Van's RV-6A Down, MA

This is my home field , didn’t know him but know folks who did. Very sad. Was really tough listening to the ATC and hearing the tower voice I always talk to come to the realization of what happened. Kudos to the pilot who overflew the crash site and fed info to the tower for a potential rescue.
 
tip up or slider? Picture caption said the body was still entrapped. Makes one wonder if the canopy design may have been a contributing factor on the fatality. Looking at these for a forever airplane, the egress opportunity costs with the gear pole-vaulting history and the canopy do hover in my mind. Hinge quick-release would def be on the list.
 
hindsight2020 said:
with the gear pole-vaulting history and the canopy do hover in my mind. Hinge quick-release would def be on the list.
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Land an RV-A nose high and keep full back pressure through rollout, and it won’t flip. The ones that flip are from forcing it on when still too fast for touchdown, and landing flat. If it bounces - espeically if it’s a high bounce, don’t try to salvage it and wind up in a PIO. Go around, come back and do it right.
 
ateamer said:
Land an RV-A nose high and keep full back pressure through rollout, and it won’t flip. The ones that flip are from forcing it on when still too fast for touchdown, and landing flat. If it bounces - espeically if it’s a high bounce, don’t try to salvage it and wind up in a PIO. Go around, come back and do it right.
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Sound advice. Unless it's a forced landing on unhospitable terrain.
 
T Bird said:
This is my home field , didn’t know him but know folks who did. Very sad. Was really tough listening to the ATC and hearing the tower voice I always talk to come to the realization of what happened. Kudos to the pilot who overflew the crash site and fed info to the tower for a potential rescue.
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My home field too and I know the pilot, not very well, but have spoken with him a few times. In fact he and his partner in the plane came by a week or so ago to congratulate me on finishing my RV-10.

So sad and tough to hear that audio. May he RIP.
 
hindsight2020 said:
tip up or slider? Picture caption said the body was still entrapped. Makes one wonder if the canopy design may have been a contributing factor on the fatality. Looking at these for a forever airplane, the egress opportunity costs with the gear pole-vaulting history and the canopy do hover in my mind. Hinge quick-release would def be on the list.
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Doesn't look to matter what style canopy. The airframe appears to be resting on the river bottom, from the shots I saw. Looks like the water is only a couple feet deep there.
 
RyanShort1 said:
How does that change anything? Is it less likely to flip on a wheel landing???
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His advice was fine if you're landing on an airport with a functioning engine. But the thread context was a crash & fatality with questions as to whether egress was cause. So the advice didn't seem (to me) to apply to the context of the question. As helpful as "Just don't crash."
 
Oof, as I suspected. Yeah, def getting a quick-releaseable one; I don't like those odds with these plexi canopies.

Problem with the sliders is they'll slam shut on ground impact. I do hear they can be modified (EAB FTW) to accomodate quick release pins on the track in order to push up and aerodynamically jettison/rip the track block off the rail. The tippers have the mechanism available but many builders have bolted the mechanism shut.

I fly a lid setup (rear hinged lid aka conventional canopy) at work, and this is one of the egress emergencies that I brief different with the students when it comes to takeoff abort criteria. I will not engage the net if high-speed aborting for a fire light; I'm not burning to death entangled in some Bak-15 because I was compelled to save a POS 60 year old airplane that should have been in a war museum the day after we lost Vietnam.
 
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