enough trouble keeping GA going without idiots like this…


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DENVER (AP) — The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a small plane that buzzed low over boats on a Northern Colorado reservoir before crashing, the board said Wednesday.

The pilot and a passenger aboard the single-engine plane survived the crash Sunday with minor injuries, the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. The agency said it's supporting an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration and asked the public to share photos and videos of the event.

Photographer Stephanie Stamos was near the banks of Horsetooth Reservoir, just west of Fort Collins, Colorado, on Sunday night preparing to take high school photos for a student when she saw the plane flying “unsteady” over the water.

Stamos, 57, said she instinctively pulled up her camera and started snapping photos believing the pilot was in trouble and preparing for a crash landing. But instead of hitting the water, the plane flew toward a boat on the lake, swinging low over the craft as one of the boat riders through up their arm, the photos show.

“The wheels were almost on top of the boat,” said Stamos.

When the plane disappeared behind the mountains, “I told everyone, ‘Wait for the boom’,” she said, then “I saw it fly back up through the mountains going sideways and I thought, ‘Oh this guy is an idiot, this guys just messing around.’”

Stamos said she shared her photos with the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office and that the NTSB reached out to her Wednesday asking for the same pictures.

Peter Knudson, spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board, said the agency is investigating the Sept. 11 crash but declined to provide any details.

Carolina de la Torre had just finished swimming in a cove at Horsetooth Reservoir when the plane flew over. She said the aircraft got within 15-20 feet of her and her friends.

“We thought they were going to crash down on (the other boat)," she said, "it was the most nuts experience I’ve ever had.”

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The good news is we no longer have to wonder if people are trolling with stories about stunts like this. "Naaaah, no way anyone would be THAAT stupid..."

The bad news is that it is apparent we have a bigger moron problem than previously thought.
 
Wow. Do that in the wrong state and someone might send up some flack. Or an anchor rope and anchor into the prop. That is straight up crazy town.
 
This guy needs to get with Alaska boat woman, they’d make a nice couple!
 
Hey. The thread title got changed. I thought only I could do that. I don't care, just wondering how this works. I can think of lots of thread titles I'd like to jump in and change.:devil:
 
luvflyin said:
Hey. The thread title got changed. I thought only I could do that. I don't care, just wondering how this works. I can think of lots of thread titles I'd like to jump in and change.:devil:
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It appears the two threads were merged. When that’s done, one title gets discarded.

Also, moderators are generally empowered to change titles from an admin stand point in most forums.
 
TCABM said:
It appears the two threads were merged. When that’s done, one title gets discarded.

Also, moderators are generally empowered to change titles from an admin stand point in most forums.
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Ah. Merged, got it.
 
jjflys said:
After the FAA gets done with this fool I hope the owners/FBOs insurance company financially ruins them.

We already have enough trouble keeping GA going without idiots like this…


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If it's a rental the FBO is going to feel the pain from the insurance company. They may pay the total loss but the rates will skyrocket and the underwriter may impose rental requirements moving forward. If the pilot owned the aircraft he will definitely be uninsurable and the claim may be denied. But guys like this are cowboys and don't care about insurance anyway.
 
Wow, over ten thousand hours of experience between the two ATP Certified pilots and that's the best story they could come up with? The elevator, uhmmm, jammed. yeah, elevator jammed and we crashed.
I may only be a low-hour student pilot, but I smell a rat in that story. The best way to pitch the nose up I've found is to add flaps, and power to climb it with.

Anyway, it looks like the investigators didn't buy that line either:
Probable Cause and Findings:
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be: The pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from rising terrain while intentionally maneuvering the airplane at low altitudes, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage and both wings
 
Epically stupid! Whatever the penalty, it ain’t enough!
 
Shockingly, the pilot still appears to have pilot and CFI certificates. I've seen them yanked for less.
 
Read the pilots? statements, both before, and after consulting an aviation attorney. Huge differences in the smaller details. The overall sounds much the same, but the most critical differences are in the power settings at various parts of the flight. A CFI would not expect a nose down to result from a power reduction? Wow. Power increase caused a hard to control nose up, which was a problem, in spite of needing altitude desperately?

It has been drummed into my head since my first lessons that at a given trim, power controls ALTITUDE not speed. Even FAA doctrine affirms this relationship.

Non trivial point, if the elevator is indeed locked from moving in the up direction, the trim input that will cause a climb is a DOWN direction of trim wheel movement. They seem to have trimmed in the normal manner, and accomplished climb response. My education on that fact comes from my Commercial ground school instructor, who climbed with a very wet 4 seat plane, into very cold conditions, and cruised there. This locked both up and down motion, and he did reverse trim to descend and land, on a very long runway, Denver CO.

The differences are subtle, but after a couple of readings, they stand out. Both pilots hold ATP's, one flies Airbus for an airline.

I do give the attorney a very high mark for his adjustments.
 
geezer said:
Read the pilots? statements, both before, and after consulting an aviation attorney. Huge differences in the smaller details. The overall sounds much the same, but the most critical differences are in the power settings at various parts of the flight. A CFI would not expect a nose down to result from a power reduction? Wow. Power increase caused a hard to control nose up, which was a problem, in spite of needing altitude desperately?

It has been drummed into my head since my first lessons that at a given trim, power controls ALTITUDE not speed. Even FAA doctrine affirms this relationship.

Non trivial point, if the elevator is indeed locked from moving in the up direction, the trim input that will cause a climb is a DOWN direction of trim wheel movement. They seem to have trimmed in the normal manner, and accomplished climb response. My education on that fact comes from my Commercial ground school instructor, who climbed with a very wet 4 seat plane, into very cold conditions, and cruised there. This locked both up and down motion, and he did reverse trim to descend and land, on a very long runway, Denver CO.

The differences are subtle, but after a couple of readings, they stand out. Both pilots hold ATP's, one flies Airbus for an airline.

I do give the attorney a very high mark for his adjustments.
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Yeah, it's not as if they did something dangerous, like fly under a bridge.
 
Salty said:
Really? You wouldn't make low level passes over boats doing 45 degree bank turns to try to fix your "jammed elevator"?

/sarc
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Heh, probably not.
But Mr. FAA Investigator, my CFI said I needed to practice turns around a point. I picked a boat on a small lake. How was I to know it would keep moving?
See?, perfectly legit.
 
Dry Creek said:
Heh, probably not.
But Mr. FAA Investigator, my CFI said I needed to practice turns around a point. I picked a boat on a small lake. How was I to know it would keep moving?
See?, perfectly legit.
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I typically don't do turns around a point that's 50 feet below me, as my airplane requires somewhat more space.
 
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