ASH-25J Crash in Aus

On Monday, January 22, 2018 at 10:31:46 AM UTC-8, AS wrote:
On Monday, January 22, 2018 at 10:55:43 AM UTC-5, wrote:
Yesterday. Fatal

This is the only thing I could find - not much to go by. Sad, indeed!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...der-crash.html

We lost another of our brethren. RIP, Paul Mander.
https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=204780
Paul's ASH25E was converted to a twin jet self-launcher several years ago.
Jim

"It was on fire when it crashed..."

Mike

On Monday, January 22, 2018 at 2:42:23 PM UTC-5, Mike the Strike wrote:
"It was on fire when it crashed..."

"GO" was equipped with a video monitor showing the engine area,
and IIRC (its been a few years) a fire-suppression system.
Paul was concerned and careful about the possible mishaps.
Sadly we'll probably never learn what happened.

Tragic accident. Since is was near an airfield chances are there were witnesses. It is important to know if the fire was the cause or the result of the accident. Is there more information available? I am sure many folks with jet sustainers would want to know more.

Ramy

The fire was before the crash, seen to be on fire on downwind.
Tom

On Tuesday, 30 January 2018 11:05:13 UTC+11, wrote:
The fire was before the crash, seen to be on fire on downwind.
Tom

Confirmed.

This was the second engine bay fire in this particular glider. The reason it has the Jets fitted was because the previous motor caught fire and did a lot of damage. Rather than putting in a new engine, an experimental certificate was obtained and the dual Jet system installed. There's another ASH25M here in Oz that has also suffered an engine bay fire, coincidental or sign of a greater fault? We won't know for at least 12 months. The ATSB (aussie equivalent of NTSB) has taken control of the investigation. GFA is just a passenger now and waiting for the outcomes.

Justin, the previous engine in this glider had not run for probably 20 years, you sure this glider had a previous fire? I do know of two other ASH25 with fires, but ASH25Ms, not ASH25e. As you said, the ATSB are involved so a report eventually.
Tom

On Wednesday, January 31, 2018 at 5:33:37 AM UTC-5, Justin Couch wrote:
This was the second engine bay fire in this particular glider.
The reason it has the Jets fitted was because the previous motor
caught fire and did a lot of damage.

That's not what Paul told me. The original motor in "GO" was an early
factory attempt at a sustainer, famous as as "less than optimum".
Another owner of this particular design told me he sold the engine/prop
immediately as it was the best possible way to dispose of it ;-)
Anyway, the compact jets permitted Paul to retrofit the jets without
making much change to structure (mostly using existing cutout etc).

...There's another ASH25M here in Oz that has also suffered an engine
bay fire, coincidental or sign of a greater fault?

Absolutely coincidental. This engine bay fire was caused by use of
non fire-proof material in a high-temperature area; subsequently
rectified by the manufacturer (as usual without admitting any fault,
nor admitting there had in fact been other instances).
This time the pilot (a good friend of mine) was incredibly lucky.
During take-off, some-one in the tower noticed the fire and called
him on the radio. He aborted take-off, and again fortunately someone
at the airport had a fire-extinguisher handy and got to the plane
shortly after it stopped rolling, so the fire was extinguished promptly.
IIRC it took more than a year to get everything back to working order...

Hope that helps clarify,
Best Regards, Dave

On Monday, January 22, 2018 at 2:02:50 PM UTC-5, JS wrote:
We lost another of our brethren. RIP, Paul Mander.
https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=204780
Paul's ASH25E was converted to a twin jet self-launcher several years ago.

In addition to being a great guy and a great pilot, Paul was a great promoter
of our sport and donated countless hours to XC and racing training/coaching.
Paul generously lent me his ASH-25J "GO" for FLARM testing a few years back.
He will be greatly missed.