It sounds like the pilot might have stopped flying the airplane,
but instead
was trying to save it. My training was that in case of fire, you get
the airplane
on the ground immediately, as you really don't know what's burning.
I can understand
the smoke could have been incapacitating, so that might have been
the issue, but if it
was the clutch burning, it seems unlikely somehow.


 Matt-

 I agree but people that build airplanes have so much invested in them
 (more than money alone) they appear to be reluctant to crash land
straight
ahead as we were all told to do in case of engine failure on take
off. Here is a map
 of the area and there does not appear to be many clear fields other
than on
 the airport itself. In the case of rotary crashes at least two fatals
 were caused by the pilots attempting to turn back. In both cases there
 were suitable fields straight ahead. One rotary crash was caused by
engine
 seizure after the loss of all oil pressure due to a split cheap oil
cooler
and the other an interruption in the fuel supply due to a poorly
designed
 fuel plumbing system.

 IMHO there is another more subtle factor. One is naturally
reluctant to do a
180 and land downwind on a controled airport or busy airport. We had
an incident
 at SZP where a pilot  had an engine failure in a Bonanza and
successfully made
 a 180 and landed down wind. He slammed it in so hard on the 2500
foot runway it
bent the spar and broke the motor mounts totaling the airplane but
he was not hurt.
He skillfully ground looped it when it looked like he was going to
 run out of runway at thew other end. I was standing 50 feet from
the point of impact.

 I think people should practice 180's at altitude with the engine at
 idle. Just to get a feel of what the airplane will do. Note the loss
 of altitude.

 Paul Lamar


Sounds right to me..  I wonder if that airplane had a properly
configured stall horn.

Matt-

Good question Matt. I will make sure I have one in the RV4.

Paul Lamar

You have one already, sort of.  The Micro Encoder (your ASI)  has a
stall warning beeper.  It is based on airspeed and not AOA but is still
handy to have unless you are loaded outside of gross or CG.

If you end up going with the Dynon D6, you can also get the AOA pitot
tube and have free AOA. (if Mike didn't already install one..  which he
may have done, there were 2 lines coming in from the pitot as well as
static in the aft fuselage).

While we I am thinking of your panel, I also wanted to mention that the
control head for the ELT is already installed.  It is the little
rectangular add on beneath the transponder.  If there is a telephone
line plugged into that one, follow it and find your ELT.  That other
telephone cord may be for something else that Mike was planing.

Lastly, I have a spare Magellan hand held GPS that would probably fit in
that center recess.  You could borrow it indefinitely if you want.  The
data base is from pre 9/11 but it will get you from here to there.