According to the passenger, the pilot of the Super Cub was making a second low pass over friends just before the accident in Sterling, Alaska. Witnesses reported seeing the airplane flying very slowly, about 300 feet above the ground, with the engine at a low power setting. [Read more…]
Type Club celebrates the Cessna 195
“You should see all the Cessna 195s!”
You hear this all the time at AirVenture when someone comes back from Vintage Aircraft Parking. Often, there are rows and rows of the high-wing taildraggers with their distinctive bumped cowls.
It’s not unusual to find multi-generational families of C195 owners camped beneath the wings of their airplanes, ready to tell you the story of the vintage machine and extol its virtues. Many will tell you they are not the owners of the airplane — they are merely its caretaker for the time being.
And don’t be surprised if you are invited to join the Cessna 195 Type Club when you visit. [Read more…]
Type club welcomes new pilot to the fold
Jan Johnson, a self-described caretaker of a 1952 LC-126C (the military variant of the C-195) living in the Silicon Valley of California, says the enthusiastic technological and emotional support of the International Cessna 195 Club were invaluable when she decided the iconic round engine Cessna was her aircraft of choice.
Pilot ditches in river
The pilot, who was flying a Rans S-5 Coyote over desert near Lake Pleasant, Ariz., had been in cruise flight for about 30 minutes when he advanced the throttle to increase airspeed. The engine power unexpectedly dropped to idle. [Read more…]
Poor flare leads to bounced landing
The pilot was attempting to land the Luscombe 8 in Elkhart, Indiana. The airplane touched down on the left main landing gear and bounced. [Read more…]
Porpoise catches pilot by surprise
The pilot of a Mooney M20J was attempting to land in Warsaw, Indiana. He told investigators that during the downwind leg of the traffic pattern he did not compensate for winds pushing the airplane toward the runway and, as a result, he overshot the turn to final. The Mooney was not aligned with the runway when it hit the ground hard and bounced. [Read more…]
Carb ice blamed for off-airport landing
The student pilot was on his first solo cross-country flight in a Cessna 150 near Matlock, Wash., when the weather started to deteriorate. He descended to a lower altitude to avoid clouds and proceeded toward the nearest airport.
When he tried to level off at the lower altitude, the airplane continued to descend at a rate of about 700 feet per minute. He applied full engine power, but the engine did not respond and the airplane continued to descend. [Read more…]
Accidental trim activation leads to accident
The private pilot and a CFI were on an instructional flight in a Cessna 172 near Peoria, Illinois. The airplane was equipped with an electric trim activation switch on the yoke.
According to the private pilot, during the takeoff shortly after rotation, the nose pitched downward and the plane bounced on the runway. The CFI took control of the airplane and attempted to abort the takeoff, but the plane bounced several more times before the nosewheel collapsed and the airplane slid to a stop. [Read more…]
CFI misjudges fuel onboard
A CFI and private pilot were attempting to do a two-leg cross-country flight in a Cirrus SR20. Before takeoff from Danbury, Conn., the CFI used a flashlight to look in the fuel tanks and determined they contained 25 gallons of usable fuel, and that the flight would require 23.3 gallons of fuel. He then entered 22 gallons in the airplane’s multifunction display (MFD) fuel totalizer. The airplane reached its destination airport and landed without incident. He did not refuel. [Read more…]
Girlfriend walks into propeller
The pilot reported that he and a passenger were preparing to take off in a Quicksilver Sport from an airport in Camarillo, Calif.
The airplane has a rear-mounted engine and the engine was running when the passenger’s girlfriend approached the airplane from behind to check an airframe-mounted camera she had installed to document the flight. [Read more…]