Rousch Racing Premier 1A crash at Oshkosh . . .

Sorry to hear about the loss but that is an ugly little airplane.

 

Roush has now had at least two seriously bad flying experiences. He was seriously injured crashing his ultralight several years ago.

 

true, but the guy flies A LOT. So is this abnormal or just the percentages catching up to him?

wish him well, he's a great racer/pilot/businessman.

 

Pics of the crash here, and him coming off the plane... http://www.jasonmcdowell.net/Aviation-Photography/RoushCrash/13104836_QEjk2#950107534_sj6DH

Article about the crash... http://www.thenorthwestern.com/article/20100727/OSH0107/100727152/-b-BREAKING-NEWS-b-Business-jet-makes-hard-landing-at-EAA

 

Wow. Just amazing he walked away. Hard to believe he's now critical, but you never
know about serious internal stuff, ya know?

He's 68 - just my opinion, but with 3 crashes under his belt, with his wealth, why not
just get a Marquis Card and relax in the back from here on out?

To him and his family, I truly wish a full and healthy recovery.... may he rest well tonight.

Jedi

 

Just like Billy Mays, they said he had head trauma, but he died from cocaine use. Not the same, but before they knew about the coke, they thought it was head trauma.

+1.

 

Sounds to me like he needs to take up a different hobby.

 

If I recall correctly, his ultralight crash a few years ago was rules as pilot error because he was flying too low and snagged a high-tension line over a lake.

 

Uh...it was just him and that woman in the plane? Are people allowed to fly without a co-pilot in planes like that? Seems really dangerous if something goes wrong to the pilot in a plane that can fly as fast and as large as that vs. a 172.

 

Agreed, it is strange looking with bad proportions.

As for the incident, aborted landing and then stalled sounds like not enough speed was being carried on approach.

Nothing is inherently wrong with single pilot operation IF the pilot is good enough and has appropriate judgement skills.

Jeff

 

Thanks for the info. Does the same rule apply to fighter jets converted to civilian use? I know those Su-27s in Illinois are 2 seaters and the L39s are as well. Would they allow a single seater Su-27 to fly around or no? Although the 2 seaters don't require a pilot in both spots...one can be a tourist. Completely different than a private jet, but I'm curious.

 

Since I know how crowded the pattern at Oshkosh is during airshow week, I wonder if he got too close to the plane in front and had to either take evasive action or throttle down to below stall speed.

Does anyone know if he had the plane configured correctly for landing? (Remember Thurman Munson, who crashed his Citation when he neglected to lower his flaps?)

 

So much for women and children first...

 

I suspect the reason that thos SU-27's haven't sold is because:

A) They are (relitivley) cheap to buy, but the operating costs seem to be more in line with medium biz jet than a citation or the like. As well I don't know if there's any shops in north america that can overhaul those engines....(not to mention the expense of overhauling said engines)

and B) I don't even want to THINK about the maze of paperwork and "seat of the pants regs" that you'll encounter with that airplane. Just the mere THOUGHT of dealing with transport of the faa on a demiliterized fouth generation fighter jet terrifies me....and don't forget: how the hell do you get qualified to fly the thing? Insurance? I don't think flight safety offers an su-27 check ride course

These things are still flown by militaries in europe....we're not talking about a relitivly simple L-39 or P-51 here folks....

 

With 2 seat fighters, it all depends on how the cockpit is set up. The F-16D and F-15D were set up so all controls were in the front seat and the aircraft could be flown, and usually was flown, single seat. It should be the same for the Su-27, which is essentially a single seat aircraft with two seat versions for instruction and regaining currency. Two seat fighters where there were separate systems controlled in the front and back seats are generally never flown single seat. This would include fighters like the F-15E and Tornado, where navigation controls and most weapons controls are in the back seat.

Incidentally, operations costs for a twin-engine, afterburning, relatively modern fighter are more like those of a narrow body, full size airliner than any kind of business jet. All the parts are a whole lot higher strung than any airliner and fuel consumption at full afterburner in both engines can be as high as 120,000 lbs of fuel per minute at low altitude. That is expensive. 50 maintenance man-hours per sortie gets kind of expensive, too. You would probably need two experts working full time to just keep them flying. Spare parts would also be a pain.

Taz
Terry Phillips