Since the untimely death of our friend (and chief charter pilot at the
local FBO) while ferrying a Spencer Air Car back from Seattle, WA last
week, our local pilot community has been roiled with speculation about
the cause of the crash.

Of course we won't know anything definitive for a long while, but the
facts we can discern are as follows:

- The plane was a Spencer Air Car, a homebuilt flying boat that looks
like a Republic SeaBee made out of wood.

- The landing gear was down when they crashed

- Witnesses say the engine sputtered, then failed.

- Witnesses say they hit very hard, and "bounced like a rubber ball"
before hitting again and exploding into a million pieces.

- There was no fire.

- The wreckage was hardly recognizable as an aircraft, evidence of how
hard they hit.

- The area they landed in could not be better for an off-airport
landing: Flat, frozen, open Iowa farmland.

- The pilot was a CFII who flew daily, in everything from a Pietenpol
(he learned to fly in one, with his dad), to a CitationJet. This was
NOT an inexperienced pilot.

Speculation about the way an amphib like this would fly after an
engine failure (with the dead engine way up high above the fuselage)
seems to indicate that it could make the elevator forces much lighter
than with power on, and could lead to an inadvertent stall by over-
flaring. In the absence of a mechanical failure, this would seem to
explain the eye-witnesses account of the crash.

We're all devastated by the loss of someone who could arguably be
described as our best local pilot, and I'm trying to understand the
(very unusual) type of homebuilt aircraft they were flying. Does
anyone here own one? Or, has anyone ever flown one? Comments on the
flight characteristics would be appreciated.

Thanks,
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"