Plane Crash at Black Sands - Raglan

[Dave Homewood]

I'm very sad to read that a four seater aircraft has crashed at Raglan airfield, where the SAA Black Sands Fly-In is currently happening. The report on Teletext says there are no reports of injuries and police are currently on their way. Poor Bruce and the guys running it, it must be a nasty thing to have happen. I hope the report is correct and no-one has been harmed.

[Peter Lewis]

ATEC Zephyr ZK-ZFR
Stalled a few feet too high on landing and pancaked.
Damage mainly to undercarriage.

[Darren Masters]

Nov 12, 2011 18:50:59 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

I'm very sad to read that a four seater aircraft has crashed at Raglan airfield, where the SAA Black Sands Fly-In is currently happening. The report on Teletext says there are no reports of injuries and police are currently on their way. Poor Bruce and the guys running it, it must be a nasty thing to have happen. I hope the report is correct and no-one has been harmed.

Damn Dave, same Mate of mine just got back from there Raglan-Te Kowhai and said the weather was really crappy, cloud base low etc.

[Darren Masters]

Nov 12, 2011 19:04:45 GMT 12 Peter Lewis said:

ATEC Zephyr ZK-ZFR
Stalled a few feet too high on landing and pancaked.
Damage mainly to undercarriage.

Is this the same incident because I was just told about the Zephyr on the phone?

[Peter Lewis]

Happened this morning, apparently.
We did not arrive until 1.20pm, stopped to pat a certain Ultralight Flight Mirage Mk.II in a hangar at Te Kowhai.
Weather was patchy with about a 1200' cloudbase, but plenty of flying was being done.

[Darren Masters]

Nov 12, 2011 19:46:06 GMT 12 Peter Lewis said:

Happened this morning, apparently.
We did not arrive until 1.20pm, stopped to pat a certain Ultralight Flight Mirage Mk.II in a hangar at Te Kowhai.
Weather was patchy with about a 1200' cloudbase, but plenty of flying was being done.

Thanks mate. Hope it was a good pat

[Dave Homewood]

Bloody hell, the wings fell off and all!

[Darren Masters]

Nov 12, 2011 20:21:31 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Bloody hell, the wings fell off and all!

Dave, maybe they have taken those off for transport though. Think trailer

[jonesy]

Nov 12, 2011 20:21:31 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Bloody hell, the wings fell off and all!

Not only that ,Dave, but 2 of the seats have disappeared too! What a disaster!
Serious side tho, any landing you can walk away from etc etc, does that still stand these days?

[Dave Homewood]

Note the prop looks ok.

[baz62]

Nose wheel leg is a bit munted but at first glance doesn't look too bad. Mind you you don't know what damage isn't visible but fingers crossed its an easy repair.

[Bruce]

OK Guys, here is the official info from Black Sands Operations: (i.e, Me...)

Saturday saw TWO minor damage incidents. In the Morning the Zephyr heavy landing as above. later on at 5pm a Mooney M20C had the undercarriage retract on the takeoff roll and end up on its Belly. as this blocked the runway and was a GA notifiable incident, the emergency services and CAA were called and this was the incident initially noted above. (The Zephyr incident was not considered as serious)> Neither the 2 people in the Zephyr nor the 3 in the Mooney suffered any injury. Damage to the Mooney was mainly engine and prop, After being advised by CAA it was OK to move the aircraft, it was physically lifted by the crowd of bystanders and the undercarriage - re-extended, allowing it to be moved off the runway.
The Black Sands Emergency response plan was used and worked perfectly.

[Bruce]

BTW the prop on the Zephyr is buggered, it certainly struck ground. It is composite however and bounced back to shape - it has delaminated though so will need to be replaced.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks for the clarification Bruce, and the explanation that it was indeed too incidents. I'm sorry to hear these two accidents have marred the weekend, I hope the rest of the event was all good fun. Hopefully you might share some photos of the weekend. Did you guys do a beach landing this year?

[flyjoe180]

Bruce, glad everyone was okay in those two incidents. Regarding the composite propeller on the Zephyr, does it flex and allow for angle of attack on the blades for a given TAS and therefore do away with the need for a CSU, or is it just a convenient lightweight material to use?

[Peter Lewis]

The Mooney M20C was ZK-DBK.
The accident damage looks expensive.
Seen here arriving at Raglan Saturday mid-afternoon.

[flyjoe180]

There is a video floating about on the internet of the landing gear retraction.

[Bruce]

www.youtube.com/user/pomadom#p/u/0/uvTIHPGtBXg

Interesting to note having not seen the start of the takeoff roll (I was putting the fire extinguishers away and locking up the comms van for the night...) that he started the takeoff run on the south side of where we marked the preferred (and smoothest) runway alignment - its rough as guts there but people seemed intent on operating from that patch all weekend....

[Dave Homewood]

The video and an interview with the pilot was on 3 News tonight. He blamed the bumpy strip.

[baronbeeza]

I think he may well have been correct saying that though.
Well at least the bumpiness contributed to it part...

It has Johnson bar operation and if anything hit the lever it could conceivably drop. I don't know this particular aircraft but the Mooneys I have worked on get the gear well and truly gone over.

Gear mishaps are never cheap.



www.donmaxwell.com/publications/MAPA_TEXT/Manual%20Gear%20Operation/LANDING_GEAR)OPERATION.HTM

I thought the video of the lift was brilliant. Who did the lifting ?

I have roped my neighbours into helping move aircraft a bit here recently. The engine is the really heavy part... those down there draw the short straw. The rest is comparatively light. The Mooney should have fuel in it though.