Posted on 11/01/2018 9:25:11 AM PDT by Morgana
John Denver - Leaving On A Jet Plane
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
How did the FAA allow such an unergonomic placement for the fuel tank swithes?
I’ll take “Ironic Song Titles” for $100, Alex.
John did NOT FORGET to switch to the reserve fuel tank.
He was trying out a home built (kit) plane that had been built by a taller/larger man.
John had moved the seat closer to the instrument panel when he got in.
When he tried to reach the switch for the reserve fuel tank, it was too far back & he couldn’t reach it.
It was a tragic accident & I still miss him & his music.
It wasn’t the forgetting that killed him. He took off at the controls of an a/c that routinely required switching between fuel tanks, knowing that the fuel selector switch both was in a non-standard location (and essentially inaccessible when strapped into the pilot’s seat) and so stiff to turn that his A&P had trouble turning it with a vice grip, but without resolving how he would execute the switching when he knew it eventually would become necessary.
The switch was behind the pilot’s left shoulder, and the most likely scenario is that he turned his torso to his left (either to get a better view of or a better grip on the fuel selector switch) and in the doing he stamped on the right rudder pedal. Which put the a/c in an unusual attitude that he failed to recover from.
He crashed with adequate fuel on board to have continued the flight if he had correctly executed the tank switching procedure. Even if he had genuinely been out of fuel, he still might have executed a survivable water landing. What killed him was a series of cascading pilot errors which probably culminated with him losing control of the a/c while struggling (and failing) to switch fuel tanks.
Poor design, experimental plane.
The plane went into a spiral dive.
Yeah, that seemed weird. It was behind him, IIRC.
Thanks for the correction.
LOL!....................
Saw him three times. Did a good show.
Brilliant design, amateur construction that diverted from the designer's plan, and an unfamiliar pilot.
And "experimental" does not mean what you think it means.
Unless he sold his rights, John Denver would have owned the song up until his death. PP&M just sang it. Unless it was a collaboration between the writer and the artist.
The one time I sang a John Denver song in Karaoke, I sang Rocky Mountain High. The next day I heard he had died.
I was on the East Coast, and He on the West. So, it happened about the same time.
I don’t sing Karaoke any more. :(
In principle there was nothing wrong with putting the fuel selector switch in the alternate location. It was 'legal' in the FAA sense, and in the alternate location it still could perform the same function as it did when installed in the console. Normal operation but in an alternate location. So far, so good, right?
But the location that the builder of this particular Long-EZ selected would have been difficult to reach while strapped into the pilot's seat under any circumstances. And there was a problem with that particular switch that made it difficult to turn (unclear if the switch itself was faulty or an installation problem).
Denver's airframe and powerplant mechanic (A&P) told crash investigators that he and Denver had discussed these particular problems at some length but he elected to fly it anyway. And when he exhausted the fuel in the selected tank, he lost control of the a/c while trying to manipulate the selector switch to restore fuel to the engine.
I take it you’re unfamiliar with the word “metaphor?”
His greatest hits album is jam packed with great songs.
Awesome power!
Just one of the current generation of high-bypass turbofans (GE9x, R-R Trent XWB) is near 100,000 hp, 50% more than all four Hustler engines combined.
Why would his death have ended the copyright? He estate surely would still own it for up to 70 years after his death.
Evidently you have the IQ of a potato.
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