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S0... why DID Lowell Fitt crash????

12 posts in this topic

Posted

Will we ever find out the cause of the mystery oil temp and pressure loss? According to the FAA  http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20070911X01376&key=1 "Witnesses reported hearing a "pop" as the airplane was heading in a westerly direction toward O61, and subsequently observed it making a forced landing before responding to the accident site."

Oh..I forgot...temperature inversion.

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Posted

hmmm. Dont know if he really knows... I was a while after I stuffed mine in that I actually remembered the last 20 seconds or so before I hit..the body has a way of blocking shit out...

On the other hand... temerature inversion ???  :lol:  me thinks thats a pretty damn far reach... and I have a pretty darn good imagination and drink alot too

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Posted

".....the body has a way of blocking shit out..."

I agree totally.

  But the engine itself does not suffer from such. I would find it difficult to believe that  a post-accident inspection of the same would not give some indication of malfunction.

  And I would find it even harder to believe that the operator of that engine would not inquire into what that malfunction was.

Of course sharing this information is his choice.

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Posted

you got me there..

I would tear it apart... perhaps hind site is 20/20 and someone really does not want to know if they fubar'd a perfectly good aircraft.....

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Posted

What are the bets he did an arival stall???  He wouldn't be the first or the last.

Noel

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Posted

welcome to the dark side...I am not sure I would bet on a stall... in looking at the pics, you can see the terain is pretty rough, and the area is tight.  I would lay more on him coming in hot, the small tire digging in and all hell breaking loose after that..

The real question is, was there really an oil problem?  So he was or did loose pressure.. did the temps come up? were there any signs other than low oil pressure to tell him that he needed to make an off airport landing.. in a field, with a road running next to it?  I would have taken my chances with a fence on the side of the road before I did the rough field..

Had to edit this one...  I can say that right now, looking at it from a nice warm office that this is what I would have done,however, having been in an emergency situation where I had but 2 seconds to think and no time to react and with no options on how hard I was gonna hit, I can say that I am 100% sure that he did what he thought he had to do at that time.... now looking back and reflecting I am sure he has asked himself 10,000 times if he did what he should have..

There is a reason they say hind sight is 20/20.

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Posted

Noel, post up the full size pic of your avatar!.. that is looking real nice.  hell post up any pics you want.. nobodys gonna get mad about that over here!

Leni

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Posted

I've been to Lowells fly in twice as a visitor in a Cessna. I remember the night I was watching the local news and saw a plane crash. When they showed the picture I immediately recognized his paint scheme. I had not heard anything on this since. Is going to rebuild? Where they okay after the crash?? I only live about 40NM from O61.

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Posted

Lowell got banged up pretty good, and I think his wife has some broken bones too.  The plane was a total loss but he is now building another KF IV.  He was not posting for awhile during his recovery, but now he is back pretty darn active again!

:beerchug:  <fer his recovery and getting back on the horse

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Posted

I first flew in a Kitfox with a guy named Mark Ferkin when I lived in Spokane WA back in 2003. It appears him and Lowell may have went into business together. Mark had a stint with Skystar for a while.. guess it didn't work out.

http://www.highwingllc.com/aboutus.html

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Posted

Hey Steve,

Click your link again.. I think it has been updated.  They pulled the oil tank apart and found a piece of plastic lodged in the oil pick up...Now you know why :lol:

:beerchug:

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Posted

I actually talked for a few hours with Lowell the other day. I didn't directly bring it up but got him talking a little bit about what happened. His whole intention was to make a precautionary landing after his oil pressure dropped to zero. He said it's amazing how smooth those little patches in the trees look from 1000 ft. He basically committed to a spot that looked good but as he got close he realized it wasn't so good. It was a sloping meadow and he said the ground was dropping away at the same rate as his sink rate and the trees on the other end were rapidly approaching. He said he would rather stall it in than hit the trees so he yarded on the stick and stalled it in from about 20 feet. He said the engine was still running at impact. Pretty crazy a tiny piece of plastic cost him his airplane and almost his and his wifes life.

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