John Denver was flying a Longeze that was modified a little by its builder. John Denver had a suspended pilots license at the time and wasn't supposed to be flying if I recall correctly. The Longeze fuel system original Rutan design had the fuel selector valve mounted near the floor between the legs of the pilot just in front of the front seat. Easy to reach, easy to select the right or left or I guess both plus off if your selector had three fuel flow options. This particular builder put the fuel valve on the backside or engine side of the firewall. He wanted all fuel lines and valves out of the cockpit. There was a shaft that went from the pilots left seat front side then back through the firewall to the fuel valve. There is a delay twisting moment in a long shaft if attempting to turn something stiff or tight right? These fuel valves are said to get difficult to turn with use or little use, I don't remember which now and you were supposed to lubricate them occasionally with a graphite lubricant. I'm pretty sure Longeze drivers with the fuel valve most used at the time were supposed to do this maintenance or maybe all aircraft with those type of fuel valves. Bottom line is John was advised before he left the ground to fill the plane with fuel when he was picking it up from the painter ( he had it painted with a paint scheme to be similar to other airplanes he owned). He said he had enough fuel for a short flight and I believe he flew for close to an hour if I remember correctly. When he ran out of gas in the tank he had been flying on he needed to reach the fuel valve to his left if I am remembering this correctly. He was a little short so cushions had been placed behind him to move him forward so he could reach the rudder pedals. That meant the fuel valve was behind him to his left side. He hade shoulder harnesses on so the thought was he had to take the harness loose possibly to twist around to turn the stiff fuel valve with vise grips he had been given because it needed lubricated. If this is all true then he had to let go of the control stick with his right hand. Vari and Longeze flight control sticks are on the right side of the fuselage. Based on witness reports the plane suddenly rolled over then dove straight into the water indicate he may have pushed on the rudder pedal on that side when he twisted around reaching for the fuel valve. Since he was close to the water when all of this happened he never had the time or chance to recover. I have thought many times about what happened in this case, unbuckled, let go of the stick, accidentally push the winglet rudder, roll quickly then possibly thrown up against the canopy, then straight into the water crashing into the bottom dirt/rocks etc. The divers said bad scrapes were on the bottom rocks where the plane had hit. I don't remember how deep the water was at the time. Everything some of you talked about, unfamiliar airplane, needed some maintenance before flight, taking off low on fuel, specifically on the tank his fuel valve was set to on departure. Usually when pilots get killed it is because of poor judgement. One little bad decision can lead to another until they add up to get you in serious trouble. I remember ole Gene Sheehan of Quickie Aircraft once saying " a pilot gets in a factory plane, taxis to the end of runway for run up, experiences a rough or no mag on check, he will taxi back and find a mechanic to fix it or not go flying. A Home Builder will not do that, he will risk 2,3,5,10 years of hard labor having built his dream plane plus his life and takeoff anyway!" He is correct, I've seen it myself and so have many of you. Think before you change systems in your plane, think if you have any issue before you take off. It's like my mother told us when we were learning to drive, "you always have more time than lives, wait until you know you are clear to pull out in front of fast moving vehicles" The same applies to flying airplanes, make sure you are not going to be placing yourself because of bad decision making, facing fast approaching terrain. As I've mentioned before I am getting older now so I may not remember things precisely but the story above is pretty accurate about JD because I knew those that were involved in the investigation at the time.
Larry H > On Aug 27, 2014, at 6:15 PM, peter via KRnet <krnet at list.krnet.org> wrote: > > Larry; I just hated that disaster...what was he flying? I've been diving in > Monterey Bay and come across a piper that went in on final. Peter > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Search the KRnet Archives at http://tugantek.com/archmailv2-kr/search. > To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to KRnet-leave at list.krnet.org > please see other KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html > see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change > options
