Pilot bails out of new Cessna 162 in flat spin.

[propslop 0]

SkyCatcher prototype crashes
By Alton K. Marsh

One of the first Cessna 162 SkyCatcher light sport aircraft prototypes crashed Sept. 18 during a test flight 30 miles southeast of the Cessna Aircraft Company factory in Wichita, Kan.

The aircraft crashed near a wooded area, but the pilot landed safely by parachute about 400 yards from where the SkyCatcher crashed, according to a news report by a KAKE television news team. The pilot reportedly received only minor injuries.

Witnesses told the news team that they heard a pop and saw sparks before the airplane crashed. The SkyCatcher is the company’s eagerly awaited entry into the LSA market, with nearly 1,000 on order. The aircraft, one of several built for testing, had 100 flights totaling 150 hours, according to comments made by a Cessna spokesman during a KAKE news interview. The aircraft is to be built in Shenyang, China, by Shenyang Aircraft Corp.

A spokesman from the National Transportation Safety Board said it was an Experimental category flight test to conduct a stall series at 10,000 feet. The SkyCatcher entered an unintentional flat spin and continued to 5,000 feet, where the test pilot bailed out.

While it is unusual for the NTSB to investigate Experimental test flight accidents, the spokesman said his agency is gathering information from the FAA and Cessna. “This is the light sport aircraft category, and it is something we want to understand,” the spokesman said. The NTSB began paying special attention to light sport accidents in October 2007 that will conclude in January 2009, the spokesman said.

[lilDevil 2]

How did he get into a flat spin in the first place ??

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" Cant keep a good woman down "
Angels have wings, but devils can fly !

[akjmpplt 0]

Quote

How did he get into a flat spin in the first place ??

He was doing a series of stalls....one of them bit him.

SmugMug

[pwln 0]

Also being talked about here...

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3337912;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread

[yjumpinoz 0]

I personally know the pilot, and he is a very experienced test pilot. A lot of experimental/certification stall flights are done in very extreme CG loadings.

[AggieDave 6]

Well you figure that he's paid a lot of money to NOT jump out of the plane, so if he did with the only C162 ever made, then things were pretty serious!

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[lilDevil 2]

Quote

I personally know the pilot, and he is a very experienced test pilot. A lot of experimental/certification stall flights are done in very extreme CG loadings.

My SOs new boss has just baught a couple of C162s and as he will soon be flying them he just wondered what caused it.

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" Cant keep a good woman down "
Angels have wings, but devils can fly !

[CSpenceFLY 1]

I think it will take more then 2 days for them to figure that out. Since it was a test flight you may never know.

[JohnMitchell 14]

Was he intentionally doing stall/spin testing? If so, do you think the plane had a spin chute? Too bad the plane crashed, but that is a sometimes part of flight testing. I'm glad the pilot got out okay.

The prototype SR-22 took the life of its test pilot during testing. Ironically, the production models have parachutes, but the test plane didn't.

[SuFantasma 0]

I wonder if the FAA will add this one to the list of skydiving airplanes invenstigations

Y yo, pa' vivir con miedo, prefiero morir sonriendo, con el recuerdo vivo".
- Ruben Blades, "Adan Garcia"

[skydiver30960 0]

Quote

The aircraft is to be built in Shenyang, China, by Shenyang Aircraft Corp.

Elvisio "is nothing sacred" Rodriguez

[AggieDave 6]

An 8-year old operating a press to bend the sheet metal is a hell of a lot cheaper than the 45-year old that is in a union and requires $30 an hour to operate a press.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."