Ken Pietsch Down
Sun Aug 05, 2012 1:46 pm
Re: Ken Pietsch Down
Sun Aug 05, 2012 3:18 pm
Glad to hear he survived, the airplane can be fixed.
Keep us all up to speed on his condition please-
Keep us all up to speed on his condition please-
Re: Ken Pietsch Down
Sun Aug 05, 2012 4:43 pm
Well, if Jack Sim is right, the plane might not be repairable. Tearing a wing off like that will do some nasty things to the carry-through structure. There are other Scouts out there in better condition that he could repair/recover for less than fixing that one.
Sad he got caught out by the wheat with the wind. I've seen him perform several times and he's a good stick and his act is pretty benign compared to some of the "Drunk Farmer" routines that are done with higher-horsepower Super Cubs and Champs. I'm sure he'll be back flying before too long. Might have to do some remedial for the FAA's edification though.
Sad he got caught out by the wheat with the wind. I've seen him perform several times and he's a good stick and his act is pretty benign compared to some of the "Drunk Farmer" routines that are done with higher-horsepower Super Cubs and Champs. I'm sure he'll be back flying before too long. Might have to do some remedial for the FAA's edification though.
Re: Ken Pietsch Down
Sun Aug 05, 2012 6:28 pm
CAPFlyer wrote:Well, if Jack Sim is right, the plane might not be repairable. Tearing a wing off like that will do some nasty things to the carry-through structure. There are other Scouts out there in better condition that he could repair/recover for less than fixing that one.
Sad he got caught out by the wheat with the wind. I've seen him perform several times and he's a good stick and his act is pretty benign compared to some of the "Drunk Farmer" routines that are done with higher-horsepower Super Cubs and Champs. I'm sure he'll be back flying before too long. Might have to do some remedial for the FAA's edification though.
One of the news sources I saw that seemed to have more reliable information would lead one to believe it wasn't an airshow crash but some sort of failure on takeoff after the show...
See: http://www.inews880.com/Channels/Reg/Lo ... ID=1751027
Ryan
Re: Ken Pietsch Down
Mon Aug 06, 2012 2:55 pm
Part of Ken's normal routine is a dead stick segment, that includes a dead stick landing. From what it sounds like, whether the engine died or he was doing a "practice" after the show, he was in a position where the wind didn't allow him to make the runway and his "tacking", as Jack said, ended up with him clipping the wheat field next to the runway and tearing the wing off. It happens. Whether it was an emergency or a performance, you handle them the same - fly the plane, which is what I was suggesting that he was doing. Flying the plane and got caught out by forces he didn't have a whole ton of control over and it ended up with a nasty crack on his head.