Two fatal crashes in France today F-GIKZ and F-GSBS

I opted to put the Jodel DR1050 down after lift-off, not getting out of ground effect, and looking at terrain ahead. Hit the airfield fence, no injuries, damage repaired and flew her home a few days later.
Near max AUW, near sea level, cold, uphill, long grass.
I hadn’t planned property – I was still fixated on flying straight ahead as I’d been taught. The ground fell away to the right of the runway and if I’d turned on lift-off I’d have been OK.
Stronsay, Orkney, 11/8/1993.

Is there an accessible flight recorder on the market ? It could help tremendously.

Working on this. Stay tuned!

Jujupilote wrote:

Is there an accessible flight recorder on the market ?

Yes. Iphone/flightlink app + Lightspeed headset. Plug & Play.

Regards, SD..

Jujupilote wrote:

Well, it never worked with my Lighspeed

Initially I couldnt get it to work either, but then I spoke to my step-son who is a fruit guru…
I suspect the I-phone/pad microphone is “0ff” in settings. Go to settings, then apps, then flightlink – turn on the microphone.

(Also, If it is a Zulu 3, the #6 dipswitch in the battery housing needs to be “on”…)

Regards, SD..

A simple cam with 800/600 def, a power adapter that can read current curve to get RPM, a filtered mic to get ambiant noise and an audio cable to get ATC, and we have something…

greg_mp wrote:

A simple cam with 800/600 def, a power adapter that can read current curve to get RPM, a filtered mic to get ambiant noise and an audio cable to get ATC, and we have something…

Ambient noise itself is enough to get rpm. Accident investigators occasionally use spectral analysis of ambient noise on radio transmissions recorded by ATC to determine rpm. With a proper recording of ambient noise in the aircraft such analyses should work even better.

As per the link I posted somewhere, you need way more than 800×600 to read instruments properly e.g. see the altimeter subscale. One could work out the subscale if one has continuous video from the departure runway, showing the altimeter pointers.

But there is a bigger issue: passengers objecting to being recorded. I have been doing flying videos for years and in some cases people are happy to be recorded, or I am happy to ask them if they are OK with it, but most videos which have the ATC sound track are ones I do flying alone. I always assure people I delete the recording after the flight (after editing) but they may not believe that. There is a suprising number of people in GA, especially women but also a surprising number of businessmen, who want to keep a very low profile and want to be absolutely 100% sure of not ending up in somebody’s YT video. There have similarly been objections in the airline world to cockpit video recording, though the sound track does end up on the FDR and (more to the point) on the QAR. Unless it is mandatory, it isn’t going to get adopted.

Then you have to make it properly fireproof, because a high % of GA fatal crashes involve a fire consuming most of the aircraft. That means it cannot be a tiny device – you need a certain thickness of material.

a investigation has been opened for manslaughter for the Arcachon crash. I wouldn’t like to be safety officer of the club

As the ancient saying goes, you live by the sword, you die by the sword. If you want to exercise authority over a club, who rents what and who flies where, all judged by you according to your perception of the pilot’s ability, then these questions will be asked. Here in the UK people complain about club currency rules etc (can’t rent unless flown with an FI in past 30 days, etc) but that probably discharges the due diligence obligation. Actually, in the UK, making sure the renter has a PPL would be enough for that purpose.

Jujupilote wrote:

Edit : a investigation has been opened for manslaughter for the Arcachon crash. I wouldn’t like to be safety officer of the club

From the description in aviation-safety-net, it seems like a pure rental flight with no involvement of the club except providing the aircraft. In that case the only possible culpability by someone other than the pilot must be in maintenance. So unless the club does the maintenance in-house, they shouldn’t need to worry.