two in one day

Fly careful out there, folks.

From the Yakima Herald story:  The pilot's last contact with Seattle Air Traffic Control occurred south of Cle Elum, where controllers lost radar and radio contact.
Nisha Marvel, an Aviation Division spokeswoman, said she had no reports that the pilot made distress calls.


They were on an IFR flight plan at the time.  Inflight incapacitation?

I wonder if the aircraft had enough fuel for the flight from Ketchikan to Mountain Home Idaho?.

Here's the track of the flight from Flightaware.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N45EL/history/20080801/1710Z/PAKT/U76

Possible, but seems unlikely:  Unless winds aloft were an issue, the ES had more than enough range for this distance, witnesses indicated the engine was still running prior to impact, and there were no distress calls to ATC.  Additionally, they should have been within gliding range of I-90 at the time. 

Too many tragedies this week. 

On Wednesday night at OSH we had our Lancair Builders and Pilots banquet.  Joe Bartels, the president, spent half his time talking about the new Evolution and the other time chewing on the pilots to get recurrency training, don't fly into thunderstorms and stay proficient.  Earlier in the day, he had a sit down with the FAA because they wanted to know what the company was doing about the 7, now 9, Lancair accidents that have occurred this year.  His response was that Lancair will not support any plane whose owner and/or pilot does not receive at least initial training in these planes from HPAT (company instructors) or other approved flight instructors.  The crash at OSH Thursday morning was a stall /spin with the person at the controls having only 4 hours in type.  I don't know what more the company can do to get people to take these planes seriously.

Tomas Holbrook
Lancair IVP

A couple of months ago I witnessed a near miss at Deer Park. A Cardinal had just lifted off 16 and was around a 200ft when from behind him a Lancair made a low approach down 16 at about 200 mph. At the last instant he saw the cardinal in front and was able to turn right. The cardinal never saw him because he turned right also, but behind the faster lancair. It was an awful feeling when I realized that the lancair wasn't landing but showing off with a low pass down the runway at high speed.

  That last sentence is such a true statement. Owners/Operators/Pilots are not taking this flying business seriously. Just being a member and participating in a "Type" organization is one of the most responsible things any competent pilot can do.

A note about the Chinook Pass Lancair:

  Many times when an aircraft is found in hundreds of small pieces the cause is usually over speed (approaching mach speed) or a catastrophic elevator failure.

To all: As I was patrolling across the internet for information on my folks plane crash, I came across your forum. People need to realize this when they post. My father was a careful, cautious pilot who had hundreds of hours on his ES. He was initially trained by Lancair and had flown across the country several times in the plane. They were just coming back home from a vacation in Alaska that included some very demanding flying of the pilot. I had spent several hours flying with him recently as his safety pilot while he was wearing view limiters. Mom and Dad were supposed to be on the easy part of their journey and from the sounds of things, ran into a convective front that caused structural failure of the aircraft. This airplane was as well built as any Lancair and structurally sound.

Dale,

Thank you for your post.  I think that the vast majority of us greatly respect and appreciate the depth of your admiration for the flying skills of your father.

It is easy, from this side, to want to speculate, and with that comes the risk of crossing over the line to criticism. 

For me, as a pilot, and one who has gotten a little to close to convective activity than was prudent, for me it is a strong desire to understand, and with that understanding some greater wisdom for our own flying future.

Each of us feels that part of us went down with each plane that doesn't return.  Know that.

With respect and sincere condolences,

Perry

Indeed, very sorry about your loss.  Of course we shouldn't speculate -- leave the probable cause stuff to the NTSB folks.  It's just a very sad accident that should remind us all -- again -- to be careful and take flying seriously.  It can be a wonderful experience but there are a lot of variables involved and can be very unforgiving.  My condolences.

I am more moved than most by your loss as I belong to the Lancair fraternity as a builder and flyer. If indeed it was convective activity that caused the accident, I want to know how that situation presented itself because nobody intentional flies into those weather phenomena.  My comments regarding training were meant for those that think these are just single engine planes with no unique characteristics.  If you would like to fly over the area of the accident, let me know.  I will be happy to take you up there.

Tomas Holbrook
Lancair IVP

Thanks to all for your thoughts. I just had seen this forum and wanted to make sure that everyone would understand that there are real people left behind to deal with this loss. As far as how it happened, I think that they were IFR in clouds and simply were unable to see activity like that in front of them. I know in my heart that my father would have terminated the leg if there was any sign of that kind of weather along his route. Especially since he always flight planned to go over airports and had just passed near one at Cle Elum shortly before the accident.  I don't think that ATC had given them any warnings to be aware of cells either. They had them on radar at 9700ft and then they fell off the radar. There were no distress calls or any other communications from then.