Another Explanation for John Denver's Crash?
Vet Trek
We were wondering what you guys thought?
Val
p.s. We were told by another party that John "didn't have a GU canard. It was
a modified Roncz canard made by Klaus Savier in Santa Paula".
I also did an NTSB search for Long EZ accidents in Florida since 1970 and only
found one involving a fatality and according to the NTSB report, "A WITNESS
OBSERVED THE AIRCRAFT FLYING IN A NORTHERLY DIRECTION ABOUT 1/2 MILE AWAY AT AN
ALTITUDE OF ABOUT 100 FEET. IT APPEARED TO BE TRAVELLING IN EXCESS OF 80 KTS
AND THE ENGINE SOUNDED NORMAL. ANOTHER WITNESS OBSERVED THE AIRCRAFT STRIKE THE
WATER IN A GRADUAL DESCENT. NO EVIDENCE OF PREIMPACT FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OF
THE AIRCRAFT STRUCTURE OR FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEM WAS FOUND IN THE RECOVERED
WRECKAGE." This certainly does not correspond with, "the Long Eze simply nosed
over and flew into the ground at a 60 degree angle to the vertical killing the
pilot" (see following).
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: aircraf...@cwix.com (Aircraft Designs, Inc.)
>>Dear xxxxx,
Nice to meet with you. Attached are my findings on the death of John Denver.
Please feel free to publish and call me if you have any questions.
Marty Hollmann
JOHN DENVER Dies in Long Eze by M. Hollmann
On Sunday, October 12, famous song writer and singer, John Denver died in his
newly purchased Long Eze. John had just purchased the airplane (serial number
54) for $56,000 from Dr. Van Snow, a veterinarian. The aircraft had been build
in 1987 by Adrian Davis Jr. located at 5629 FM 1960 St., Houston, TX 77069.
Mr. Davis no longer lives at this address and his telephone is not listed. The
aircraft had just been painted by xxxxx at the Santa Maria Airport, CA
(xxx-xxx-xxxx) and the aircraft was delivered to John on Saturday afternoon.
Several people saw John take off from Monterey Airport (home of the Stallion)
at 5:00 PM on Sunday. He made several touch and go_s and flew around to
acquaint himself with the aircraft. He was flying at about 400 feet AGL in the
vicinity of Lover_s Point when witnesses said they saw the aircraft nose down
and dive into the water 100 yards off shore at 5:30 PM. I was home at that
time and from my house I can see Lover_s Point. The weather was sunny and
clear with not a cloud in the sky. However because of the warm weather, there
were a lot of insects in the air. The aircraft completely disintegrated upon
impact and John_s body was broken in two. He died instantly. Clipping from
the HERALD
There are a number of ideas as to what caused this tragic accident. Burt Rutan
designed this aircraft in the early 1980_s and over 1,200 Long Eze_s have been
built and over 4,500 plans have been sold since then. Burt thinks that a big
bird hit the aircraft. See the adjacent news clipping.
However, most of us who know aircraft think that something else went wrong.
One of our Stallion builders, Jon Lowe, built the first plans built Long Eze.
Jon recalls that on the early Long Eze models a GU25 airfoil was used on the
canard. It is designed for a Reynold_s Number (R.N.) of 400,000.
With the Long Eze flying at 120 mph the R.N. will be 1,100,000. The GU25
airfoil is a high laminar design were much of the laminar flow is obtained on
the top surface. Such airfoils are sensitive to water, bug, and other
contamination. When this airfoil becomes dirty by the slightest amount (we are
talking about a number of perturbations of 0.004 of an inch high on the leading
edge) the flow over the top surface will easily become separated often
resulting in loss of pitch authority. On such an airfoil it takes a long time
for the airflow to reattach and for the pilot to regain pitch control. Jon
recalls that several fatal accidents occurred in Florida were the Long Eze
simply nosed over and flew into the ground at a 60 degree angle to the vertical
killing the pilot. Jon recalls visiting Don Murphy in Merrit Island, Fl. Don
was working on a solution to this problem. Don told Jon, _I can_t talk about
it but take a look on my drawing board._ A straight line was drawn over the
trailing edge reflex of the GU25 airfoil. Many builders faired in the trailing
edges of their canards. Ultimately, the GU25 airfoil was replaced by the LS
0417 airfoil which did not exhibit this bad separation problem. None of us in
the aircraft industry know why Mr. Rutan chose the GU25 airfoil and to our
knowledge it has never been used on another aircraft. Jon can be reached at
(941-597-1877) in Naples, Fl.
I and many other_s knew of this problem. In 1986 I published my book, _Modern
Aircraft Design Vol. 1._ On page 40 I listed the GU25 airfoil as No Good so
that people would not use this airfoil on their aircraft. Did John Denver_s
Long Eze use this airfoil? His aircraft was one of the early models.
Another accident theory is that _the bolt to the elevator control came loose._
This could easily happen if the elevator was removed during painting and the
controls reinstalled without installing the cotter pin for the castle nut on
the control lever bolt. After flying a while, the nut may have vibrated off
and the bolt slipped out causing loss of pitch control? In such an event the
aircraft will also nose over and dive in.
After the impact on the water only small pieces of the Long Eze remain. The
canard was completely destroyed and only the canard spar was recovered.
However, from the spar it can be determined if the GU25 airfoil was used. The
control linkage can also be checked to see if all the nuts are still in place.
The NTSB is reconstructing the remains of John Denver_s Long Eze and hopefully
they will find the cause of this accident. George Petterson from the NTSB is
in charge of the investigation and he can be reached at (xxx-xxx-xxxx) in
Gardena, CA.
Despite of what is found, no one will bring John Denver back. He will be
remembered by all of us as not only the best country singer but also as a
fellow pilot who loved the freedom of flight. He loved aviation and he
supported the Experimental Aircraft Association all the way. He was a good
pilot and he was one of us. His cheerful songs inspired us and he gave us all
something that we will never forget.
God bless you, John Denver.<<<<<
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Frank Harvey
at that airport. The story went something to the effect that John received
the plane on Saturday and inspected it with someone who was capable of
working on it. It was discovered, the story goes, that he could not reach
some valve used to switch gas tanks. Supposedly he made arrangements with
this man to fix it on Monday but decided Sunday he could live with it as is.
RF...@my-dejanews.com
> California Friends of John Denver was sent this explanation for John's crash.
> We were wondering what you guys thought?
>
> Val
I attended Burt Rutan's "State of Mojave" forum at Oshkosh '98 at which he
gave the mic to Mike Melville to discuss John Denver's accident. Next day I
attended the Rutan/Roncz "Tent Talk" forum; had to arrive early to get a good
seat, and thus caught the latter portion of Martin Hollman's "Stallion
Homebuilders" presentation. Toward the wrapup, Hollman gave his take on
Denver's crash; it was as I recall, essentially identical to your
passed-along post. Somewhat surprised no one else has yet posted this,
here's my recollection/take on Burt Rutan's Denver crash analysis (highly
condensed in the details, but accurate methinks on the particulars)...
Rutan/Melville/the-Mojave-operation were asked to assist the NTSB in their
investigation; Melville said he was intimately involved. His
report/conclusions result from his assistance and years of familiarity with
the design. (He and Dick Rutan recently flew their Long-Eze's around the
world, as written up in "Sport Aviation".)
After purchasing the ship and test flying it at the exchange site, John Denver
ferried it to the airport from which he took off on the fatal flight; ferry
flight time was more than an hour. On the day of the crash, he took off, shot
some patterns, then headed out for some personal flying...and crashed into the
ocean. The ship he purchased had a 'non-standard location' fuel transfer
valve; it was located on the seat back bulkhead behind the pilot's left
shoulder. It also was missing a handle; Denver took along a vise-grip-like
tool specifically to assist fuel valve rotation.
Denver did not refuel in the time span between leaving the purchase site and
his crash.
Melville said it was humanly impossible in their tests to reach around and
even *touch* the fuel valve without inadvertently putting in some right
rudder to brace one's body.
The Vari/Long-Eze designs' strong yaw/roll coupling results in a right bank
with right rudder which - if not unchecked - can easily become a *descending*
right turn. From 400' one's reaction time is critical.
For the above reasons - and more, covered in perhaps 5-10 minutes of
presentation - Melville's conclusion was John ran a tank dry, and when the
engine sputtered at low altitude got involved sufficiently dinking with the
valve that he didn't mind the flying store enough to remain alive.
Additional possible contributors?: non-standard/non-intuitive fuel valve
position/tank relationship; firm valve actuation forces required.
FWIW, on the day of the crash, a line boy specifically asked if he should
refuel the bird; Denver declined.
My sad conclusion after listening to the forum presentation was John Denver
killed himself from ('the usual') string of inexplicable decisions which
'should not have occurred'. Upon listening to Martin Hollman's take the next
day, I concluded it was aerodynamically sound (insofar as the GU airfoil was
concerned), but speculative and probably erring due to distance. (So far as I
know Hollman was not directly inolved in the NTSB investigation).
Regards,
Bob Whelan
P.S. I have great respect for Burt Rutan's, Mike Melville's and Martin
Hollman's aeronautical experience.
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
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John Ousterhout
Riley) wrote:
>On Tue, 03 Nov 1998 18:16:06 GMT, in <71nh95$pk8$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>,
>RF...@my-dejanews.com wrote:
>
><accurate analysis snipped>
>
>I was involved in the investigation (though not on site), Dave was in Manilla
>for a week or so after the accident and George Peterson got in touch with the
>our firm, so I was our representitive in the first few days. I think I was the
>first to suggest the rudder pedal involvement, in a brainstorming phone
>conversation with Mr. Peterson, though I'm sure that many others came to the
>same conclusion independently.
>
>A couple more facts to include - the fuel valve was the old "Imperial" type,
>known for binding up, and it was found, siezed, halfway between the two "on"
>positions, and there was fuel found in the carburator float chamber. Also, at
>least one witness reported that the plane rolled to the right, THEN the nose
>dropped.
I believe that RIchard's analysis in this and an earlier message is
quite accurate.
From the NTSB investigation narrative:
<BEGIN QUOTE>
The checkout pilot was asked about the selector. He said that he had
simulated changing tanks using the selector on one occasion on the
ground and that he was not pleased with the location. Because of the
difficulties of using the selector, he said that he had never used the
selector in flight.
Postaccident wreckage examination by Safety Board investigators
revealed that the selector handle was not placarded or marked for any
operating position. According to the checkout pilot, the handle in the
right position was for the left tank, the handle in the down position
was for the right tank, and the off position was up.
When investigators attempted to switch fuel tanks in a similar Long
EZ, each time while an investigator turned his body the 90 degrees
required to reach the valve, his natural tendency was to extend his
right foot against the right rudder pedal to support his body as he
turned in the seat.
<END QUOTE>
It seems pretty simple -- a series of errors, each by itself not too
serious, but adding up to a fatal crash. A lesson for all of us.
My summary:
. Low time in the aircraft
. Low fuel
. Low altitude
. Trying to change fuel valve in very awkward location (with all of
the above conditions) and forgetting for a moment to "fly the
airplane".
The full narative is available from the NTSB at:
http://www.ntsb.gov/Aviation/LAX/lnarr_98A008.htm
- John Ousterhout -