(Jeff's post arrived just prior to sending this out)

This not specifically Lancair related but affects us all.

I don't know if this particular accident has received much national publicity, but it remains a headline news item here locally.  On Sunday a Glasair II was doing low level aerobatics over a Sacramento suburb.  The plane apparently stalled in a vertical maneuver (reports vary) and then went straight down into a 2 story house.  It killed two onboard and one person in the house.  The EAA, both national and local, is doing damage control.  The pilot lived a few doors down the street.  The neighborhood reaction is turning from shock and horror to anger and outrage.  You know what happens next via the politicians.... 

(The original builder of this plane happens to be my CFII.  He sold the plane about 9 years ago.)

 

The above incident has an eery resemblance to another crash.

A few years ago I met the pilot of an award winning Glasair camped next to us at the Arlington Fly-In.  A few months later he killed himself in what sounds like a carbon copy accident.  Low level aerobatics, stalled, crashed.  At least this one was over an airport.

 

Lancairs aren't immune from this type of activity and result.  I recall the Lancair that ended up in a neighbors yard after buzzing his own house near Placerville.  

 

So what is it that drives some pilots to do truly stupid things in their planes?  I know we can debate what is safe and what isn't, but  I hope no one on the list would argue that low level aerobatics over a residential neighborhood is ever safe.  It certainly isn't generating good PR in this area.

 

Chris Zavatson

N91CZ

360 std.