After dropping the parachutist, the acft was observed to fly eastward over the dz, make a left 180 turn, line up on the parked van on an easterly heading and descend to a low altiude. Witnesses estimated the altitude at from 10 t0 30 ft agl. The van was parked on a ridge across the flt path. The acft made a low alt-high speed run toward the van. Just before striking the van with the ldg gear, the acft seemed to duck under a low power line in its path.
Category: 1984
The acft crashed after a loss of eng power occurred when the plt was returning from transporting sky divers to altitude for a jump. The plt reported he ran the rt fuel tank out of fuel & failed to switch tanks
The plt stated, he had departed the aero county airport, mckinney, tx, on a local flt to drop sky divers. He dropped the sky divers & was returning to the arpt when he encountered a loss of eng power & made a forced landing. He stated that he pulled on carburetor heat and was making his first power change when the eng stopped without warning.
A parachte became entangled in the horizontal stabilizer while the acft was maneuvering to drop the parachutists. The acft made a hard landing after the parachustist disengaged from the acft. The acft stabilizer spar was damaged in the encounter and the lack of elevator effectiveness affected the ability of the plt to properly flare the acft. The nose gear failed during the landing attempt. The cowling, prop and the fuselage was also damaged.
After discharging sky divers, plt was concentrating on max rate of descent, eng pwr at idle, when fuel tank in use ran day. Pwr loss not noted until throttle applied for level off. Switch to usable fuel tank and restart attempt initiated with insufficient remaining altitude for successful result. Forced landing executed on freeway off ramp.
The plt had returned from dropping skydivers & was landing on rwy 29 at sunset. He reported that during the flare to land, he was temporarily blinded by the sun. The acft landed hard & bounced back into the air. It then settled, veered off the rwy, hit piles of manure & nosed over.
The plt stated that during the initial application of power, the left eng backfired due to a possible too sudden application of power. He said that due to ‘inattention’ he let the acft ‘drift to the left side of the runway.’ just after the acft became airborne it ‘immediately started a roll to the left,’ and despite ‘full right aileron and rudder,’the left wing scraped the ground. He rejected the takeoff and the acft groundlooped. The purpose of the flt was to transport parachutists.