Biplane Accident on I-80 in Wyoming

[CDS]

This appears to be the biplane featured in the current issue of Sport Aviation:

http://kutv.com/news/local/pilot-walks-away-after-crashing-plane-on-i-80-near-evanston-wyoming

Fortunately, the pilot was not injured.

[Tralika]

I just finished reading the article. What a shame.

[CDS]

I just finished reading the article. What a shame.

Yes, it's a shame, but the plane can be rebuilt. As least, I hope that it will be. More important is that pilot wasn't injured.

[Louis]

Very glad he wasn't hurt but that must be horribly discouraging. He put many years into creating a work of art. Hopefully, it's like you say and he will stay true to the name of the plane "Unfinished Business" and get it flying again. I get a strong impression from the article that the man is not a quitter.

[Bill Greenwood]

When I try to look at that news report, the computer says this is a forbidden site. Could someone give a quick summary, pilot name, type plane, where based? thanks

[robert l]

Why do they always say it was a "Crash" ? He was making an emergency landing and there was an obstacle in the flight path ! Just like Harrison Ford, "crashed on the golf course". No he didn't, he made an emergency landing and walked away just like this guy ! Perhaps a bit more slowly !
Bob

[Floatsflyer]

Why do they always say it was a "Crash" ?

Ever since Thomas Selfridge became the first person ever killed in an airplane accident, the media has called any airplane accident a "crash". For 110 years it's stuck. I suspect this will continue.

[martymayes]

When I try to look at that news report, the computer says this is a forbidden site. Could someone give a quick summary, pilot name, type plane, where based? thanks

It is the red biplane featured in the June 2018 issue of Sport Aviation, pg 64.

[CDS]

When I try to look at that news report, the computer says this is a forbidden site. Could someone give a quick summary, pilot name, type plane, where based? thanks

Bill - it's probably your security settings as I'm having no problems accessing that article.

I just did an internet search for "I-80 plane crash" and came up with several hits; here's another:

https://uintacountyherald.com/article/man-uninjured-from-plane-crash-along-i-80

Try a search if this link (also) doesn't work for you.

[Bill Greenwood]

Thanks Marty and CDS. Part of the problem is that I am not a computer guy, I don't know a gigabyte from a biplane. I can, however, fly old airplanes acceptably for 25 years since they have real gauges not tv screens. I dont knowingly have any security setting, much less the wrong one.
I first tried to read the news clip above and got some message the it was not a secure site, yesterday. Today, however . it does read that ok. As the mystery superhero, old radio series, THE SHADOW, used to say, "Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of man? The shadow knows." I say who knows wher evil lurks in the bowels of computers and iphones and ipads. I recently enjoyed watching a lady with a Masters ask a 14 year old boy to fix her cell phone which he did quickly.

[Vision401]

It's a crash. The plane's wings are totaled. He "crashed" into a truck hauling pigs. If it wasn't a crash there would be no damage.

[dclaxon]

It's a crash. The plane's wings are totaled. He "crashed" into a truck hauling pigs. If it wasn't a crash there would be no damage.

But I can see Bob's point. even the one the other day where the girl made an emergency landing on the highway, she didn'e hit any cars, didn't hit any signposts, didn't put a scratch on the airplane, or herself, (or any cars or anything else,) but that one was also being called a crash.

Dave

[Floatsflyer]

...even the one the other day where the girl made an emergency landing on the highway, she didn'e hit any cars, didn't hit any signposts, didn't put a scratch on the airplane, or herself, (or any cars or anything else,) but that one was also being called a crash.

Dave

Yup, see #7

[rwanttaja]

Looking at the etymology of "crash" is interesting. I had thought the word was onomatopoedic; an attempt to invent a word that sounds like the event itself. But there's apparently some history going back well before the industrial age.

Ron Wanttaja

[Floatsflyer]

... the word was onomatopoedic...
Ron Wanttaja

Now that's a 10 cent word!

[Low Pass]

Ever since Thomas Selfridge became the first person ever killed in an airplane accident, the media has called any airplane accident a "crash". For 110 years it's stuck. I suspect this will continue.And the word sells papers. It invokes images of carnage, fire, and death. And that's what the average person who might buy a newspaper (or click on an internet article) subconsciously wants to see and read about. Newspapers have been overly dramatic since someone figured out they could make money selling the printed news.

[conodeuce]

Looking at the photos of this aircraft in the Sport Aviation article, I don't see a fuel gauge in the instrument panel (or I am just missing it). Perhaps it's what appears to be a mechanical indicator in this pic (copyright Sport Aviation)?:

http://zoemertech.com//fuel_indicator_maybe.png

[Frank Giger]

An aside here from the wreck, as we don't know enough info, but I do have a question about landing on interstates and roads: why?

We've all seen videos where folks perform emergency landings on Interstates where there is traffic, and I just don't get it, particularly when there is a grass median between them or fields to the sides of it.

In this case the pilot clipped a truck during his landing, which did not help matters and could have been much worse, and wound up on grass next to the interstate. Maybe, just maybe, go for the grass in the first place?

[Bill Berson]

A low wing or biplane would drag in the median grass or roadside. Usually the median is a low ditch.
Side fields might work. Depends on the tire size, etc. I would shoot for an off ramp, if possible.

[conodeuce]

...We've all seen videos where folks perform emergency landings on Interstates where there is traffic, and I just don't get it, particularly when there is a grass median between them or fields to the sides of it. ... Frank, I have to wonder what I would do in the actual event. A steady diet of takeoff and landings on hard-surfaced runways over most of my twenty-five years of flying probably subconsciously biases me in favor of going for the interstate -- if it were not crowded with traffic. Unlike bush pilots and the pilots in the first part of the 20th century, I suspect that most of us are squeamish about landing on natural terrain.

[Frank Giger]

That's probably the most honest answer I could expect - functional fixedness driving one towards a long paved surface.

Bill, I guess because I've already flipped my little biplane it doesn't scare me in the least to put it down on a field - where it will end up on it's back. Better than meeting a semi truck going seventy, though.

[jethro99]

Why do they always say it was a "Crash" ? He was making an emergency landing and there was an obstacle in the flight path ! Just like Harrison Ford, "crashed on the golf course". No he didn't, he made an emergency landing and walked away just like this guy ! Perhaps a bit more slowly !
Bob
So if I depart the highway and drive into some trees I can say that I was just making a destination deviation and not consider it as being a crash?

[Bill Berson]

I think a fast glide to the median then slowly merge to the traffic lane and touchdown at highway speed.
My low wing is not good upside down. The canopy won't open.

[Frank Giger]

Haha! Not an option for me - highway speed is faster than my cruise. Heck, I stall at the same speed limit for exits.
;0

[robert l]

So if I depart the highway and drive into some trees I can say that I was just making a destination deviation and not consider it as being a crash?



The driver, (or pilot) is the one that is ultimately responsible, call it what you want ! If you survive that is ! If you don't survive, someone else will make the call !
Bob

[robert l]

It's a crash. The plane's wings are totaled. He "crashed" into a truck hauling pigs. If it wasn't a crash there would be no damage.
Well, let's see, I backed my truck into a tree in my friends yard and there was damage, down the side of my truck. But, I did not wreck, or "Crash" my vehicle, there was damage that needed repair but no loss of control, no prevailing circumstance, other than me being blind in one eye, but in no way did I crash. I guess it's all in how you look at it, and being blind in one eye, I kinda look at it with my head cocked to one side.
Bob

[Bill Greenwood]

Robert, if you had a "crash " in your truck, you could refer to it as a "controlled contact". It reminds me of an old WC Fields movie, for those who dont know he was a very funny comedian from the silent film days. In films like real life he liked to drink.
It starts when he gets in his classic luxury open touring car, perhaps a Rolls even, you can tell he's had a few and he has a few more as he drives out of town to go picnic in the county with his girl.
He sees a fine estate property, elegant mansion, curving driveway, and large grounds with fine statues in the yard. Fields ignores the "Private" sign and speeds through the gate and out across the grass and smashes one of the fine statues to pieces without even slowing down.
He exclaims to the girl, " Damn fool ran right out in front of me.:
Most likely that neighbors tree ran right into your path.

[Joda]

That's probably the most honest answer I could expect - functional fixedness driving one towards a long paved surface.

This is a real thing! When I used to fly in central Wisconsin, I'd give flight reviews out over the huge farm fields. Flat ground in all directions just about as far as you could see. I'd be flying with a pilot and give him or her a simulated engine failure. The pilot would invariably line up on some little ditch bank or narrow road, while ignoring the thousands of acres of flat fields on all sides of the airplane! Those fields didn't resemble a runway. The ditch bank or road did. Happened time after time.

Not me! I will only pick a road as a last resort. Too many wires, sign posts, mail boxes, traffic, etc. A big, flat field is much more inviting, and much safer in most cases. Now, of course this is from a guy who does most of his flying in the upper midwest. LOTS of flat ground around here. In other parts of the country maybe not so much. Your mileage may vary and all that!!

[robert l]

Robert, if you had a "crash " in your truck, you could refer to it as a "controlled contact". It reminds me of an old WC Fields movie, for those who dont know he was a very funny comedian from the silent film days. In films like real life he liked to drink.
It starts when he gets in his classic luxury open touring car, perhaps a Rolls even, you can tell he's had a few and he has a few more as he drives out of town to go picnic in the county with his girl.
He sees a fine estate property, elegant mansion, curving driveway, and large grounds with fine statues in the yard. Fields ignores the "Private" sign and speeds through the gate and out across the grass and smashes one of the fine statues to pieces without even slowing down.
He exclaims to the girl, " Damn fool ran right out in front of me.:
Most likely that neighbors tree ran right into your path.
Bill, I love the old B&W movies, W.C. Fields, May West, all that stuff. Little Rascals and the Stooges too ! But that tree, well, it's just in a bad place, but as conservative as I am, I wouldn't cut it either ! It was my fault, because of my bad eye of course, but it still wasn't a crash ! LOL