Scott Crossfield's C210 missing

[User546]

Sorry, just skeptic about the accounts we hear from the public.

Absolutely, I got a kick out of the first line of the story: " It should not be taken as fact -- eyewitness reports are rarely as accurate as the term suggests"

If only all "wire" news agencies reported to this level.

 

[banned username 2]

[FONT=arial,helvetica,geneva]http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/626-full.html#192136[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,geneva]Crossfield's 210A Likely Pulled To Pieces By Storm[/FONT]

An NTSB early report says most of the lifting surfaces on Scott Crossfield's Cessna 210A were found about a mile away from the wreckage of the rest of the plane, suggesting the Category 6 thunderstorm the veteran test pilot had the misfortune of encountering on April 19 was just too much for the aircraft. Moments after Crossfield asked air traffic control for a diversion around weather, the plane disappeared from radar screens. The body of the 84-year-old aviation icon, who was the first to fly at Mach 2, was found with the main wreckage about four miles from Ludville, Ga. The slight damage to nearby trees suggests the main wreckage fell almost vertically and created a crater four feet deep. The main wreckage consisted of cockpit, engine, propeller, left and right main wing spars, nose and main landing gear, left and right flap, and portions of the empennage, according to the NTSB. Everything else was either found in the other debris field or hasn't been recovered. The NTSB didn't find any evidence of mechanical, instrument or control failure. Crossfield was on a flight from Prattville, Ala., to Manassas, Va., when he encountered the storm and asked for the diversion.

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[mcjohn]

Category 6 ?!! My god. I doubt he was concious after the initial breakup.

R.I.P.

 

[IntheShade]

I wonder if he ever flew his Cessna 210 like the ERAU "Captain Robert" video?

 

[User546]

Found this interesting tidbit in an interview done with Scott Crossfield in March of 2001.

http://www.avweb.com/news/profiles/182924-1.html

With P-51s and L-39s and Lancair 4s to pick from, there must be something special about your 1961 Cessna 210A.

Well, it's mine and it's paid for. It rolled out in December of 1960 and was the third A-model produced. Of those 2,000 hours, probably 1,950 of them have been by myself. I have no autopilot and I love to hand-fly it.

When I was at North American I flew over the San Gabriel mountains that separate the LA basin from Edwards, and I had to deal with the cloud deck that came in every night, but I came and went as I pleased. The company lawyers, who were already my enemies because they wouldn't pay for my flights, went bananas because their chief engineering test pilot didn't have an instrument ticket. I had taught instrument flight in WW II but I never had the piece of paper. I fixed that in 1989 and got my instrument rating.

 

[mcjohn]

Dayum! That man lived a loooong aviation career.

 

[Way2Broke]

I have no autopilot and I love to hand-fly it.

Now that was a pretty cool quote.

 

[mcjohn]

I usually hear, "I have no auto-pilot and I'm sick of hand flying it." I guess it just depends on how "good" you are.

 

[Way2Broke]

Ya I'm lazy, I love my auto-pilot

 

[mcjohn]

I can't figure out how to work mine well. Until then I like the one axis. It's enough to lower the work load. That CAP140 altitude handling seems inconsistent so far. Arm or disarm for the two different modes is odd. Remind me to crack the book!