Perry Mick wrote:

In case you don't know it, the Powersport report of the Velocity
incident is up. The most bizarre thing about it is the test pilot was
flying at 500 AGL.  Maybe John Denver was the test pilot.  I read a
message on Canard Aviators (I think) where someone said John Denver
should have traded airspeed for altitude, zoom up to 1500'.  That would
buy more time to pick a good place to land.

Perry

500 feet was as high as he could get without overheating the oil.

What they did not say on the web site is they were running the EGT
at 1700 F. Also apparently there was no cooling air passing between
the fabric wrapped heat shield and the exhaust pipes. That is like
putting the exhaust pipes in a high temp 1700F oven.

Paul Lamar

The only time I've ever flown level at 500 AGL was on my first flight,
stayed in the pattern of course. That was also because of high oil
temperature.  If 500 AGL was as high as he could go he should have
stayed in the pattern.

Perry

I agree.

Paul Lamar
 
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