Crash into house!!!!!

[texasbagpiper]

Ok, If the aircraft was not gaining any altitude then why didn't it just make an emergency landing. Where's the BRS chute when ya need it.




LAS VEGAS – An experimental aircraft crashed into a house shortly after takeoff Friday, killing two people and critically injuring a third as the home burst into flames, authorities said.

It appeared the dead were the pilot and one person in the house, said a deputy fire chief, Kevin Brame. Another person in the house was taken to University Medical Center in Las Vegas in critical condition, he said.

The rear-propeller Velocity 173 RG aircraft crashed about 6:30 a.m. after taking off from the North Las Vegas airport, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.

The pilot radioed that he wasn't gaining altitude and was going to crash, he said.

Firefighters quickly doused the intense fire in the single-family home, in a neighborhood not far from the end of the airport runway, Brame said.

The aircraft was certified for flight in 2002 and was owned by a Las Vegas resident. No names have been released.

[indoruwet]

Ok, If the aircraft was not gaining any altitude then why didn't it just make an emergency landing. Where's the BRS chute when ya need it.
Hej Seth,
You have any idea what that plane looks like ?
That thing has a minimum speed of 60 kts (it cruises at 180+ kts), so it was probably really trying hard at more than that.
At that take off speed, not much choice left, especially with that canard and no rudder.
By the time the pilot discovered hat he was not gaining any altitude, not much else he could do but *glide*, into that *obstacle*.

[KellyJoe]

Here's one.

http://www.airsport.com/homebuilt4.ihtml?id=17&cid=100

[kilowatt]

Tex,

Without investigating the details, my guess is that there was simply no time or enough altitude to initiate a safe landing. BRS are a great addition to most aircraft, however, they do require a certain amount of altitude to deploy and recover correctly, just as any parachute would. I doubt this craft was at an altitude that would have allowed a BRS to recover the aircraft. Also, once the BRS is deployed, the PIC loses most, if not all, controllability to fly and land the aircraft safely. BRS are also not required by safety equipment by the FAR's. It's hard to say if a BRS could have changed the outcome of this very unfortunate and tragic accident.

I hope the pilot did all that he/she could do to avoid this terrible loss of life on the ground. God bless their families.

The Velocity is a very unique and historical design, developed by Burt Rutan, I think. There are hundreds flying and they are indeed FAST and have quite a following. They are quite beautiful, in my opinion, and many have logged thousands of hours.

I think this is the same design in which John Denver lost his life, but at no fault to the design; since he basically ran it out of fuel and he lacked experience of the craft's flight characteristics at the time. There are a couple of variants to the Velocity design, two being the Long-EZ and Vari-Ez, I believe.

Kilowatt

[mignazito]

Stalls at 69 mph!!!

[larsenwv]

John Denver was flying a LongEZ when he lost his life. It is similar to a Velocity but not identical.

[flynlow]

John Denver made a stupid mistake. He was flying a plane without knowing where the fuel selector was. It was a homebuilt plane and the builder didn't put the selector in the normal place.

Bad mistake for a good pilot.

Jack

John Denver was flying a LongEZ when he lost his life. It is similar to a Velocity but not identical.