son of a ......

[Plthijnx]

crap guys. this isn't a good one but it needs to be addressed for the newbies. THIS is a plane that i have probably a 100 hrs in. PEOPLE! PLEASE pay attention to the windsock! this kid is a good and bright kid that was practicing for his checkride of all things and was in no doubt nervous b/c it was in an hour or so from his ride. he f'ed up. period. he tried to take off with at least a 15 knot tailwind and well, he screwed the pooch. chaulk up another one to pilot error. i know the guy and know that he's been taught about wind. cripes. i'll post more later when i can. oh and yeah, he's ok. got a lifelight ride for it but nothing more than a dent head and pride.

[Sleek-Jet]

Glad he's OK.... remember, fly into the skinny end of the windsock...

On a lighter note...

Funny looking Piper 235 (??) though... must be a rare model.... Gawd I love the media. 

[fireflyr]

OUCH!!!  but we are all prone to errors and this is a wake up for all of us to not get in a hurry.
First T tail, two place, 100 HP 235 Cherokee I've seen though,   media scores another and batting one thousand!

[Plthijnx]

i updated the link above....

[Gulfstream Driver]

I was wondering where they mentioned a 235...

[Plthijnx]

oh, that was in the first story that i linked to. they said "A piper 235 aircraft crashed on approach....." well, to paraphrase anyway.....they knee jerked their story *cough* as always, to get the story to the publick first.....

edit: tried to find the original article that i posted but they've 86'ed it. also, we have an STC on the T'hawks to make them 125hp...just an fyi......and we converted our 152's to sparrowhawks as well.

[Frank N. O.]

Wow that doesn't look good, glad he's ok though. I can't remember the wing figures and the Tommy's performance but how cricial is the wind for such a thing on take-off? The thing about the Tommy's tendency to roll at low-speed (at least at approach) vs. a C-150 did that play in the accident?

Frank

[Plthijnx]

in a light aircraft wind is very critical. as you can see in the picture the results can be disasterous. winds at the time were roughly 160 @15 or 16 and he tried to take off on runway 30 so rather than having a 15 knot quartering headwing he had a quartering tailwind. a contributing factor that i've recently found out was that he followed another aircraft from another school that was fixing to make the same mistake however he took too long and so our hero decided on a intersection takeoff. the T'hawk is a very agile plane and if not respected, will bite you in the caboose. then again, if you don't respect any aircraft, you can be at worst late for supper. for the rest of history.

[fireflyr]

Intersection takeoff---that boy's instructor should be spanked!   The runway behind you is USELESS!!!

[leiafee]

we have an STC on the T'hawks to make them 125hp

A what? 

I'd be interested in knowing more about what was going on on the r/t.  Was he instructed to use the out of wind runway and mis-hear as well as misread the windsock?  Or rely to much on the radio and not look out of the wind hard enough?

[Sleek-Jet]

we have an STC on the T'hawks to make them 125hp

A what? 

A Supplemental Type Certificate... basically an FAA (Gov't) approved modification.   

[Plthijnx]

just to clariy, la porte is an uncontrolled field and i guess to make excuses for him, he was anxious to go practice maneuvers b4 his ride and got in a hurry and just plain didn't pay attention. if it's the intersection that i'm thinking of he still had about 3000 ft of runway left......not that it makes a difference......