| Author | Message | ||
     Tom R. Hutchison New member Username: Tomhutch Post Number: 168 Registered: 01-2003 |
It gives me a great deal of sadness to pass along this news I found today on ANN News: Small Plane Crashes On Approach To Runway ANN REALTIME UPDATE 04.16.07 2215 EDT: Aero-News has learned two victims perished in Monday's crash of a plane, tentatively identified as a homebuilt Wheeler Express (file photo of type, right), less than one mile from the approach end to Runway 27-Left at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport Authorities tell Bay News 9 the plane's pilot was Terrence Albert Sack of Dublin, OH. The other victim was Roger Caldwell of Blacklick, OH. FAA records show a "Terrair Express" aircraft, built by a Terrence Sack in Dublin, registered in 2002. Investigators have not identified a possible cause of the Monday afternoon accident. Original Report 1710 EDT: At least one person was killed Monday afternoon, when a small aircraft went down less than one mile from the approach end to runway 27L at Lakeland-Linder Regional Airport. Local news reports state the aircraft, type unknown, crashed in a vacant horse farm near Waring and Drane Field Roads just after 1400 EDT. The FAA could not confirm the plane was flying to the Sun 'N Fun Fly-In, although the accident site is located on the approach path to the airport's two west runways. Black smoke could be seen from the show grounds. Planes arriving to Lakeland for the fly-in, which begins Tuesday, were waved off for approximately 35 minutes, as airspace over LAL was closed off for emergency crews. For more information: http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=2eed6786-ab6c-4ef2-a741-da97fe b1b4e9&} | ||
| Allyn J. Roe New member Username: Allynroe Post Number: 9 Registered: 11-2003 |
After I read the subject I was praying this would not be the case. My condolences to Terry’s and Roger’s family. | ||
| LOUIE LACY New member Username: Llacy Post Number: 88 Registered: 10-1999 |
I have just returned from Sun n Fun and here is the info I heard about the crash. I talked to a guy with an RV who said he saw the crash. I think the problem was a combination on wind and poor controllers. A lot of this is just guess work on my part but here is what I think happened. The wind on Monday afternoon was about 30 mph out of the north. When you turned downwind for 27 right the tendency was to be blown toward the runway. The guy I talked to said he thought Terry got to close to the runway and made a sharp bank to get back on the downwind. As most of you know the Express doesn't fly well at 100 knots and most of the other aircraft in the pattern can't maintain 100.As he made this sharp turn the nose just dropped and the aircraft came down. I have never seen the controllers so poor at Sun n Fun before. I arrived at 11:30 on Tuesday and the controller at Lake Parker never gave any directons. No one was asked to rock their wings to acknolege the transmissions. There were approximately 7 aircraft between me and Interstate 4. The pilots were just making their own spaceing. When on downwind I had to pass an RV couldn't go any slower and got no insturction from the tower. This is just my take on the situation and not anything official. All the info I heard was second or third information. You can be sure I will send email to both EAA and Sun n Fun and tell them what I think of their nonexistence controlling of traffic. I will land somewhere else next year and not fly into Lakeland again! Lou | ||
| Eric Holmberg New member Username: Erich Post Number: 113 Registered: 05-2002 |
My condolences to both families as well. Terry was always a helpful person on the list. | ||
| doug shell New member Username: Rv76 Post Number: 8 Registered: 03-2006 |
my condolences to both families as well. i was out of town, and just got the news, terry will be missed. as for the cause of the accident i will wait to hear from ntsb. speculation only adds to the confusion. i have never flown with terry but i have coresponded with him, and beleive he was both knowledgeable about his express, and a good pilot. as for lou's assessment as to flying into s&f i agree its sad to hear that things havent changed as far as approach, and landing procedures at s&f. absolutely the worst procedure control at any flyin. ive been into osh 10 times without a hitch been to s&f 3 times each time swearing i would not go again. however i disagree with lou on one point, i have no problem flying my express at less than 100kts, and in fact on approach i cross the fence at 80 and touch down at 65. i regularly land at a strip that is 2600 ft and dont even use brakes except to turn off runway. i find the express to be an absolute pleasure to fly, and easy to land. when slow flying the plane it is very stable. i invite anyone who is ever in the area(e79)to come by i would be happy to demonstrate the how well the express flys. before i speculate as to tery making any pilot error, i would go back to the old posts between he, and hodge, you will note they were both having problems with engine failure after about an hour and a half running on the right tank. i discussed the problem with terry on more than one occasion, and finally determined the reason i wasn't having the same problem was because i was using a lycoming, not a continental, with different fuel plumbing. pull up the ntsb report on hodge's plane and compare the ntsb report with the preliminary on terry,s accident. without speculating they are very similar. again terry will be missed a sad day for all pilots. | ||
| Michael Farley New member Username: Mikefarley Post Number: 5 Registered: 11-2006 |
My most heart felt condolences to Terry's family as well. For what it's worth, I was the CFI that signed off Terry's BFR around two months ago, and he proved to me that he was a very smart and capable pilot in his Express. I was very impressed by the way he flew and the proper decisions that he made throughout his flight. I have not yet been contacted by the NTSB, but from what I understand they have my information and will be contacting me shortly. Hopefully once I talk to them I'll be able to give more information regarding this terrible tragedy. Please be safe out there everyone. Terry was a wonderful person who will be sorely missed. | ||
| Terry Sack New member Username: Terrysack Post Number: 43 Registered: 11-2002 |
Sorry to bother you Express owners and builders, but the NTSB investigator is asking me questions which I cannot confidently answer. Tim Monville is the investigator out of the Miami office. He is trying to complete the investigation into Terry's crash last April at Sun n Fun and would like to know if Terry had an auxilliary fuel pump. He wants to know if he he turned it on for takeoff and landing. I'm fairly certain he did have an auxilliary boost pump, but I don't have a copy of his checklist to see when he would have used it. My question to you is: Do Express CT's with 540 Continentals have this type of pump and would he use it for takeoff and landing. Any help you can give me would be most appreciative. I tried to e-mail Ted Gaston who worked for Larry Olsen and installed Terry's instruments and who helped Terry a lot in the past with questions he had, but Ted's e-mail address must have changed. Mr. Monville has also asked me exactly when Terry had lost his engine on landing in the past. I know Terry told me once that it did happen and he was fortunate enough to get the engine restarted, but I can't find any reference to when this happened in his log book. Did he ever correspond with any of you about engine loss on landing? I'm totally at a loss to verify anything Monville is asking me. From the Sheriff's eyewitness reports which I do have it was very apparent Terry lost his engine and consequently lost altitude. He was in level glide about 1/2 mile south of the runway threshold when the engine restarted full out and the plane rocketed vertically straight up at which point it stalled and crashed nose first. I can understand he most likely had the stick pulled back hard when the engine restarted, but whether he used his boost pump, or whether he switched tanks, is unknown. Any help you can give me with information about having an auxilliary fuel pump is most welcome. Thanks, Susan Sack | ||
| David Packwood New member Username: Packwood Post Number: 2 Registered: 10-2007 |
Dear Susan, Sorry for your loss, My express CT IO 540 lyc. Does have a boost pump to be used on take off and landing. David | ||
| Gayle Gaston New member Username: Gayle Post Number: 1 Registered: 03-2008 |
Susan, First let me say we were very sorry to hear about Terry. Ted's email has indeed changed. You can send him a private message by clicking on his name next to one of his posts. I hope this helps. Gayle Gaston | ||
| Gary Markwardt New member Username: Gmark Post Number: 49 Registered: 12-1999 |
Susan: I was very sorry to hear about Terry's crash. Although I did not know Terry personally, I recall some of his posts on this site and probably answered a few. He was part of the Express family and therefore a friend to all of us. My heartfelt condolences to you and family. In answer to your question, I fly an Express (N713GM) with a Continental IO-550N engine. The boost pump is not normally used during takeoffs and landings. It is installed primarily to prime the engine for startup and for emergency use if the engine driven fuel pump fails. Hope this helps. | ||
| Ted Gaston New member Username: T_gaston Post Number: 1 Registered: 03-2008 |
Susan, I have been trying to e-mail back to you with this information about Terry's plane but for some reason your mail server keeps rejecting the message. So, here is what I have been trying to send to you. The airplane had a Weldon Fuel pump controlled by a three position switch. One position applied power directly to the pump and was labeled Hi Boost. That would only be used for priming before a cold start or in the event of a main fuel pump failure. Hi boost delivers approximately 35 psi to the throttle body and the switch is spring loaded momentary action. The second position on the switch is labeled low boost. Low boost supplies power to the pump via an adjustable ceramic wire wound resistor designed to limit the current to the boost pump thus lowering the pressure output to a point that doesn't flood the engine at flight idle. This is usually around 5 psi but would be fine tuned to each engine during phase one flight testing. Position three is the off position. This switch configuration is common to certain Cessna aircraft and in fact, the switch is an actual Cessna part. There wasn't a POH or a flight manual for the express. This was the responsibility of each builder since they were the official manufacturer of each airplane under the experimental homebuilt rules. I hope this answers any questions that the investigator might have. It's OK with me if you want to give him my contact info in the event there are more questions. If you want the rest of my contact info we'll take it to PM's since I have already seen a drastic increase in spam since Gayle put my e-mail address out on the open forum. What a world we live in, eh? |