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pecosrog(at)earthlink.net
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 Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:44 am Post subject: Fatality Reported in new 701 |
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MESILLA, NM -- A 54-year-old Mesilla man was killed Saturday when the light aircraft he was flying crashed near his home as his family watched.
Authorities say Robert Steinmetz was flying the aircraft he had built himself the day before when it crashed into a field just south of his house.
The family told authorities the pilot flew too low, couldn't pull up and went straight into the ground.
Steinmetz -- a physical therapist who worked in Las Cruces -- died immediately. He was an avid supporter of the volleyball program at New Mexico State University, where his daughter Alex, a college freshman, plays as an outside hitter.
There is a news video on the El Paso TX. ABC-TV website. [quote][b]
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kmccune
Joined: 22 Sep 2007
Posts: 577
Location: Wisconsin, USA
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| Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:39 am Post subject: Re: Fatality Reported in new 701 |
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My condolences to the family.
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“Always do what you are afraid to do.”
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"Real freedom is the sustained act of being an individual." WW - 2009
"Life is a good deal...it's worth it" Feb 1969
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n801bh(at)netzero.com
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| Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:58 am Post subject: Fatality Reported in new 701 |
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So sad... be careful out there. These things can and will kill you.
do not archive
Ben Haas
N801BH
www.haaspowerair.com
-- "Roger Nyholm" <pecosrog(at)earthlink.net> wrote:
MESILLA, NM -- A 54-year-old Mesilla man was killed Saturday when the light aircraft he was flying crashed near his home as his family watched.
Authorities say Robert Steinmetz was flying the aircraft he had built himself the day before when it crashed into a field just south of his house.
The family told authorities the pilot flew too low, couldn't pull up and went straight into the ground.
Steinmetz -- a physical therapist who worked in Las Cruces -- died immediately. He was an avid supporter of the volleyball program at New Mexico State University, where his daughter Alex, a college freshman, plays as an outside hitter.
There is a news video on the El Paso TX. ABC-TV website. | Quote: |
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[quote][b]
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Afterfxllc(at)aol.com
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Afterfxllc(at)aol.com
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rhansen16
Joined: 31 Jul 2007
Posts: 9
Location: New Mexico
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| Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:38 am Post subject: Fatality Reported in new 701 |
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Really sad to learn of a fellow 701 builder being taken from us. I live 40 miles from Las Cruces, wish I would have gotten to know Robert.
R. Hansen
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Rob Hansen
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ggower_99(at)yahoo.com
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| Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 10:57 am Post subject: Fatality Reported in new 701 |
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The sad thing was that we (any of us, builder and fellow pilot) were not there during the building and testing process to give him advice...
Programs like the EAA Chapter's Builder and Flight Advisors were designed with that idea in mind.
Here in our area we have a similar program that we started years ago, as a Safety Advise for Sport type of Aviation, where I am a Builder Adviser.
Every time we hear that somebody is building any project near our area, we look for them and try to give advise, This advise is most of the time welcome.
We also are in contact with the Aviation Authorities, this work is completly free and in a Voluntary basis.
Is a good feeling when a pilot tests his plane or ultralight, That moment, sometimes I "look back" when we first meet him, remembering how we were frightened listening to his first ideas of building and test flying... Lots of courage and dreams and so little knowledge... Politely and diplomatlicaly we changed his ideas, one at a time, to safe building and flying.
Saludos
Gary Gower
Flying from Chapala, Mexico.
obert Hansen <stol701(at)yahoo.com> wrote:
[quote] Really sad to learn of a fellow 701 builder being taken from us. I live 40 miles from Las Cruces, wish I would have gotten to know Robert.
R. Hansen
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SABorns(at)aol.com
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| Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 11:19 am Post subject: Fatality Reported in new 701 |
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Hello All,
It is always sad whenever a homebuilt is involved in any mishap that might have been avoided.
It is very easy for the builder to overlook some critical item because of over familiarity with the project.
One way we have found to check for this is to have an "EAA chapter inspection". The procedure we have used is to have the builder relax with some coffee and have as many eyeballs as possible take their time
examining the aircraft looking for that missing nut, forgotten safety wire, etc, etc.
Steven Bornstein
475 E. North Broadway
Columbus, Ohio 43214
614 263-5819
See AOL's top rated recipes and easy ways to stay in shape for winter.
[quote][b]
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swater6
Joined: 16 Dec 2006
Posts: 52
Location: Minnesota-KMIC/KANE
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| Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:46 pm Post subject: Re: Fatality Reported in new 701 |
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Here is a link to a post on the AOPA forum regarding this accident.
http://forums.aopa.org/showthread.php?t=37425
For those of you not AOPA members, I'm copying one of the forum entries here from someone who claims to have known the pilot/builder.
Unfortunately, based on the witness reports on the video and this account, this may likely be a maneuvering accident at low altitude.
Here's the post:
Zenith 701 down in Mesilla, NM
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This one hits close to home. The victim was a friend of my AOPA mentor's...
http://www.krqe.com/global/story.asp?s=7504514
An excerpt from my AOPA mentor's email:
Saturday late I lost a flying friend. Until the feds give the actual facts and conclusion, we can only speculate. It seems he was flying his Zenith 701 (kind of a back country light sport airplane). He was circling his house at a rather low altitude and waving to his kids and wife. The airplane then spiraled down and crashed - wing low and mains wrecked. The airplane lands on a dime and has extra strong suspensions. See video at http://www.zenithair.com/video/index.html.
As I understand he has been trying to push the envelope on performance - shorter landings and minimizing the speed. There are two aspects of flying that one has to be aware of. The first is the recognition of a stall - or a condition that places you in the stall. It's never fun to practice stalls but the practice will save a life. The second is the correction. We all stall the airplane at landing but at that we have our airplane properly trimmed (all three axis) and then settle down over the landing zone with appropriate speed). The correction of a stalled airplane however requires not only recognizing the situation but when it does happen prom pt repsonse.
Thus if the nose is high (as on the back side of the power curve where I suspect Rob was), full power doesn't help. We need to get the nose down - often just releasing the controls brings the nose down. We do need full power. If the nose is down, then we need to pull off the power.. In the nose up configuration, often it takes turning one wing down to break the stall.
In both situations the ball needs to be centered with prompt ruder. In the nose down, we bring the wings level and pull up and then add power. In the nose high, after breaking the stall we get the wings level and get on the power.
The difficulty is flying low to the ground. I suspect if he was waiving to his family as I have heard that he was below legal (1000 feet above houses).
That gave him precious little room to achieve a correction. Someone said last week he dropped the airplane about 10 feet and had a hard landing which hurt his back. That says something about the landing technique as well as understanding the stall configuration needed for landing.
I will miss Rob. We ate in his hangar last Saturday and he made me a vegetarian quesadilla. His last words to me were "I strongly recommend the Pico de Gallo" on this. The night before the "west end" hangar pilots met at his partner (on the Zenith) house for a pot luck. there were about 25 pilots and spouses. Rob brought his wife and two of his three children. It was a pleasant evening.
In any event, practice stalls and corrections like they will save your life.
Also follow the specifications on the airplane you fly even though you think you can squeeze something more from it. The laws of physics were used to design the airplane and the various V speeds are, at least to me, not subject to toying with. In Rob's case the airplane was designed to land on a dime and I see no need to get it to land on half a dime.
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