[RiversEdge]

The tragic plane crash in Fullerton claimed the life of a 48-year-old pilot, Robert Ellis, who had deep roots in Southern California but had recently relocated to Utah. Commuting between the two states, Robert was a dentist by profession and a native of Southern California, as shared by his mother.

The fatal incident occurred as Robert was taking off from Fullerton Municipal Airport, and his Beechcraft Duke crashed near Runway 24, engulfing in flames. Tragically, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

High resolution videos here:

https://www.documentingreality.com/f...ml#post6664864

[Xploit Machine]

[dropkic]

Dam, homeboy fell asleep at the wheel, or mechanical malfunction. Either way, that's a horrible way to go.

[durt]

if you want to do that during take off, you should use a Pitts Special

Nice clip!

[kellyhound]

no escape from that

[SARNA66]

CONTROL LOCK LEFT IN ??

[JustAnotherIdiot]

Originally Posted by SARNA66 ↗

CONTROL LOCK LEFT IN ??

It looks like a left engine failure with a steep climb out causing a dynamic roll over.

Not sure why he was doing such a steep climb out, Fullerton doesn't seem to have much in terms of obstructions requiring that. Perhaps he is just so used to having a high performance plane, he liked to feel like a fighter pilot on take off.

The solution to stop the roll over is to close throttles, nose down to level. At level flight, a single engine failure is going to cause a left yaw, but at low speeds with high angle of attack, this happens.

It looks like he commuted extremely regularly between California and Utah. I wonder if he got complacent with the pre-flights and/or maintenance. When you fly once a month, you are hyper-vigilant. When you have flow. 200-300 times in the past year without incident, you kinda expect the next flight to be without incident and you can become laxed with the check-offs.


I am going to watch for the NTSB report on this one.

[RiversEdge]

Originally Posted by JustAnotherIdiot ↗

It looks like a left engine failure with a steep climb out causing a dynamic roll over.

Not sure why he was doing such a steep climb out, Fullerton doesn't seem to have much in terms of obstructions requiring that. Perhaps he is just so used to having a high performance plane, he liked to feel like a fighter pilot on take off.

The solution to stop the roll over is to close throttles, nose down to level. At level flight, a single engine failure is going to cause a left yaw, but at low speeds with high angle of attack, this happens.

It looks like he commuted extremely regularly between California and Utah. I wonder if he got complacent with the pre-flights and/or maintenance. When you fly once a month, you are hyper-vigilant. When you have flow. 200-300 times in the past year without incident, you kinda expect the next flight to be without incident and you can become laxed with the check-offs.


I am going to watch for the NTSB report on this one.

I wish you would. ...and update here if you can?

[azblue81]

Turns out that flying a plane is harder than it looks.

[JustAnotherIdiot]

Originally Posted by azblue81 ↗

Turns out that flying a plane is harder than it looks.

It’s really not. Sure it requires a ton of memorization and development of skill, but accidents like this are rarely “single failure” incidents. It’s usually a combination of issues.

While the NTSB has not filed a report on this incident, my guess is that it was single engine failure in combination with the pilot’s failure to react properly.

That duke has some pretty high performance engines. When one fails, it produces some amazing yaw at flight speeds, at low speed climb out it causes dynamic roll.

First problem was that high climb out angle. It’s a GA plane, not a fighter.

The pilot’s right hand should have been on the throttles with his left on the yolk. The moment that engine coughed or felt in the least bit “off”, he should have closed the throttles and nose down. That will buy you enough seconds to start troubleshooting. Give that right engine slowly increasing throttle to start building speed on the deck, build some altitude and bring it back for an emergency landing.

That plane just recently had a mechanical done in January... it was owned by an LLC IN Montana, couldn’t find who owns the LLC. But the LLC has owned the plane for a couple years.

I am watching the NTSB site for the report on this one. Fullerton has had alot of GA accidents lately.