Two V tails turned into one.

Dave Siciliano

Dave Siciliano

Final Approach
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Dave Siciliano
From one of the guys on the Beech list: There are pics on the news links. Uh, any traffic please advise!!

Best,

Dave

If you have never been in to Los Alamos, it's very "unique".
High density altitude, take off to the east, land to the west due to the super secret labs located there. Highway 502 runs right next to the runway.
You come out of the Santa Fe valley and literally land on top of a plateau.
>From our local CBS news channel:



<LOS ALAMOS, N.M. -- Two single-engine airplanes attempting to land at the same time at Los Alamos collided this afternoon leaving one of the craft on top of the other.

The pilot of the bottom plane, identified as Robert Johnson of Ojo Caliente, and his passenger, Paul Lukes of Taos, escaped with minor injuries. They did not require hospital treatment.

The pilot of the second plane, James Unrich of Los Alamos, was alone in his craft and walked away unhurt.

The incident happened just before 3:30 p.m. as the planes, both v-tailed Beechcraft Bonanzas, came in for landings with one at a slightly higher angle than the other.

Video from Skyranger showed one plane perched atop the other with neither suffering major structural damage.

Los Alamos Airport is considered "uncontrolled airport" meaning there is no control tower.>

Maybe our own Steve Harmony will check in and give us some details.
Luckily, it wasn't him nor was it the TN V-35B AOPA Bonanza that is based there.



Some links to the story:



http://www.krqe.com/expanded.asp?ID=18029



http://www.koat.com/news/10258626/detail.html
 
Interesting. Los Alamos is one of the few airports where radio communications is required for operations in the AF/D.
 
I guess they really have to stack 'em up at Los Almos!
 
I just saw this on the morning news.

Los Alamos is a really neat airport. Just like Dave said, its one way in, and one way out. Dunno about "Super Secret" labs, everyone knows they're there, and the street names around the labs are stuff like "Trinity Dr." and "HalfLife Ave" and stuff.

My report on the airport is here: (AWOS Recording and crappy video attached). http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6663
 
I was on a trip to Los Alamos quite a few years ago. Was walking through a building, past a laser lab. The sign on the door said 'Warning: Do NOT look as laser with remaining eye!'

Those rocket scientists can be so funny sometimes.
 
It is a cool place we had a few projects running there when I was working in ALbuquerque at the Weapons lab there on laser projects.

The 'remaining eye' thing is funny. We had this one laser and the contractors were aligning the optics with a visible red low power laser. There was this guy looking into one of the culminators and turning a few knobs when the laser went right into his eye. he says "thats got in inline" and stands up. I aks him if he is nuts for doing that and he gives me this speech about it is the easiest way to get it done and it does not really harm your eye, just makes it a "little itchy" for the rest of the day. What a idiot!!!
 
I was also given a driving tour around the facility. If I can remember right, there was an area where they could park a plane (B52, B1, whatever), and surround it with a metal screen. I never found out for sure (nobody would tell me), but my guess is it was used to either measure electromagnetic emissions from the plane or to induce e/m noise into the plane. Always wondered what effects something like that would have on GA a/c in the vicinity. I guess it's just another reason to not fly over.

That is an interesting way to land - I've seen those kind of pictures before. Seems like this kind of thing happens about once every 2-3 years. I can't figure out how no prop damage happens to either plane.
 
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A witness told Action 7 News that a Bonanza landed on top of a Cessna.

LOL - Got to love it.
 
glpilot said:
A witness told Action 7 News that a Bonanza landed on top of a Cessna.

LOL - Got to love it.
Click to expand...

Was that after the engine stalled? You know banning small airplanes would have really solved this one!!
 
The local paper now seems to be saying the guy on the bottom was on a different frequency.

Best,

Dave
 
Aren't Bo pilots that by definition?:rofl:

Dave Siciliano said:
The local paper now seems to be saying the guy on the bottom was on a different frequency.

Best,

Dave
Click to expand...
 
I would have been nervous about climbing out the bottom Bonanza's door to get away from the wreck. Makes me glad to fly a plane with a door on BOTH sides!
 
Troy Whistman said:
I would have been nervous about climbing out the bottom Bonanza's door to get away from the wreck. Makes me glad to fly a plane with a door on BOTH sides!
Click to expand...

Not sure about this model Troy, but on most of these, the window on either side also swings open if a retaining pin is pulled.

Best,

Dave
 
I would love to hear the story first hand from both these guys. How long did it take to figure out what was happening?
 
Adam Pirkle said:
This was posted to the Lancair mailing list:



Here are the pictures from that message.


By the way, Matthew, looks like the bottom airplane did have some prop damage. It chewed up the nose gear of the top plane.

a_003.jpg


Now we know where baby airplanes come from...
Click to expand...

How long until the little ones are due?:D I thought this was a G rated site.
 
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