Student Pilot Ejected from Plane

[Ben]

Holy crap, what a way to go. Not wearing his seatbelt according to the article.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/03/30/tennessee-police-search-for-man-who-fell-from-plane/?test=latestnews

[Tallpine]

Authorities in southeastern Tennessee are searching for a man who was thrown from an experimental aircraft while he was learning to fly from an instructor.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/03/30/tennessee-police-search-for-man-who-fell-from-plane/?test=latestnews#ixzz2P2jntqAS

The English language is crying out in pain 

Either he was being instructed in the wrong way to "fly", or perhaps he jumped from the plane to fly from the instructor 

[Harold Tuttle]

Collegedale Municipal Airport employee Lowell Sterchi told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that the man was being trained by an instructor in his Zodiac 601 aircraft on Friday when the canopy came off. The instructor also was not identified.
The man's seat belt was not fastened and he was thrown out of the plane over the East Brainerd and Apison areas of the county.


Im thinking, no seat belt, inverted flight, fall out of seat at canopy, canopy pops open, student pilot augers in.

[Ben]

Im thinking, no seat belt, inverted flight, fall out of seat at canopy, canopy pops open, student pilot augers in.

Likely.

[Boomhauer]

I ALWAYS strap in and keep the harness snug during all phases of flight. Not just for this possibility, but for stuff like turbulence could knock you into the ceiling or canopy, plus its one less thing to fumble around with in an emergency

[230RN]

Jeeze, how long a fall did he have?  "What a way to go" is right. 

[Fly320s]

Jeeze, how long a fall did he have?  "What a way to go" is right. 

About 15 seconds.

[Poper]

Sterchi said the instructor landed the plane and was not physically hurt. He said the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have been notified.

I wonder if the Instructor Pilot will have his certification suspended for not teaching his student proper pre-flight and safety procedures?
I wouldn't want to take my flight lessons from such a negligent Instructor certificated pilot.
Years ago I did take flight lessons.  As I recall, my instructor NEVER allowed any infraction of pre-flight checklist procedure or cockpit checklist procedure for anything.  Not using a checklist was grounds for an extended lecture on safety as the #1 concern of any pilot. 

http://www.whittsflying.com/web/page3.115Preflight_and_Checklists.htm
Before Takeoff
Lights - strobes, navs, landing
Camera - transponder (so ATC can "see" you)
Action - any other actions to be performed like boost pump on, control
checks, flaps and trim set, etc.

BLITTS
B - boost pump on
L - lights as required
I - instruments set
T - transponder on
T - takeoff time noted
S - seat, belts, doors secured

I'll guess the Instructor pilot isn't feeling too well today, though.

Poper

[tokugawa]

I ALWAYS strap in and keep the harness snug during all phases of flight. Not just for this possibility, but for stuff like turbulence could knock you into the ceiling or canopy, plus its one less thing to fumble around with in an emergency

 Yep- only takes one example of everything in the cockpit bouncing off the overhead- amazing how much loose stuff there is!

[RoadKingLarry]

You can be certain it's a mistake that student won't make again.

[Fly320s]

The plane was a home-build. I wonder if the seatbelts or anchor points were installed improperly.

[Jamisjockey]

The plane was a home-build. I wonder if the seatbelts or anchor points were installed improperly.

Nothing would surprise me with experimental/home built class aircraft.  The "instructor" was probably one of those sport pilot guys, too.   

[Unisaw]

That must have been a lonely landing...

[Tallpine]

That must have been a lonely landing...

Surprise!  Your first solo 

[Fly320s]

Nothing would surprise me with experimental/home built class aircraft.  The "instructor" was probably one of those sport pilot guys, too.   

Nope. Gotta have a Commercial certificate for that.

[vaskidmark]

The man's seat belt was not fastened and he was thrown out of the plane

So, either the plane was involved in some maneuver that created sufficient centrifugal force to cause the student to separate from the aircraft, or the instructor has upper body strength sufficient to, while in a seated position, heave said student upwards/outwards sufficiently to clear the airframe.

Using my Warriner's English Grammer* text (Vol IX, 1953 edition) diagraming the sentence indicates the second option is precisely what thye newspaper article conveys.

stay safe.

* The generations that came after McGuffy but before "transformational" grammer learned spelling, punctuation, tense, and sentence structure (including those horrid horizontal tree diagrams of how the parts of speech connected) from this series.  In later years it came in color-coded bindings denoting various levels of complexity.  "Grammer for Dummies" was noted by seeing that certain kids were still using the lower level color while the rest of the class had been issued to higher level color.  Drop more than one color behind and you got sent back a grade for a do-over.  Not catch up to the current color by the end of the term and you got left behind for a do-over.  Being flunked in the middle of the year was worse than flunking at the end of the year.

[Hawkmoon]

So, either the plane was involved in some maneuver that created sufficient centrifugal force to cause the student to separate from the aircraft, or the instructor has upper body strength sufficient to, while in a seated position, heave said student upwards/outwards sufficiently to clear the airframe.

Using my Warriner's English Grammer* text (Vol IX, 1953 edition) diagraming the sentence indicates the second option is precisely what thye newspaper article conveys.

No, it does not say precisely that. It does clearly state that the student was forcibly ejected/launched ("thrown") from the aircraft, but the article does not state that the instructor pilot was the agent of such forcible ejection. Based on the article, it would have to be by "person or persons unknown." (Of course, the fact that it's a two-seat aircraft offers some strong hints, but that's going beyond the structure of the sentence in question.)

[230RN]

Apart from the grammar stuff...

The plane was a home-build. I wonder if the seatbelts or anchor points were installed improperly.

That's what happened with the John Denver crash.  The previous owner had moved the fuel selector switch to behind the left shoulder of the pilot.  When Denver went to switch fuel tanks, he had to lean left and backwards, and pushed the right pedal for support.  He was too low to recover from the incorrect maneuver.

Now I have a question.

If:

Authorities in southeastern Tennessee are searching for a man who was thrown from an experimental aircraft while he was learning to fly from an instructor.

Nothing would surprise me with experimental/home built class aircraft.  The "instructor" was probably one of those sport pilot guys, too.   Face Palm!

Nope. Gotta have a Commercial certificate for that.

I think I understand that no license is needed for flying an experimental (or home-built) aircraft, if that's what the Zodiac 601 is.

So if no license is required, why would a certified instructor be needed?

Pardon my ignorance in advance, but I am curious about that.

Terry, 230RN

REF:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Denver#Death

[stevelyn]

That must have been a lonely landing...

Which one?

[Fly320s]

230,

A license is required to fly that aircraft. Only ultralights are license-free flying. I don't think that plane is an ultralight.  Even if it is, the student may have wanted training in it.

The Sport Pilot License allows the pilot to fly aircraft with 2 or fewer seats, up to certain weight and performance restrictions. I forget what those are.

To earn any license, a certified instructor is required. The instructor must have a Commercial certificate since he is "working commercially."

[Tallpine]

230,

A license is required to fly that aircraft. Only ultralights are license-free flying. I don't think that plane is an ultralight.  Even if it is, the student may have wanted training in it.

The Sport Pilot License allows the pilot to fly aircraft with 2 or fewer seats, up to certain weight and performance restrictions. I forget what those are.

To earn any license, a certified instructor is required. The instructor must have a Commercial certificate since he is "working commercially."

IIRC, a J-3 qualifies but a Super Cub does not (HP limit) 

A few years back I was looking into it for the purpose of scouting for wildfires in the local area.  But my land is too rough for a strip except for possibly a super experienced hotshot with some sort of extreme STOL.  I figured that I would just end up Denvering myself 

I found a single seat Kitfox for sale somewhere in MT for $7K so it would have been do-able money wi$e.

[230RN]

"would just end up Denvering myself "

Ouch. 

"VTOL"....

I just came across jump-up gyrocopters.. Apparently power is applied to both the rotor through a clutch  and of course the propellor, with the pitch on the rotor set to no-lift until it spins up to lifting speed, then the collective pitch is suddenly set on full and the gyrocopter shoots straight up. From then on, the propeller provides enough speed to autorotate the rotor so you disengage it  and off you go.   Vertical landing is also accomplished by autorotation.

I can't get videos on this computer, but there are a couple of them out there showing this trick.  One of the first gyro developers (not Sikorski--- Santos-Dumont, maybe?) used this technique.

Apparently, these gyros are pretty cheap and could probably take off and land on your parcel without scaring the horses and having a runway subtract from your grazing animal units. :)

Terry, firmly grounded, but still periphally interested in aero stuff.

[Tallpine]

I think from now on I'm going to restrict my flying to horseback to ground 

[Fly320s]

I just came across jump-up gyrocopters.. Apparently power is applied to both the rotor through a clutch  and of course the propellor, with the pitch on the rotor set to no-lift until it spins up to lifting speed, then the collective pitch is suddenly set on full and the gyrocopter shoots straight up. From then on, the propeller provides enough speed to autorotate the rotor so you disengage it  and off you go.   Vertical landing is also accomplished by autorotation.

Auto gyro with a pre-rotator.

I think a license is required.

[Tallpine]

Auto gyro with a pre-rotator.

I think a license is required.

Plus being insane