Local plane crash

[stomachmonkey]

I know we have a couple of Pelicans who are small plane pilots who also live and fly out of small airports local to me.

Why do feel like I've seen this plane before?

Hope you guys are all OK.

One Killed In Ellis County Plane Crash | NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

[IMG]http://media.nbcdfw.com/images/324*182/062814+Mid+Way+Airport+Midlothian+Crash.jpg[/IMG]

[Baz]

The aircraft involved in the crash is a single-engine home-built Skybolt biplane.

witnesses claim the plane was performing aerobatic maneuvers over the runway when it crashed.

R.I.P.

At least he died doing something that he probably enjoyed.

[Gogar]

Crashing? Doubt it.

[Baz]

No - the flying part. He was "flying" his plane just before he crashed.

Why would he enjoy crashing? ?

[speeder]

Glad you clarified that, I was getting really confused.

[cashflyer]

Yes.... I knew Jim from the biplane forum that I frequent.
The members there are deeply saddened by the loss of a friend.

He leaves behind a wife and a 15 yr old daughter.

[cashflyer]

Here is a better photo of his plane, Scott:

[cashflyer]

Arlington pilot who died in crash Saturday spent 13 years building plane
Posted Monday, Jun. 30, 2014

A Lockheed Martin engineer from Arlington was identified Sunday as the pilot killed in the crash of a hand-built biplane between Midlothian and Waxahachie.

James Edward “Jim” Doyle, who would have turned 49 on Monday, was performing aerobatic maneuvers in a Skybolt over the runway at Mid-Way Regional Airport when the crash occurred, witnesses told the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA said in a statement that the crash happened shortly before 5 p.m. Saturday at the airport, about 37 miles southeast of downtown Fort Worth.

Trooper James Colunga of the Texas Department of Public Safety identified Doyle as the pilot and aircraft owner.

Doyle was one of two pilots from Arlington to win a prestigious award in July 2011 for building or restoring a biplane. He received a bronze Lindy award at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s fly-in convention, AirVenture, in Oshkosh, Wis.

A few weeks after winning the award, he told the Star-Telegram that since he was a young boy building model planes, with the encouragement of his plastic-surgeon father, his spirit belonged to the deep blue sky.

Flying, he said at the time, is “part of my fabric.”

So was persistence, an attribute gained through his father’s preaching of the value of delayed gratification. The quest to build the Doyle Skybolt took an estimated 5,000 hours over 13 years and required him to learn skills, such as welding, that he had never before needed.

Lamar Steen, a high school shop teacher in Denver, designed the original Skybolt. The prototype he and his students built first flew in 1970. About 400 of the planes have been built.

“I redesigned some features for better performance and to satisfy my own aesthetic taste,” said Doyle, an Arlington native and alumnus of the University of Texas at Arlington.

The Doyle Skybolt was a 180-horsepower, two-seat, open-cockpit biplane. It weighed 1,122 pounds empty and had symmetrical airfoils, giving it equal performance inverted or right side up. It cruised at 133 mph, had a top speed of 146 mph in level flight and could be safely dived to 220 mph.

One of the finishing touches was applying the Doyle family coat of arms to the vertical tail fin. Doyle had been thinking of gold and blue for the plane’s colors, and when he saw that the crest had those colors as well, it was a no-brainer.

Inside the rear cockpit was inscribed the Doyle motto: Fortitudine vincit.

“He conquers with fortitude.”

Doyle had a wife and daughter. Funeral arrangements were pending Monday.

Arlington pilot who died in crash Saturday spent 13 years building plane | Arlington | N...

[onewhippedpuppy]

Sounds like a man with a real passion for flying, I think we would have gotten along well. RIP.

[stomachmonkey]

Sorry for your loss Harvey.

[cashflyer]

NTSB Preliminary is out now.

Jim was no novice. He was a commercial pilot, and has been an accomplished aerobatic competitor for some time now. It seems that he was unable to recover from an inverted flat spin. It makes me wonder if there was a mechanical issue that prevented recovery, or if possibly he experienced a G-induced blackout.

On June 28, 2014, about 1625 central daylight time, a Skybolt experimental airplane, N619PD, was substantially damaged when it impacted terrain just west of the Mid-Way Regional Airport (KJWY), Midlothian/Waxahachie, Texas. The commercial pilot was fatally injured. The airplane was registered to and operated by a private individual under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the flight, which operated without a flight plan. The local flight originated approximately 1600.

According to one witness, the pilot was performing aerobatic maneuvers within the designated aerobatic box. The pilot had just completed a shoulder roll and was maneuvering when the airplane entered a flat, inverted spin between 1,000 and 1,500 feet above ground level (agl). During the spin, the nose of the airplane appeared to drop as if the pilot was attempting to recover from the flat portion of the spin. Between 300 and 500 feet agl, the rotation stopped momentarily and then continued until the airplane impacted the ground.

The airplane came to rest, inverted, to the west of runway 18. The main wreckage included both bi-wing assemblies, the engine and propeller assembly, the fuselage, and the empennage. All components were located at the impact site.

NTSB Identification: CEN14FA325

[cashflyer]

Copying a post from one of the aerobatic ompetitors:

A shoulder roll is an extremely common airshow maneuver. It's basically an aileron roll with added rudder and elevator to give it a 3D look. The added rudder and elevator held drive the rotation a bit. It's basically a fake tumble. Sorta looks like a tumble, but is not really. And unlike a snap, you don't stall a wing. Done properly it is a very controllable maneuver just because the airplane is not stalled and 'out of control' as with a tumble. This is why airshow performers do them so often. A whole lot of Skip Stewart's routine is shoulder rolls. Sean Tucker does them at high speed and calls it the 'Centrifuge'.

They are easily done. Basically from medium to somewhat low airspeed...under max snap speed for most of us (unless you're Sean Tucker and rebuild your plane every year) you lead with the rudder and aileron, immediately followed by forward stick. Shoulder rolls are typically done with right aileron, right rudder, and forward stick. But you don't apply full forward stick - just enough to give the roll a 3D look and drive the rotation a bit. I probably use half elevator in the Pitts. Full aileron and full or near full rudder are typically used. Recovery is nearly instant with some opposite rudder, and neutral ailerons and elevator. Again, you don't want to stall the airplane. If you stall the airplane, the forward stick, power, right rudder, and right aileron are the exact inputs required for an inverted flat spin. Or as airspeed bleeds from the initial unrecovered shoulder roll, it could possibly decay into a spin, depending on the trajectory of the airplane. All that being said, I don't know the precise characteristics of Skybolts performing shoulder rolls or inverted flat spins.

Pitts S-2B shoulder roll at 1:49 -

Skip Stewart flying Pitts S-2B - Aerorock Pará de Minas -Brasil - YouTube 8

The "community" has come together to set up a Memorial Fund in Jim Doyle's memory to be used by his family, Pam and Darcy, to cover future needs whether
it be college or daily expenses.