Plane and Pilot

SEPTEMBER 20, 2024

Missing its tail, pointing almost straight down, a Van’s RV-7A single-engine, two-seat homebuilt plummeted out of the blue and into the rocky ground. This wasn’t the first Van’s homebuilt to experience an in-flight tail separation. I did my first aileron roll in an RV-4. The pilot died instantly. Was the breakup cause or effect?

True Airspeed 68

True Airspeed Indicated Airspeed Horizontal Stabilizer Aileron 68

Plane and Pilot

SEPTEMBER 20, 2024

Missing its tail, pointing almost straight down, a Van’s RV-7A single-engine, two-seat homebuilt plummeted out of the blue and into the rocky ground. This wasn’t the first Van’s homebuilt to experience an in-flight tail separation. I did my first aileron roll in an RV-4. The pilot died instantly. Was the breakup cause or effect?

True Airspeed 65

True Airspeed Indicated Airspeed Horizontal Stabilizer Aileron 65

Air Facts

OCTOBER 7, 2024

It was a beefed up, militarized version of the Beechcraft Bonanza with a narrowed fuselage and conventional tail, seating two pilots in tandem cockpits with controls and indicators configured similarly to tactical aircraft of the period. Dropping like an inverted dart tail first, Morris, from his aft cockpit perch exclaimed,“Wheeeee!”

Cockpit 98

Cockpit Rudder Tail Indicated Airspeed 98