Fossett clues found!

muddyboots · **Posted:** Thu Oct 02, 2008 11:26 pm

Django wrote:

Ok, but the plane made a smoking hole. How did the body (or if he was alive) get seperated from the plane, before the crash?

Animals likely dragged his sweater away with parts of him and his wallet in it. Clear enough now? I woud'nt be surprised if he was still in the aircraft, and simply drgagged away by copyotes, cats, and if I remember there were wild boar up there as well. Any of them would be interested, not to mention crows. Ever see what a murder of crows will do to a trash bag full of garbage if you don't cover it?

APG85 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 03, 2008 4:53 am

Well, whatever happened to him he did a lot of good for aviation and inspired many young people to enter the field. I hope he didn't suffer and his family has some piece of mind that he has finally been found... :cry:

Bluedharma · **Posted:** Fri Oct 03, 2008 1:01 pm

APG85 wrote:

Well, whatever happened to him he did a lot of good for aviation and inspired many young people to enter the field.

I too hope he didn't suffer.
But the lesson here should be...File a flight plan with FAA... or just leave a map or route of where you are going.
I think Bill Greenwood had some very good points in this thread:
http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=158271#158271
My best wishes for the family.

Matt Gunsch · **Posted:** Fri Oct 03, 2008 6:17 pm

Bluedharma wrote:

APG85 wrote:

Well, whatever happened to him he did a lot of good for aviation and inspired many young people to enter the field.

I too hope he didn't suffer.
But the lesson here should be...File a flight plan with FAA... or just leave a map or route of where you are going.
I think Bill Greenwood had some very good points in this thread:
http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=158271#158271
My best wishes for the family.

How could he file a flight plan ? he was not going to another airport, he was scouting for a area for a project. You can't put on a flight plan that you are going to looking over a given area, flight plans are for direct travel.

mustangdriver · **Posted:** Fri Oct 03, 2008 6:25 pm

You can file anything you want. We file that way now when we are going to places like the training area. Also he could have entered something in the remarks section about his intentions.

muddyboots · **Posted:** Fri Oct 03, 2008 11:40 pm

I'm betting he had a stroke or heart failure or something. He was a pretty good pilot. Short of something severe like a wing coming off and clubbing him in the head, I'd bet he could handle it.

Matt Gunsch · **Posted:** Sat Oct 04, 2008 12:07 am

muddyboots wrote:

I'm betting he had a stroke or heart failure or something. He was a pretty good pilot. Short of something severe like a wing coming off and clubbing him in the head, I'd bet he could handle it.

Don't bet on it, just because he is a high time pilot, a simple mistake will kill you just as dead if you a low time pilot, or a high time pilot, also, alot of experianced pilots will look at a plane like a J-3 or a Decathalon as a simple plane and might not take the flying as serious, but they will kill you just as dead as any other plane.
an example,
Bob Herendeen, a glassair demo pilot flew into the ground while taking pics of his house that he was putting up for sale,

Second Air Force · **Posted:** Sat Oct 04, 2008 12:19 am

Agreed, Matt.

Another example would be Scott Crossfield losing his life by flirting with convective weather. One wrong decision or piece of information can defeat even the most experienced.

muddyboots · **Posted:** Sat Oct 04, 2008 12:21 am

So he mayhave been digging for a sandwhich and...

God I hope not. But either way it was a real loss.

JDK · **Posted:** Sat Oct 04, 2008 3:05 am

Whatever the requirements for a flight plan, it's not a bad idea to tell someone where you are going. Jokes about wives in different ports aside, it can't hurt, and when you are sitting next to a broken aeroplane in the bush is no time to wish you had told someone where you were flying before take off.

On the warbird topic, the Winter Zaunkönig, an aircraft designed to be 'foolproof' killed Luftwaffe 221 kill ace Heinz Bar. All aircraft will bite.

JohnH · **Posted:** Sat Oct 04, 2008 4:13 am

Matt Gunsch wrote:

muddyboots wrote:

I'm betting he had a stroke or heart failure or something. He was a pretty good pilot. Short of something severe like a wing coming off and clubbing him in the head, I'd bet he could handle it.

Bob Herendeen, a glassair demo pilot flew into the ground while taking pics of his house that he was putting up for sale,

Herendeen was more than just a glassair demo pilot. He was a world renowed, high time airshow/air race and championship aerobatic pilot...which makes it even more incredible.

John

n5151ts · **Posted:** Sat Oct 04, 2008 8:23 am

Second Air Force wrote:

Agreed, Matt.

Another example would be Scott Crossfield losing his life by flirting with convective weather. One wrong decision or piece of information can defeat even the most experienced.

one bad decision is all it takes, regardless of your skills and abilities.

mustangdriver · **Posted:** Sat Oct 04, 2008 9:14 am

n5151ts wrote:

Second Air Force wrote:

Agreed, Matt.

Another example would be Scott Crossfield losing his life by flirting with convective weather. One wrong decision or piece of information can defeat even the most experienced.

one bad decision is all it takes, regardless of your skills and abilities.

Couldn't agree more with you and Matt.

Randy Haskin · **Posted:** Sat Oct 04, 2008 9:47 am

To add a "warbird" name to the mix....Art Vance.

Just goes to prove that even the most highly experienced pilots aren't immune to that old adage about aviation being terribly unforgiving.

retroaviation · **Posted:** Sat Oct 04, 2008 1:42 pm

Excellent point Randy.

Gary

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