Skyraider Aviation is the only SP school here right now. They are at the Erie Airpark.
www.skyraideraviation.com
$85/hr for Evektor Sportstar or Gobosh G700 (dry, I think). You must be a club member.
I don't know offhand how much instructor time is, I assume it's around $35/hr.
I'm considering getting a SP certificate and would, of course, use these people for my training.
Denver Metro
Moderator: drseti
Erie crash
It was Skyraider's Sportstar, N616EV. They took off to the south on RWY 15, and as they were climbing out suddenly steeply turned to the west , stalled and spun. Witnesses say they didn't have enough altitude to clear some power lines, and it appeared they were trying to avoid them. Maybe, but who knows. NTSB says the Garmin GPS might provide some info. Forty-one year old CFI and 58 year old student from Wyoming - you gotta feel for the families.
This stuff casts such a pall on sport aviation. Newspaper articles referred to the Sportstar as "experimental" and "homebuilt, possibly by its owner" - the ignorance continues. Or as they say, no point letting the truth stand in the way of a good story!
This stuff casts such a pall on sport aviation. Newspaper articles referred to the Sportstar as "experimental" and "homebuilt, possibly by its owner" - the ignorance continues. Or as they say, no point letting the truth stand in the way of a good story!
NTSB Identification: DEN07FA158
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Saturday, September 15, 2007 in Erie, CO
Aircraft: Evektor-Aerotechnik AS SportStar, registration: N616EV
Injuries: 2 Fatal.
This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.
On September 15, 2007, at 1353 mountain daylight time, an Evektor-Erotechnik AS SportStar, N616EV, owned by SkyRaider Aviation Incorporated, and piloted by a student pilot was substantially damaged when it impacted terrain at the Erie Municipal Airport (EIK), Erie, Colorado. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The instructional flight was being conducted under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 without a flight plan. The student pilot and commercial certificated flight instructor were fatally injured. The local flight departed approximately 1330.
According to witnesses, the airplane was performing touch and go landings on runway 15 (4,700 feet by 60 feet, concrete). Several witnesses observed the airplane reverse course 180 degrees from a southerly heading to a northerly heading. The airplane nose pitched up and then dropped. The airplane spiraled to the ground, impacting in a slight nose low, right wing low attitude.
The wreckage came to rest on an approximate heading of 320 degrees , approximately 300 yards southwest of the departure end of runway 15. The main wreckage consisted of the right and left wing assemblies, the empennage, fuselage, and engine assembly. All three propeller blades separated and were fragmented. The engine assembly was crushed aft. The right wing exhibited diagonal accordion crushing along the entire span of the wing. The left wing was crushed along the leading edge and separated partially from the airplane at the wing root. The empennage was unremarkable.
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Several observations:
1. I'm curious what the temperature was. Combine a high temp with the high elevations in Colorado and you get an even higher density altitude.
2. I don't know why they were making a 180 degree turn back to the runway. I always taught my students that if the engine were to fail on climbout, push the nose forward to maintain airspeed and make only a slight turn left or right to pick the most favorable landing spot. Banking creates drag and drag reduces your gliding distance. Takeoff, in my opinion, is the only segment of the flight where you are really vulnerable to an engine failure. Once you reach a safe altitude, you should be able to land safely in a cabbage patch. "Altitude is insurance."
3. Stall/spin accidents have been occuring for many years. In fact the FAA produced a very good AC (Advisory Circular) to educate pilots on this hazard. You can read it here:
http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_an ... 61-67C.pdf
4. Although these kinds of accidents have been occuring since the start of aviation, this is particularly bad news for the sport pilot/light-sport aircraft industry. Unfortunately there is a severe shortage of airline pilots right now which means that good flight instructors are also in short supply.
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Saturday, September 15, 2007 in Erie, CO
Aircraft: Evektor-Aerotechnik AS SportStar, registration: N616EV
Injuries: 2 Fatal.
This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.
On September 15, 2007, at 1353 mountain daylight time, an Evektor-Erotechnik AS SportStar, N616EV, owned by SkyRaider Aviation Incorporated, and piloted by a student pilot was substantially damaged when it impacted terrain at the Erie Municipal Airport (EIK), Erie, Colorado. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The instructional flight was being conducted under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 without a flight plan. The student pilot and commercial certificated flight instructor were fatally injured. The local flight departed approximately 1330.
According to witnesses, the airplane was performing touch and go landings on runway 15 (4,700 feet by 60 feet, concrete). Several witnesses observed the airplane reverse course 180 degrees from a southerly heading to a northerly heading. The airplane nose pitched up and then dropped. The airplane spiraled to the ground, impacting in a slight nose low, right wing low attitude.
The wreckage came to rest on an approximate heading of 320 degrees , approximately 300 yards southwest of the departure end of runway 15. The main wreckage consisted of the right and left wing assemblies, the empennage, fuselage, and engine assembly. All three propeller blades separated and were fragmented. The engine assembly was crushed aft. The right wing exhibited diagonal accordion crushing along the entire span of the wing. The left wing was crushed along the leading edge and separated partially from the airplane at the wing root. The empennage was unremarkable.
*********************************************************
Several observations:
1. I'm curious what the temperature was. Combine a high temp with the high elevations in Colorado and you get an even higher density altitude.
2. I don't know why they were making a 180 degree turn back to the runway. I always taught my students that if the engine were to fail on climbout, push the nose forward to maintain airspeed and make only a slight turn left or right to pick the most favorable landing spot. Banking creates drag and drag reduces your gliding distance. Takeoff, in my opinion, is the only segment of the flight where you are really vulnerable to an engine failure. Once you reach a safe altitude, you should be able to land safely in a cabbage patch. "Altitude is insurance."
3. Stall/spin accidents have been occuring for many years. In fact the FAA produced a very good AC (Advisory Circular) to educate pilots on this hazard. You can read it here:
http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_an ... 61-67C.pdf
4. Although these kinds of accidents have been occuring since the start of aviation, this is particularly bad news for the sport pilot/light-sport aircraft industry. Unfortunately there is a severe shortage of airline pilots right now which means that good flight instructors are also in short supply.
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CharlieTango
- Posts: 1000
- Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2006 10:04 am
- Location: Mammoth Lakes, California
field elevation 5,130' MSL temps in high 80's runway 4,700'.GeraldZ wrote:...1. I'm curious what the temperature was. Combine a high temp with the high elevations in Colorado and you get an even higher density altitude.
...
for me this is low altitude, certainly density altitude degraded climb performance compared to sea level but shouldn't be a big issue. in these conditions my ctsw could return to the runway and depending on gross weight i could have pattern altitude by the end of the runway.
in a 912 powered slsa returning to the runway might make a lot of sense, of course the stall / spin would have to be avoided with coordinated turns and adequate airspeed ( nose low attitude )
Why do you think this had something to do with an engine failure? The reports I heard from local media were that the airplane was not climbing sufficiently, there were power lines at the end of the runway, they appeared to turn to avoid the power lines and went into a stall spin. Obviously the media could have gotten this wrong. Did someone else see something about an engine failure?
I think Gerald was making a general statement about why you don't turn back because he is unsure why they did turn back (the normal reason would be a power failure). It doesn't sound like the power line avoidance theory is definitive, though I could see that chain events leading to the descriptions we now have.
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CharlieTango
- Posts: 1000
- Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2006 10:04 am
- Location: Mammoth Lakes, California
from the ctsw forum:
I'm almost positive this was NOT a powerline issue. The powerlines at that are off of the end of runway 15 are only 30 feet off of the ground and they are quite a long distance from the end of the runway. I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure that those same lines are actually burried undergound where they cross the runway centerline. (I'll have to check that out tonight when I go out to the airport.)
If you look at the attached picture you can see the airport. The picture was taken facing north, so the end of 15 (beginning of 33) closest to you. If you look to the southwest of the end of the runway you can see a large field (in the picture it's in the lower middle of the picture), the plane crashed in that field. The power lines are right next to Hwy 7 which runs across the bottom of the picture. This picture, which was on AirNav is an old picture there is alot more houses to the east of the airport and on the other side of Hwy 7. The standard practice is to continue straight out on the runway heading until you reach 500ft, which almost always means (especially on a high DA day) that you have to fly across Hwy 7 before you turn crosswind. Like I said earlier, the place where they crashed is about at the end of runway 15, and it was west by 200 to 400 yards. They turned crosswind way too early.
I'm almost positive this was NOT a powerline issue. The powerlines at that are off of the end of runway 15 are only 30 feet off of the ground and they are quite a long distance from the end of the runway. I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure that those same lines are actually burried undergound where they cross the runway centerline. (I'll have to check that out tonight when I go out to the airport.)
If you look at the attached picture you can see the airport. The picture was taken facing north, so the end of 15 (beginning of 33) closest to you. If you look to the southwest of the end of the runway you can see a large field (in the picture it's in the lower middle of the picture), the plane crashed in that field. The power lines are right next to Hwy 7 which runs across the bottom of the picture. This picture, which was on AirNav is an old picture there is alot more houses to the east of the airport and on the other side of Hwy 7. The standard practice is to continue straight out on the runway heading until you reach 500ft, which almost always means (especially on a high DA day) that you have to fly across Hwy 7 before you turn crosswind. Like I said earlier, the place where they crashed is about at the end of runway 15, and it was west by 200 to 400 yards. They turned crosswind way too early.
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w@ntonsoup
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Sun Jul 13, 2008 9:22 pm
Re: Denver Metro
Actually you can get SP training at Centennial Airport - I think I've found an instructor there who'll do that with me and then help me pursue PP should I want to continue.smoore wrote:Skyraider Aviation is the only SP school here right now. They are at the Erie Airpark.
www.skyraideraviation.com
$85/hr for Evektor Sportstar or Gobosh G700 (dry, I think). You must be a club member.
I don't know offhand how much instructor time is, I assume it's around $35/hr.
I'm considering getting a SP certificate and would, of course, use these people for my training.