jungle

Famous Red Bull Pilot Killed in Apple Valley Plane Crash | VVNG.com Victor Valley News

RhinoPherret

It is ironic that some very talented pilots of this nature end up meeting their demise during rather more routine flight activities. Something immediately went wrong as he entered a left bank and crashed upon departure. Also, a passenger was killed along with him. Condolences. “Because I Fly, I envy no man on earth.”

This also reminds me of another ironic example of how Scott Crossfield met his demise. He failed to heed severe weather warnings before departure in his Cessna 210 regarding severe embedded thunderstorms and ended up deviating too late to avoid the catastrophic outcome of tangling with said thunderstorms. Another ironic end to an otherwise historic and illustrious flight career.

In the instance of Crossfield’s crash, it points out once again that you just cannot ignore or think you can cheat the standard ways that flying can bite you. Because it will, sooner or later!

jungle

The L39 seems to be crashed a lot for the small number in use.

Incidents | L-39 Enthusiasts

rickair7777

Older Eastern European tactical aircraft were built with specific design requirements...safety and redundancy typically being low on the list. They are decent enough at what they were designed to do, but don't think they were intended to be something they're not.

RIP

UAL T38 Phlyer

The L-39 is much more to Western standards (being a relatively new Czech design) than former Soviet machines.

It's a pretty straightforward airplane: direct cable controls; a pretty clean instrument panel.

They are relatively inexpensive, and it makes it an easy entry into the warbird club for guys with no mil or jet time....which can lead to higher accident rates.

I didn't know him personally, but a lot of my buds in the Phantom community did. Mongo had a very strong reputation.

Tailwinds, brother, and a nickel on the grass.

EasternATC

Fate is the hunter.

Godspeed, sir.

Hacker15e

What I always take away from things like this is it can happen to any of us at any time.

Adlerdriver

What's "it"?

JamesNoBrakes

That depends largely on how you limit/manage your risk and risk exposure.

Flying something like the L-39 is putting a lot of trust in a lot of systems to all perform correctly. To ensure that they do require a lot of support, not just from systems and maintenance and inspections, but from manufacturers and engineering, training for support personnel from industry, etc. If something like the L-39 was operated like an airliner, with the same support, it'd be a non-issue most likely This doesn't mean flying a jet warbird is some sort of death-sentence, but it does expose you to several factors you may or not not be able to control. Whether that risk is worth it varies from person to person obviously. The "it can happen to any one at any time" situations are very very rare IME.

Hacker15e

That's the $ million question.

If we knew, there would be a lot fewer dead aviators out there.