Racing Driver Scott Bloomquist Dies In Cub Crash

News Discussion
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A man killed in the crash of a J3 Cub in Tennessee on Friday does not appear to have had a pilot certificate. There's a lot of attention on the mishap because the person killed was Scott Bloomquist, 60, a famous dirt track racing driver considered by many to be the best at the sport. Both the FAA and NTSB are investigating along with local authorities, who have set up a staging area near the scene for media and are not letting anyone near the accident scene.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/scott-bloomquist-dies-cub-crash
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What’s that old quip? A Cub can barely go fast enough to kill you.

Really I’m just testing the new comment ability. I received an email saying that my account had been approved and that I could post. Seems I couldn’t post past my first and only post until I was approved. I wasn’t quite sure why I couldn’t post again after I successfully posted one post. Now I understand. Glad to know there is some oversight of who gets in, and who doesn’t. Should help with SPAM and malcontents.

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You beat me to the comment.

The new format seems to take a bit of getting used to but does have some advantages.

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Glad to see comments are back.

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No, the quip, attributed to C. Maxwell Stanley is: “The J3 Cub is the safest airplane in the world. It
can just barely kill you”.

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I think it’s going to be good. We’re still feeling our way with it but it does make things easier from this end.
Russ

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That was it! Thanks for the clarification.

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Maybe it’s time for a quick expose’ on how the ‘new’ system works, Russ.

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Coming up on Monday with a fresh fuel blog, too.

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“I don’t need to register the plane, do an annual, or get a pilots certificate”
And you crashed and burned. Another example or what not to do. Sorry, but this is so over the top dangerous that it’s hard to believe that this story is real.

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I do not see this accident having much to do with whether the plane had been annualed. The man was a long-time stock-car racer, and probably had a pretty good grip on how to keep mechanical things working. J-3 is about as simple as you can get. Thousands of homebuilts are maintained and “annualed” by amateurs, and many of them are far more complex than a J-3.

I see no relationship between this crash and the lack of registration. To quote Ernest K. Gann, “Rule books are PAPER. They will not cushion a sudden meeting of stone and metal.” Being registered (or not) doesn’t affect the plane’s operation.

Same thing on the pilot certificate. We let people fly solo with less than a dozen hours; the possession of a piece of paper in one’s wallet doesn’t affect the safety.

Sure, such “scofflaw” behavior can be an indicator of a risk taker, but it’s too early on this yet.

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It’s proof positive that the 60 year old dude did not want anyone else to look too closely at his health, his current flying abilities, or even the current health of his aircraft. The very foundation of safety is having a second set of eyes look at those 3 things.

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Quite a remarkable and dare I say plausible conclusion drawn by Juan Browne.

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Why is it that driving without a license is punishable and flying without one is not?

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Yeah I thought it was a bit of a jump even for Browne. Perhaps he knows more because of his connections to that group. It’s not far-fetched.

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The recent leg/hip injuries could have meant it was hard to work the rudder/brakes and so there was a lost of directional control. Though I think Browne might be on the right track, maybe he did not care one way or another.

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“Why is it that driving without a license is punishable and flying without one is not?”

Probably because for the most part, the general public isn’t endangered. If a person doesn’t have a pilot certificate, only those who fly with them are at risk. Sure, the license-less pilot can crash into a school, but it’s not quite as high a possibility as some untrained oaf losing control on the freeway.

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Some of the better sticks I have known were not certificated. Some may have “disrespected” authority, but perhaps they shared my view. Individuals earn respect. Organizations, rank, and badges do not.

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Without something overt, like a note left behind or friends/family noting such tendencies, I’d be real hesitant about jumping to conclusions.

In the first place, a loss of directional control during landing is a significant factor in aircraft accidents, especially with taildragger aircraft. I don’t have figures for J-3s, but about 9% of all homebuilt accidents involve the pilot losing control on landing. Roughly the same as accidents involving inadvertent stalls.

It doesn’t have to be pilot-induced, either. Loss of a rudder cable, loss of a brake, loss of a tailwheel spring, breaking a horn on the rudder can all lead to the loss of directional control.

Arthur’s suggestion that his leg/hip injuries may have affected his control were spot-on. I had a knee injury earlier this year…was better, then it flared up big time while I was flying a couple of months back. I had trouble keeping my little taildragger tracking straight after a touch-and-go; my left leg was nearly numb. Went back up and let it calm down.

Finally, let’s look at the logic behind deciding to deliberately set up such a crash. Note that as a race driver, he undoubtedly had a good working understanding of physics. He was flying a J-3 Cub…relatively slow speed. I assume he was flying from the rear seat, which means he had plenty of crush space in front of him. But in that crush space was the fuselage-mounted fuel tank.

The odds are, the plane wouldn’t have hit the barn hard enough to instantaneously kill him. He would have understood that. But he probably would also have understood that there was a high probability that the fuel tank would be compromised, spilling fuel on the hot engine and the wooden side of the barn. And, even if not knocked unconscious, he probably would be injured badly enough to make it difficult to extract himself from the wreck before the gas-fueled flames took over.

In short, it was a perfect setup for burning alive. Do folks really think he deliberately chose that? Plenty of other ways to deliberately crash that would provide a more-sure solution.