MORONS! all of them. Guess he didn't learn about a go around.

OregonMaule wrote:MORONS! all of them. Guess he didn't learn about a go around.

x2. Seems really avoidable as a pilot despite the poor planning of the road and/or airport. Of course, he was a low time student, but still... you'd think that would an important concern taught if you learned at that airport.

That's a accident waiting to happen. Expecting Joe public to understand airport movements or some poor student who's focus is utterly concentrated on his first solo approach to not conflict when all the right/wrong circumstances are coinciding is completely asinine. The County should have seen the day when this was going to happen. Completely preventable with a preemptive forethought. Come on!! public road at the button of a runway. daaaah

Our instructor pilots like to use the expression, "Buss of nuns pulled onto the runway, Go Around!" Guess his insrtuctor never used that one.....

Fly like you ride a motorcycle, like THEY are all out to get you! This ought to be an entertaining lawsuit. Both the pilot and the driver are 100% responsible, it takes two to tango

courierguy wrote:Fly like you ride a motorcycle, like THEY are all out to get you! This ought to be an entertaining lawsuit. Both the pilot and the driver are 100% responsible, it takes two to tango

I wouldn't be surprised to see the airport owner in that lawsuit, too. What a shame. I agree with you. Must have situational awareness at all times!!

Anybody else notice the displaced threshold?

The displaced thresholds at both ends use non-standard markings. Even so, it seemed as if he was mighty low to be planning on touching down at or past the displaced point--the article isn't clear if it was his first solo or returning from his first solo cross country, but in any event, he was an inexperienced student. There are also VASIs at both ends--assuming they were working, that's one airport where a pilot should use them every time.

But short of moving the road, there's no practical way to prevent idjets like the Volvo driver from driving through. Even railroad-type gates won't stop fools. Everyone was pretty fortunate on that one, since nobody died and injuries appeared to have been minimal.

Cary

It takes a moment or three to spool up the prop and change from 'decent to land' into 'go around' and actually gaining altitude. Obviously the motor sound didn't change, so he wasn't trying, but the brand new pilot didn't have the 'broad' picture and see the 'Idjets' in the Volvo in advance/in time...

Right! VERY lucky there were no major injuries with that prop/'hamburger maker' that close to the car occupants!!

WOW!
lc

I'm trying to upload the Google Map picture of this road. Here is the link. Anybody know how to embed here? Z?

[googlemap]<iframe width="700" height="394" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;t=h&amp;layer=c&amp;cbll=33.056781,-97.232601&amp;panoid=BtY5BVuYiVRIY4JPO_AIKA&amp;cbp=13,112.8,,0,8.48&amp;source=embed&amp;ll=33.056691,-97.232601&amp;spn=0.000313,0.000469&amp;z=21&amp;output=svembed"></iframe><br /><small><a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;t=h&amp;layer=c&amp;cbll=33.056781,-97.232601&amp;panoid=BtY5BVuYiVRIY4JPO_AIKA&amp;cbp=13,112.8,,0,8.48&amp;source=embed&amp;ll=33.056691,-97.232601&amp;spn=0.000313,0.000469&amp;z=21" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small>[/googlemap]

The road the Volvo was on leads to more hangars on the east side of the airport. So, more than likely the driver of the Volvo might be a pilot or might have known about safe airport etiquette and should have known to stop and look both ways before proceeding (BIG shame on the driver ). Or maybe I'm wrong and the driver was a friend of a pilot and headed to the hangar for a ride or??? Or just sightseeing??

The pilot should have had more situational awareness especially if he was practicing a short field landing with an active roadway close to the end of the runway (BIG shame on the pilot ).

If this Google Map picture is the same as when this accident happened, then I believe better signage would help prevent accidents like this from happening. Heck, in this Google Maps picture, you can barely see the "STOP" in the pavement. It looks smaller than your standard size public road STOP lettering. So, I give the airport owner a BIG shame on them, too

Glad everybody is OK and no injuries!

You can't have tunnel vision when you fly these things and you can't have tunnel vision when you drive either

Here's the best that I can do...

http://goo.gl/maps/NlJ6r

You can't have tunnel vision when you fly these things and you can't have tunnel vision when you drive either

He WAS apparently on his FIRST SOLO.....
It takes a bit of experience (and relaxing) to take in the 'big picture'....

Of course 'he should have'...
lc

260Driver wrote:Here's the best that I can do...

http://goo.gl/maps/NlJ6r

Here's another shot of the road looking to the east. Like I said earlier, the "STOP" is hard to see in the picture and is much smaller then the standard public road size

http://goo.gl/maps/uZs9H

What do you guys make of the two jets about a half mile east of the South end of the runway?

http://goo.gl/maps/6AvrO

Could there really be two jets that close together in that location at the time the photo was taken?

Prepared Pilot wrote:What do you guys make of the two jets about a half mile east of the South end of the runway?

http://goo.gl/maps/6AvrO

Could there really be two jets that close together in that location at the time the photo was taken?

That's something I haven't seen before...pretty cool. I reckon it is the same jet captured on two separate photo frames which when stitched together makes it look like two aircraft in close proximity.

With everyone saying he should have gone around, there is a mighty assumption here he saw the truck, or was so focused on the runway/landing that he didn't bother to be situationaly aware.

I don't know about you guys, but I soloed from the left seat. Thinks like engine cowling, co-pilot rudder pedals, etc, were blocking my view low and to the right. A lot of guys on here also seem to talk about how they were taught to go around and that he should have; well then you were also probably taught that often times, when something stays in the same spot of your windshield (or point of view) as you are moving, then you are most likely on track to hit said object (be it a stationary or moving object). So there is a chance that the vehicle was in, and stayed in, the the pilot's blindspot during the whole event. I don't remember reading anything about the pilot seeing him and trying to land anyway.

So he was a bit low on his first solo approach, but I think he was going to hit the runway. Did everyone here have the perfect first solo?

Should we maybe cut him some slack until all the facts are in, such as did he even see the vehicle without the right of way that cut across his path and may have been in his blindspot?

We've all drug it in a time or two, for sure. If I recall, the guy says he'll never fly again - which is a shame. He could learn from this, fly steeper approaches and be perfectly save at the same field. Seems like this field needs a displaced threshold - and he needed a better instructor. I don't know about this - blind spot or not - stop sign or not - that car had the right of way. The pilot is damn lucky and the driver of the car is damn lucky that their head wasn't taken off by the landing gear.

From what I saw in the video & of the incident & the still photo's, there's no stop sign on the road- only some home-made looking STOP painted on the pavement. No obvious "caution low flying airplanes" sign either. If you look in a state driver's handbook, I doubt you'll find that they recommend checking for traffic at your "10 o'clock high". On the other hand, any pilot should notice that there's a road right across the end of the runway, and that vehicles driving on it might be a factor. Esp if he's a pilot based there, whether a student or not.
Looks to me like he was shooting for the very end, instead of the displaced threshold. An airport I go into has a similar layout, there's been times when people have landed right on the end and stopped before the displaced threshold. I don't know about anyone else, but whenever I do this I watch very closely for vehicle traffic on the road and adjust my glide slope accordingly.