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RV-8 Down in Oregon?

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mcattell

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Over an hour ago I had a Coast Guard helicopter circle my house and then some area to the West of my house. About a half hour later I heard the emergency vehicles. I turned on my handheld and heard a faint ELT signal. Unfortuanately a drive 2 miles West found a full strengh ELT signal and the Coast Guard circling the woods with a group of emergency vehicles. A call to the local Scappoose airport indicated a report of a missing RV-8 that was registered in Washington. Based on the wooded location the helicopter was circling it doesn't look good but we can hope for the best. There may have been a logging road up there. The news helicopter just flew over so I'm sure we'll know more later. This area is about 10 miles North of the Scapppoose airport.
 
The airport gave me the N-number of the missing plane which belongs to a fairly new RV-8 but I don't think it's approriate to broadcast it at this point.
 
Possible Good News

Here's the first news report I found.

ST. HELENS, Ore. -- A small plane suddenly disappeared from radar Monday and crashed near St. Helens.

Columbia County deputies launched a search mission for the plane when the homemade single-engine plane crashed while preparing to land at Scappoose Airport at 10 a.m.

At about 1:05 p.m., a Coast Guard helicopter helping in the search found the plane near Pittsburgh Road. One survivor was found and a LifeFlight helicopter rushed him to the hospital.

Deputies have not confirmed if he was the only person on board. They're searching the area to rule out the possibility of a second person aboard the two-seat plane at the time of the wreck.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the crash.
 
According to the current news reports the RV-8 was based out of Bainbridge Island, Washington. Let's hope the pilot pulls through as the airplane was probably down for at least a couple hours before they got him to the hospital.

If you're on the fence about whether to buy one of the newer ELT's that connects to your GPS, this is probably a good example of why you should. This accident was fairly close to a town, near some homes, but yet in a remote forested area. It clearly took the Coast Guard some time to pinpoint the location. I would think that the search effort would be much faster if the exact coordinates where know. The guys at the airport, less than 10 miles away, could not receive the ELT signal.
 
I found this RV-6 that was coming from Washington to Scapppoose Airport.

Was supposed to arrive 4 hours ago.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N61FS

I didn't see any RV-8's that had Flight Plans.

If you check the plane in this flight aware link, you'll see it's filed as an RV-6, but it's really an RV-8. And it's also based in Bainbridge Island, Wa...

May not be the same plane, but I'd bet it's at least the same flight.
 
You had the right tail number but the FAA database shows an RV-8. Perhaps flight service wrote down the wrong model. Still no word on the local news on the pilot's condition. Just that he was taken to Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland by Life Flight. From the arial views of the news helicopter he landed near a power line service road. Big power lines. That would have been a challenge but he appearantly did a great job to survive a landing in that area.
 
Hopefully he was the only person on board and he's not as bad off as would first indicate.

Keep us posted.
 
Based on the time line of when he was reported missing to when the Coast Guard found him, the poor guy sat there for 3 hours. The ELT signal was weak from my house 2 miles away and I'm up a little higher. The ground searchers must not have been able to receive signal until the chopper came to help out. That's one tough guy to survive that. I wonder if he had a good 5-point seat belt. There were houses within a quarter mile but no one must have heard it crash. A Spot would have been good to have to help pinpoint the location if it would have survived the crash. Let's all hope that he's doing well.
 
Yeah, that's a lot of blood.

The backseat looks like a 5 point harness - still attached. So no one was back there.
 
The SPOT is looking better all the time...

...a Life Flight Heli pilot spoke at our EAA meeting recently and he mentioned how critical the first hour can be. This poor guy could have bled to death in 3 hours. Seems to me that you could activate the spot seconds before impact. Not sure if that'd be a long enough transmission though.

Fly safe,
 
A spot saved the life of a fellow pilot and his son at our airport. They crashed their cub at sunset and would have bled to death over the night. The spot gave their exact coordinates with a push of the 911 button.

Got both of them out that evening and to the hospital. Could have been much worse.

I just checked the FAA's site and found this report. Looks like OVC004. I really wish I knew if some of these accidents had autopilots. I also haven't seen any temps for Oregon to see if icing could have been possible at 2000ft.

What was the temp up there yesterday? Do you think the temps could have allowed ice to form?

======================================

IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 61FS Make/Model: EXP Description: RV8
Date: 10/06/2009 Time: 1659

Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: Serious Mid Air: N Missing: N
Damage: Substantial

LOCATION
City: SCAPPOOSE State: OR Country: US

DESCRIPTION
AIRCRAFT, CLEARED FOR APPROACH, CRASHED IN A WOODED AREA, 5 MILES FROM
SCAPPOOSE, OR

INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 0
# Crew: 1 Fat: 0 Ser: 1 Min: 0 Unk:
# Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:

WEATHER: 1653Z 00000KT 9SM OVC004 A3016

OTHER DATA
Activity: Pleasure Phase: Approach Operation: OTHER


FAA FSDO: PORTLAND, OR (NM09) Entry date: 10/06/2009
 
I just checked the FAA's site and found this report. Looks like OVC004. I really wish I knew if some of these accidents had autopilots. I also haven't seen any temps for Oregon to see if icing could have been possible at 2000ft.

What was the temp up there yesterday? Do you think the temps could have allowed ice to form?

Yesterday afternoon the temp at the surface should have been 50-60 degrees. He shouldn't have had any problems with airframe ice, but if carburated, you could pick up ice at those temps.

Hope all goes well for him.

Kent
 
prop doesn't show any sign of rotational distortion on impact. Based on the photo it appears that the engine my not have been developing any power. The right blade appear's to have fractured but it's not twisted as you might see in a turning prop. Also no fire which, at first glance, would indicate no fuel source. Just speculating but possible fuel exhaustion?

I hope he recovers......

Carbon & Composite props (like the Whirlwind on that plane) don't bend or twist like metal props...they break. It's dubious at this point to speculate about anything - lots and lots of planes crash with no fire - even with fuel all over the place.

Cheers,
Stein
 
Carbon & Composite props (like the Whirlwind on that plane) don't bend or twist like metal props...they break. It's dubious at this point to speculate about anything - lots and lots of planes crash with no fire - even with fuel all over the place.

Cheers,
Stein

Very good point! We'll know soon enough.
 
Very good news.

Considering the damage to the airplane, his injuries, and the time it took to find him, he is a very lucky man. I fly over that area often and like many parts of the Northwest, you could lose an airplane 100 feet from a road and never find it.
Most of my flights are short, local (this area included), and I never file, nobody knows where I am going (myself included), and I can only wonder how long I would have been stuck out there. Nights are dipping down into the thirties now. I dont think I would have been so lucky.
I think I will use my Spot on every flight from now on. Shame on me.
 
Flew over area

I was on a trip from Amsterdam to Portland and flew right over this area at about 11:50 am. We took a very northerly route over Greenland and Canada that brought us over Seattle, we flew right over Mt St. Helen's. We monitor 121.5 en route but we never heard an ELT. We landed in Portland around 12:10 pm that day. Seems the range of the ELT should have been better than that, our altitude would have been around 12-15K. I agree with many of the advantages of the SPOT tracker, I have used mine to sent "I am here" messages from many locations overseas, kind of neat to see the Google Map with a location.

The last report posted talks about houses nearby and no one hearing the crash, could be another indicator that the motor was not turning. It is alway sad to hear about accidents like this, but we can all learn something from each accident. In the military it was important enough that a report was sent system wide with the initial facts withing 8 hours of an accident, then every month the accidents were briefed the the squadron as the final reports came out.
 
Here are a few details regarding local observations to help put some speculations to rest. My house is at about 400 feet and there was some low ground fog and low visibility the morning of the accident which was less than 2 miles away. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been cold enough to have freezing until higher elevations. Later when the Coast Guard flew over the house it was sunny and warm enough to have the patio door open. It appears he was on an IFR flight plan since he showed up on Flight Tracker. Based on the accident site location he would have been right on track for the final approach fix of 1800 feet for the Rwy 15 localizer approach. I doubt if the fog extended that high. Carb ice wouldn't be an issue since the FAA shows it as IO-360 engine. Fuel exhaustion wouldn't be an issue if tanks were topped off prior to leaving Bainbridge Island, less than an hour away. Although Scappoose is known for their low gas prices when it's time to fill up. The wings did appear to be intact and may not have leaked. Let's hope the best for Ken's recovery. The latest local report was fair condition and surgery scheduled.
 
One thing this does illustrate is that there are many areas where an off-airport landing can be very dangerous. In the west, there are many areas that look "ok" from 5000 feet AGL. From the ground it is not so good. Treed areas appear bad in that you may end up going nose down with results like we see in this incident.
 
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