Death during high speed taxi test?

Aviation Aviation News
1

Interesting… Any bets the pilot wasn’t strapped in?

One can find some interesting stuff such as the below at weather.gov/view/validProds.php?prod=OAV

I am surprised to see a pilots name listed in the report as most of the time it’s shown as unknown.

000
NOUS55 KBOI 162308
OAVBOI

NOTIFICATION REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BOISE ID
508 PM MDT MON AUG 16 2010

FROM: SPARKER (JOB TITLE) WFO BOISE, ID

SUBJECT: AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT, , 08/16/2010

EVENT: WHILE CONDUCTING A HIGH SPEED TAXI TEST, THE AIRCRAFT
LOST CONTROL, VEERED OFF THE RUNWAY AND FLIPPED OVER.

            INCIDENT TIME...1850 UTC
            PILOT...........ALAN CLARK
            ACFT TYPE.......VANS RV6A FIXED WING SINGLE ENGINE
            REG NMBR........N621AL

DEATHS: 1

INJURIES: 0

OBSERVATION: CALDWELL AIRPORT
METAR KEUL 161755Z AUTO 33007KT 10SM CLR 27/09 A3003 RMK AO1 10270 20120 52003

TAF: BOITAFBOI
KBOI 161725Z 1618/1718 32007KT P6SM SKC
FM170400 13005KT P6SM SKC=

2

Buckled in or not, flipping over in a low wing. :open_mouth: First thing that hits the ground is you (cockpit) then the rest of the plane.

3

Begs the question of why do a high speed taxi test in the first place.
They really belong in the realm of the professional test pilot.

Even in a new build homebuilt you have a proven design in the RV6.
A low speed test of the brakes will tell you if they are working or not.
You get nothing from running the engine, it should have been run several times previously.
The flight controls either work or they don’t, you can see that from a normal control check.
You might get some idea if the airplane is way out of rig, but only in the last half a second of the test.
An aborted takeoff under controlled circumstances is an aggressive maneuver.
Doing one in an airplane you are not familiar with is :smiley:

John in Saudi