Plane Crash

[Jeff Weston]

One of the things I see a lot of since moving to the coast is a lot of private aircraft sightseeing. Every weekend there are usually several Cessna type craft, ultralights, Robinson helicopters and even biplanes. I live on the bluff, and several times, the planes fly so low that they are below my house.

Today I noticed a guy hot-dogging it, with barrel rolls, loop-de-loops, hammerheads, inverted dives, etc. I watched him for a bit and then went back into the garage in the front to continue working on my Mustang with my dad. We could hear him still tooling around when I heard the engine suddenly rev really load and then go silent. I said "that didn't sound good" but continued with my work. It wasn't until 20 minutes or so later when all the news helicopters were circling around that I went out back to have a look. Ooops! This happened about 100 yards outside my back door.

They are supposed to be back out tomorrow (Sunday) to find the plane. It is a bit disturbing to see somebody go out this way while having so much fun.

LOS ANGELES -- An experimental plane crashed Saturday into the Pacific Ocean, killing the pilot, authorities said.

The plane went down at about 1:20 p.m. about 50 yards offshore of San Pedro, said Lt. P.J. Jacquelin, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman in Los Angeles.

Someone on a Coast Guard vessel saw the two-passenger Interavia E-3 fly "flying straight into the water," Jacquelin said.

The single-engine plane is classified as experimental by the Federal Aviation Administration. It is based on a Russian design and often is used in aerobatics.

The pilot, whose name was not immediately released, was believed to be the only person aboard. His body was found floating in the water while the plane remained in about 60 feet of water, Los Angeles County fire Capt. Mark Savage said.

The plane may have come from Long Beach but it was unclear where it was heading, Savage said.

The plane was built in 1993 and registered to Yakety Yak, Inc., in Wilmington, Del., the FAA said.

There was no telephone listing for the company.

[Jerry Bransford]

I read a little about that earlier but didn't know the details you included. Wow, that's really too bad as doing aerobatics is a really cool/fun/mind-clearing activity. It sounds like he was showing off for the people on the ground though as from what I gather, his altitude was just plain too low. I've flown a moderate amount of aerobatics but I always tried to stay high enough that I could recover if I screwed something up. I'm guessing pilot error at this point. Too bad either way but pilots get killed all the time doing stuff they were specifically warned against doing or doing stuff to impress others.

No matter, I hated to read that he died in what is normally a really fun sport. It's really too bad, I feel badly for his family and friends. RIP.

[TObject]

If it?s N4426X, it had engine quit back in 2000 and had to land in a cow pasture or something like that.

Terrible news.

[Jeff Weston]

He was flying pretty low when I was watching him Jerry. You are probably correct that something went wrong and he couldn't pull out in time. I will say that he was pretty good from what I saw. You can see from the picture attached how close he landed to my back yard. About 10 feet beyond the masonry wall is a 100' bluff with the shore below. They appear to be looking about 100 yards offshore. It is pretty quiet today, but yesterday there were probably three times as many boats and 5 helicopters instead of just the one out there now. I'm glad I didn't see them pulling him out of the water, it is disturbing enough as is. RIP

[Robert J. Yates]

Seems he was a bit of a big shot at Toyota.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061127/..._engineer_dead

[Paradiddle]

The man who brough the Prius to America.

The Yak is a proven unlimited aerobatics plane and while it officially carries an "experimental" tag from the FAA it's been around for a long time in that game - with the Extra series it's considered one of the best designs around.

Jeff