I am sad for the pilot, his family, the spectators, the STOL Drag officials, and the aviation community as a whole who truly wanted a family friendly, safe, fun event. Competition, by its nature, pushes many into a decision making process that often results in unnecessary risks taken simply for the show.
That is the reason for vetting which should include technical inspections, in this case, of the flying machines, minimum safety standards including required basic equipment, as well as a stepped approach for demonstrating flying skills such as required in the airshow business. ICAS is an excellent example of how the airshow industry has matured. Like all competitions, it does not eliminate risk. But certainly goes a long way helping mitigating risk.
SCCA racing, drag racing, motorcycle racing, off-shore boat racing, any kind of racing sports has skill level requirements for both amateur and professional. By design, they are there to demonstrate skills before allowing movement from basic to advance competition. At each level, one has to master good decision making along with motor skills necessary at each level.
It is not unusual for relatively inexperienced people to have excellent motor skills. But competition really accelerates decision making requirements which can take longer to master than the motor skills. However, like landing an airplane, which seems to be the final determining factor most apply in evaluating a pilot’s skill level, STOL motor skills which result in a the best timeslip and shortest distance is the ultimate determination of that day’s champion. And a pilot can become champion of that day while demonstrating poor aerial decision making as long as his or her ADM does not cause the flight to exceed physics. Without vetting, it is just a short time before someone dies exceeding their or the airplane’s limits.
STOL Drags including public STOL demonstrations are very new. Yet, becoming wildly popular with aviators and spectators alike. But the participant who died in Nebraska was flying a stock airplane built 76 years ago, with no safety equipment outside of a lap belt, flying a very light plane in a strong wind, successfully demonstrating demanding STOL performance at least twice before the accident flight, at both ends of arguably, the most hazardous portion of any flying, the take off and landing…for no other reason than to show he could do it. He was flying in the company of very purpose built airplanes, mostly flown by highly experienced competitors. That is a lot of pressure on decision making skills. How do you make a stock Cessna 140 look like a worthy contender amongst the highly powered, turboed, VG’d, straked, big tire, long suspension, liquid cooled, carbon fiber, uber lightweight Experimentals, equally highly modified factory airplanes that are a far cry from original specifications, and specifically designed, factory produced back country Carbon Cubs, Husky’s, Super Cubs, Scouts, etc.?
I saw several of the videos produced by the Cessna 140 pilot at High Sierra. He flew in the STOL Drags several times. He spent most of the 2,000 foot drag race on the ground trying to get his airplane off into the ground effect with a very, very short flight followed with the signature wildly cross controlled slip, a hard touchdown, the tail high, heavy brake stop, and the almost ground looped turnaround to flog this poor air-cooled Continental for another full throttle, instant idle repeat. Then fly home over the mountains. Add more videos of back country adventure. That is a lot to ask of a Cessna 140, Continental, and its pilot.
One thing that I rarely have seen in primary training is how viscous a power on or power off stall can become when one stalls in relatively high winds and does not keep the nose into the wind. The wind in this accident was 15-21kts varying from 290 to 310 which would have made the pilot have to correct for a slight crosswind from the left. He was extremely slow, ignored two slow speed warnings from an experienced STOL Drag official, made a slight correction to the left, probably had a lot of right rudder in correcting for the relatively high power nose high attitude, and stalled. As soon as his nose departed a few degrees to the right the wind lifts the left wing, the right wing instantly becomes almost perpendicular to the relative wind, forward motion is almost stopped, and the airplane literally falls like a stone pointed downwind. This results in the nose swinging well past vertical, with the flight controls on all axis, virtually useless. It looks like a spin but one can see in the last frame, the nose is still well past vertical. Sort of an aerial ground loop. One sees this a lot at RC fields when a powered airplane or glider is dragged in during high winds and gets a few degrees off course instead of staying directly into the wind. These conditions can make the most stable, tame stalling trainer into a nasty handling airplane in a split second. Least expected in high winds almost but not quite lined up with the runway. Draco is another example of similar circumstances on take off. Think about that with spectators lining the fence line at a local show.
I believe STOL demonstrations should have aircraft class parity, minimum safety equipment like shoulder harness and helmet, experienced ground spotters in communication with the pilots, limiting the number of participants in the demonstration, clearly defined pattern for each class of airplane, and a “landing signal officer”/LSO person capable of commanding a wave off when it appears the participant is not making good aeronautical decisions. I believe there should be a minimum tech inspection to make sure the airplane and pilot meets those minimum safety requirements. Lastly, having pilots demonstrate their skills at defined, consistent performance levels determined by aircraft class and peers who fly in that class rather than “run watcha brung” with qualifying for a new venue based on ya didn’t crash in practice or in a previous race so you are good to go. Yes, that will require some rulemaking, some collaboration among STOL groups to develop some basic standards. I hope AirVenture and/or ArkanSTOL does not become another showcase of questionable ADM because of the pressure of the “show”.