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Date:         Fri, 10 Nov 1995 16:52:20 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         amunro@amunro.seanet.com (Alex Munro)
Subject:      re: Tragic story

>>+----- >> But Tuesday, only seconds after he took off from Watsonville >>Airport, something went wrong. The engine seized up, white smoke poured out >>and the propeller stopped. The pilot tried desperately to loop back to the >>runway but lost altitude too quickly. The little two-seater crashed through >>a picket fence, slid down a hill and flipped over, smashing into the back >>of Inez Tucker's barn and bursting into a ball of flame... >>+----- >> >>Imagine, working 18 years on this project only to have the engine seize on >>the first trial run. What a sad tale. Wonder what happened... >>

His biggest mistake was trying to turn (I can't imagine he actually tried a loop with a dead motor) back. Most instructors go to great lengths to pound it into your head that you DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH VELOCITY AND ALTITUDE TO TURN AROUND.

As to use of VW's in aircraft there are differing opinions (just like some people don't like VW cars). To be safe the motor must have two spark plugs per cylinder and redundant ignitions systems. The motors I have seen are usually 2100cc motors rated at 75 horsepower. Sometimes they are turbo charged, but that's only to maintain power as the plane gains altitude. They usually have magnetos and the neatest ones have individual cylinder heads like a "real" aircraft motor. Type IV motors are known to be more reliable (no surprise ;) ), but most non-VW people still rate them the same (as in, NO thanks). Most people not familiar with aircraft think that 85 hp is easy to come by, but planes operate at 75-100% power, while we drive along at part throttle. How many of us charge up a 7000' mountain pass balls to the wall (sorry, foot flat on the floor) in our VW's with a big warm fuzzy in our hearts? More like a pit of nausea, waiting for failure... As someone who is about to start building a plane (no it won't have a VW motor) I really feel for the guy.

I've only been around planes for 27 years but based on the description of billowing clouds of smoke and the propeller stopping, my guess is that he suffered catastrophic seizure from overheating (props normally keep turning on a healthy but dead motor until the speed gets really low) The plane was probably running hot already during high speed taxi testing and full throttle killed him.

Bottom line is, if he had found a patch/street/school yard ahead of his plane he probably would just need new underwear and a new motor.

The media loves airplane crashes, which is sick. How many people died in car crashes in town that day? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Alex Munro amunro@amunro.seanet.com

'79 Westy '75 Rabbit '85 Vanagon wannabe RV6 wannabe

My other Sig is a P220


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