Flight Design CTLS-Emergency Landing

N30LK,the same plane I flew was damaged on 12/10/10,probably going to be written off by the insurance company.The pilot was forced to make an emergency landing after experiencing engine trouble.A forced landing in a farmers field resulted in the plane hitting an unseen creek and causing the plane to flip.The pilot and his passenger recieved only minor injuries.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Flight
• Design
• Ctls
• Emergency
• Landing

[elghian]

The 172S I flew to get my PPL was destroyed a month later, killing all 4(yes, four!) people at Gisborne, Victoria. Too heavy, too hot (35 celsius), too low, too young and inexperienced...

[dronald777]

@elghian That's pretty sad.I can't understand why a pilot would seriously overload an airplane and,seemingly,not think that anything bad is going to happen.

[wlfpckrs]

I like it better with the wheel pants.

[dronald777]

@wlfpckrs Me too,my flight school used to take them off if they got banged up by hard landings.Lately they have been keeping them on and I agree that the planes looks better with them.

[dronald777]

This is a correction to my response to jamesfromnyc.I was incorrect when I said the engine had 1,600 hrs.It was actually around 690 hrs.

[Jamesfromnyc]

How many hours on the engine?

[dronald777]

@Jamesfromnyc I don't remember exactly how many hours.I think it was over 1,600 hrs. The NTSB and a team from Rotax have determined that a two-piece welded exhaust valve broke inside the engine (possibly a bad weld).The broken valve then caused the cylinder-head to start coming loose,leading to the failure of the engine while in flight.

[jonathan144x]

or N30LK

[sortashaman]

Ouch!! Glad the two occupants were OK. Speaks well for the structural integrity of that design. Sad to lose the plane, though. My instructor (flying solo) had his freshly-overhauled HKS quit when 50 feet off the runway (bent pushrod, it turned out); he turned slightly, and landed safely on the grass RWY.  He always told me, "If the engine quits, I want the following landing to be my best one ever..."

[dronald777]

If anyone would like to read about this accident just do a google search on Willard plane crash.