I still maintain it's better to land your Long-EZ on the interstate
than in a mountainous area or a muddy or rough field. The only
concern is traffic. At least on the interstate both lanes are going
the same direction. Trying to land on a country highway with
occassional cars going both directions would be worse. Car drivers
aren't used to looking up and may not see you. I think in the rural
remote west this will work. Although I-5 is pretty dense with
cars all along it's route.
I think the Lyc drivers, which comprise 99.9% of the EZ fleet,
should be more concerned about this than me. Bruce Tifft and
his wife are dead because of overconfidence in the Lycoming
power plant.
--
Perry Mick
Duckt N7XR
http://www.ductedfan.com
Perry,
I hate to say bad things about the dead but Bruce put that motor
together VERY wrong with totally non-aircraft, non-Lyc parts
and took off on about the second flight after overhaul with a full load
for a long cross country. The non-std, way-too-tight pistons seized
as they came up to temp, and there was no suitable landing
area in the mountainous terrain he was flying over. A tragedy, but
the culprit was NOT Lyc in this case. I know of many other
cases where Lyc or Cont ARE at fault, but not this one. A real shame
as he was a pretty nice guy and certainly didn't deserve to die, but
this is another one of the reasons that I contribute to this newsletter -
to help keep people from getting hurt while pursuing the sport of
experimental aviation. It can be done with relative safety, but it
requires diligence to avoid attempting to violate the laws of physics.
Let's all try to learn from other's mistakes. Sometimes the lessons
were *extremely* expensive.
Remember: 1) The laws of physics will be strickly enforced.
2) You can't get a waiver.
3) Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
Just keeping the record straight. BTW, I agree 100% with your
strategy, and I avoid getting beyond gliding range of a highway in
unfriendly terrain. Fortunately for us, the Long EZ has a good
glide ratio. Instant "nearest airport" is one heck of a NAV feature,
too. Been there, done that, didn't like it. ;-)
Bill Freeman
Long EZ builder & pilot
BSME, MSME
EAA Technical Counselor
Aircraft piston engines are high strung and totally unforgiving of
any kind of error when over hauling or operating. They are right out there
on the bleeding edge.
Paul Lamar
Piston jockeys are in de-nile (a river in Egypt). In the last month
I've read on the Cozy list of at least one dead stick landing in
a Velocity powered by Lycoming. Fortunately he was able to
glide to an airport. Another strange failure of a new Mattituck
engine on Jim Sower's Velocity, don't know the details of that..
I don't have all the details of Bruce's overhaul, sounds like you
have a lot of info, but I'm surprised that he would have received
the non-Lyc parts from Chevron.
Chevron supplied parts or engines to everyone affected by some
fuel contamination that occurred in early '95 I think. I agree he
shouldn't have taken off for a long cross-country (he was on
his way to Mojave) so soon after an overhaul. The point I was
trying to make was you should try to plan to have a place to land
at all times. I think he tried to land on a road near the Rogue River
in the Roseburg area, but ended up inverted in the river. I don't
know his exact route or the exact location of the crash, but I'm
speculating if he had just followed I-5 he may still be around today.
--
Perry Mick
Duckt N7XR
http://www.ductedfan.com
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