soyAnarchisto wrote: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.

I might have to disagree with you saying.....

that car had the right of way.

. Edit..... I believe your right

I've been studying this on Google Maps and the video footage.

For one, unless the driver and passenger were looking to their right, how can they not see the plane in their peripheral vision? It also appears the Volvo doesn't even make a complete 2 second stop (that part maybe out of view in the video?). If the Volvo made a right from Cleveland Gibbs Rd, the driver should have clearly seen a plane on final before the Volvo made a right onto Kelly Rd.

IF the Volvo had the right of way or not, it still had plenty of time to stop if the driver was paying more attention to the road.

Back to the pilot. If you watch the video careful and slow motion, the plane is kind of nose high. So I can see where the Volvo may not have been seen by the pilot.

But yeah, I would think that the pilot should have been landing further down the runway at the strip and number.
http://goo.gl/maps/QCLpY

Anyway, that's my Monday morning quarterbacking

BTW........ Babes Chicken in Roanoke is awesome!!! Best fried chicken I ever had
http://www.yelp.com/biz/babes-chicken-dinner-house-roanoke

Stuff like this is just not supposed to happen in the first place but.... Traffic to the right has the right of way both on the ground and in the air. Also the one at the lowest altitude has the right of way. Either way the plane looses if you ask me. Plus I certainly can see where I am landing. The pilot probably had the car in sight. All he would of had to do it pull back for a fraction of a second and he could have cleared the car. It was his first landing so what can you say? Too bad it happened but probably a good thing he is giving up flying.

Jaerl wrote:Stuff like this is just not supposed to happen in the first place but.... Traffic to the right has the right of way both on the ground and in the air. Also the one at the lowest altitude has the right of way. Either way the plane looses if you ask me. Plus I certainly can see where I am landing. The pilot probably had the car in sight. All he would of had to do it pull back for a fraction of a second and he could have cleared the car. It was his first landing so what can you say? Too bad it happened but probably a good thing he is giving up flying.

Pull back?? Heck, I think it would have made it worse at the speed the plane was going. Maybe add some power first, then pull back on the yoke a little?? Adding some power probably would have been enough to gain a little altitude.

Don't forget there is a 'lag' in power response.....
The faster the vertical descent speed, the longer the lag to reverse vertical direction.

lc

Like someone else noted, you just can't rely on Joe Public to know anything about aircraft procedures or anything related to aviation, much less look upward. You can hope for a little common sense but even then, as pilots, we're encumbered by a greater responsibility to account for happenings in the air as well as on the ground. In my opinion, all responsibility lies with the pilot to clear the threshold. Moose, elk, Volvo...doesn't matter. Perhaps as backcountry pilots this sense is more developed.

Just not a good place for training I guess.

Very unfortunate. Hate to see the airport get sued over something like this. The displaced threshold is 400 feet from the beginning of the runway, that ought to be plenty to prevent something like this from occurring. Seems really unlikely that he was going to float 400ft down the runway before touching down.

A local county airport is about 50ft from a highway. Only thing posted there is a couple signs that say "Caution low flying aircraft," no displaced threshold or anything on the runway. It is up to the pilot to not run into a ground bound vehicle.

Zzz wrote:Like someone else noted, you just can't rely on Joe Public to know anything about aircraft procedures or anything related to aviation, much less look upward. You can hope for a little common sense but even then, as pilots, we're encumbered by a greater responsibility to account for happenings in the air as well as on the ground. In my opinion, all responsibility lies with the pilot to clear the threshold. Moose, elk, Volvo...doesn't matter.

Just not a good place for training I guess.

I definitely agree 100%.

I think I'm just trying to understand why the driver of the Volvo continued driving into a very dangerous situation But then again, I'm a trucker with over 1.5 million miles and have seen plenty of stupid stuff drivers do. I guess I should be fortunate that I use a lot more common sense than most other drivers do.

Littlecub wrote:Don't forget there is a 'lag' in power response.....
The faster the vertical descent speed, the longer the lag to reverse vertical direction.

lc

Unfortunately the lag was between the ears

I wouldn't have hit the car, but it'd sure be fun making them THINK I was gonna hit the car. That'd be some great sport, and maybe even legal.

Gump

It always amazing me when I see how people react to accidents like this. I wonder how many thousands of accidents there were that day involving cars slamming into one another because someone was not paying attention. How many of those involved fatals? Involve an aircraft, a single engine Cessna with a single occupant and Basically no injuries and it makes National headline news. Its crap like this in the media that give crazies like the jet fuel lady all the ammo they need.

58Skylane wrote:

soyAnarchisto wrote:BTW........ Babes Chicken in Roanoke is awesome!!! Best fried chicken I ever had
http://www.yelp.com/biz/babes-chicken-dinner-house-roanoke

All of their locations are good, haven't had a bad meal there yet.

I've been in to this a airport a dozen times during the last few years and the road has never been an issue, yes you pay attention to it but up until now it's been safe.
There is a restaurant on the east parallel taxiway that the Volvo was headed to according to the interview and they were apparently regulars so it shouldn't have been any surprise to them that there is constant traffic over the road. I wonder if they proceeded down the road and were looking towards the action on the runway or near the restaurant instead of to the north at the approaching plane.

FWIW - The road is private as is the airport but apparently not owned by the same entity although the airport has attempted to purchase the road in the past.

The pilot was returning from a solo cross country so I am sure it wasn't his first solo approach to that runway but regardless everyone was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Could have been a lot worse.

Here is some video taken of a landing I made at the same airport and usually the clearance over the road is plenty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_1lIVARwEo

AndrewK wrote:

58Skylane wrote:

soyAnarchisto wrote:BTW........ Babes Chicken in Roanoke is awesome!!! Best fried chicken I ever had
http://www.yelp.com/biz/babes-chicken-dinner-house-roanoke

All of their locations are good, haven't had a bad meal there yet.

I've been in to this a airport a dozen times during the last few years and the road has never been an issue, yes you pay attention to it but up until now it's been safe.
There is a restaurant on the east parallel taxiway that the Volvo was headed to according to the interview and they were apparently regulars so it shouldn't have been any surprise to them that there is constant traffic over the road. I wonder if they proceeded down the road and were looking towards the action on the runway or near the restaurant instead of to the north at the approaching plane.

FWIW - The road is private as is the airport but apparently not owned by the same entity although the airport has attempted to purchase the road in the past.

The pilot was returning from a solo cross country so I am sure it wasn't his first solo approach to that runway but regardless everyone was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Could have been a lot worse.

Here is some video taken of a landing I made at the same airport and usually the clearance over the road is plenty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_1lIVARwEo

Looks like a great airport. Is that homes with hangars on the very east side of the airport?

If you watch on the video, it looks like the pilot dove right before he hit the car. The descent angle looks like he would clear the car but it changes right before impact. Might be when he saw the car and had a brain stall? Sad

58Skylane wrote:Looks like a great airport. Is that homes with hangars on the very east side of the airport?

It's a pretty popular places for flight training and flying in general. They share the frequency with the airport I fly out of and there is constant activity out there.

I think you're right about the homes. I haven't seen them in person since I usually stay near the runway during most of my visits but used to see advertisements for homes/condos for sale on barnstormers.

A notch of flaps might have lifted him over the car. Those people are lucky, I think Kandy was big enough and mad enough to bludgeon them to death with a gear leg. Ironic that the pilot is going to hang it up because "I have a young daughter and a wife, and they need me to be there to take care of them."

Jaerl wrote:If you watch on the video, it looks like the pilot dove right before he hit the car. The descent angle looks like he would clear the car but it changes right before impact. Might be when he saw the car and had a brain stall? Sad

I noticed the change in descent also. At first I thought maybe the pilot pulled the nose up to try to clear the car and got an increase in sink rate, but watching the video again I don't see the nose coming up-- or down for a dive either. I wonder if he was carrying some (extra) power & pulled it off when he felt he had it made over the fence?

Prime example of large pattern gone wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6q2VKsvQEQ&feature=player_detailpage

OK, I know this thread has kinda run its course, but as it was going strong over the weekend, I happened to drive by this:

Pacific City, OR... not sure exactly what these guys were doing, maybe some waste water management project or something. Pumping concrete from on high! Watch out on final.

A friend hit a car on short final at the now closed Martha Lake Airport years ago. Same situation, student pilot and a road very close to the end of the runway. He damaged the LG to the point of when he landed it collapsed.
I seem to recall it was a county road, a board fence, then the end of the runway.
He did get his license in the end.

As far as car strikes go, in the PNW this one takes the cake. It happened at Harvey Field. DC-4 vs Van. I think the pilot is still kicking around the area up there. From what I understand, the Feds were asking what the hell he was doing with a DC-4 at Harvey. Here is the link, it's down the page with two pictures and a blurb.

http://www.ruudleeuw.com/guestphotos-21.htm

Cheers,
Dave