NTSB Identification: LAX00FA093A

                                         Accident occurred FEB-07-00 at SYLMAR, CA
                                    Aircraft: GRAY QUESTAIR VENTURE, registration:
N869DG 
                                                   Injuries: 4 Fatal. 

       This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors.
Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.

On February 7, 2000, at 0950 hours Pacific standard time, an amateur-built Gray
Questair Venture, N869DG, collided with a Bellanca 8GCBC, N86801, near Sylmar,
California.
N869DG was maneuvering to land at the Van Nuys, California, airport. N86801 was
operating as Pipeline 801 for crude oil pipeline patrol and was orbiting over a
construction site
near the point of the collision. Both aircraft were operating under 14 CFR Part 91,
and were in contact with the Van Nuys Air Traffic Control Tower. Both aircraft were
destroyed
in the collision and ground impact. The airline transport pilot and passenger in
N869DG sustained fatal injuries. The airline transport pilot and the passenger, who
held a private
pilot certificate, in N86801 both received fatal injuries. Visual meteorological
conditions prevailed for the personal flight of the Questair and no flight plan was
filed. The Questair
flight originated at La Verne, California, on the morning of the accident. The
Bellanca pipeline patrol flight originated at Bakersfield, California, on the morning
of the accident and a
company flight plan was filed. The pilot of N86801 contacted the Van Nuys control
tower at 0942, stating "Newhall Pass we'll be here for about 5 minutes." The tower
approved
the request and they assigned a transponder code, which the pilot verified.
Subsequent investigation disclosed that the airplane was orbiting in left turns at
2,000 feet mean sea
level (msl) over a construction site where earth movers were moving dirt. The
construction site's location was 6.3 miles north of the airport and in line with the
localizer (extended
centerline) to the active runway 16R. The construction site is over an underground
crude oil pipeline. At 0948, N869DG called the tower and reported it's location as
"North of
San Fernando Reservoir with Romeo" (San Fernando Reservoir is a designated reporting
point for traffic arriving to the airport and is in the approximate vicinity of the
collision
site). N869DG was advised by controllers to make a straight-in approach to runway 16R
and was given a transponder code for radar identification. The pilot verified the
code
assignment and there was no further conversation with either airplane. The high point
of terrain in the accident area was measured to be 1,400 feet msl. According to
preliminary
radar data, both airplanes were about 2,000 feet msl at the time of collision. 


This was my hangar neighbors airplane. He  had sold it a few weeks before.

I must have stuck my head down in  the cockpit to change transponder codes
hundreds of times when entering high traffic airport areas. When your attention
is down there changing transponder codes you are not looking out the windshield for
other traffic.

I don't have a solution to this problem. Perhaps put the transponder on top
of the glare shield. Maybe audio feedback in the intercomm with a push button
to toggle through all the codes. Perhaps voice recogniton built into the
transponder with a button on the stick to activate. "Set 7326"

Paul Lamar
 
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