Georgetown, TX - MIDAIR Collision

There was a midair at Georgetown yesterday. Apparently two planes were on
final and landed on top of each other. Both pilots had injuries but both
survived.

Anyone know more details on this? Was it lack of radio communication ..did
they just not announce positions or something else was involved?

-Nasir

Hope this helps:

http://www.faa.gov/avr/aai/I_0510_N.txt

http://www.faa.gov/avr/aai/M_0510_N.txt


"Nasir" wrote in message
om...
There was a midair at Georgetown yesterday. Apparently two planes were on
final and landed on top of each other. Both pilots had injuries but both
survived.

Anyone know more details on this? Was it lack of radio communication ..did
they just not announce positions or something else was involved?

-Nasir

In article ecWnc.132660$f_5.85331@lakeread01,
"tom418" writes:
Hope this helps:

http://www.faa.gov/avr/aai/I_0510_N.txt

http://www.faa.gov/avr/aai/M_0510_N.txt


I see that the reports say a "DA-40 Katana" was involved. I wonder if
it was a DA-40, or a Katana. I understand that Adventure has a DA-40...
I wonder if it was theirs.

Are there any Katanas at GTU?

I hope the Giles pilot's "unknown injuries" aren't too serious.

"Jeff Meininger" wrote in message
...
In article ecWnc.132660$f_5.85331@lakeread01,
"tom418" writes:
Hope this helps:

http://www.faa.gov/avr/aai/I_0510_N.txt

http://www.faa.gov/avr/aai/M_0510_N.txt


I see that the reports say a "DA-40 Katana" was involved. I wonder if
it was a DA-40, or a Katana. I understand that Adventure has a DA-40...
I wonder if it was theirs.

Are there any Katanas at GTU?

I hope the Giles pilot's "unknown injuries" aren't too serious.

Here is a first hand account of the accident:

Folks,

What we have been talking about, and fearing happened this afternoon at the
Georgetown airport. I was taxiing to the run-up area near runway 18 when I
saw a Diamond Star on short final. Then all of a sudden I saw a yellow and
blue Extra sport plane approaching fast from short left base to final. He
was higher and slipping down from behind as they usually do. At first I
could not believe my eyes. It looked like the Extra sport plane was going to
go around, or over the Diamond and then they collided about 50 feet in the
air. Both planes spun around in the air and landed on the runway. The
Diamond spun in and landed on its nose then settled on its mains. The Extra
did a flat spin and hit hard on the runway. It happened so fast. I don't
recall hearing any radio calls prior to the collision. Anyway, we stopped in
the run-up area and I got out and ran over to the wreckage on the runway.
The pilot of the Diamond was walking around in a daze and the Extra pilot
was laying on his back on the runway. When I got to him, he was in pain and
complaining about his back. He kept saying that he never saw the other
plane. We calmed him down until emergency personnel came. EMS, Fire
Department, DPS and Police were there in a very short time. The news media
was also there as usual.


Runway 18 is closed until tomorrow when the FAA investigator arrives and
does his thing.


Please...let us keep our heads up and out of the cockpit, look for other
traffic, and make position reports on the radio to let the other planes know
where you are.


Thank God the collision didn't occur over the homes near the end of the
runway and nobody was killed.


Georgetown airport needs a control tower. It is long over due!!! The traffic
is hectic... This accident could have been prevented if we had a tower. We
all need to educate the city council before we have a worst tragedy.


I have attached some photos that I took of the crash site.


Fly Safely,

Bill Eldredge

"Nasir" wrote in message
. com...
[...]
Georgetown airport needs a control tower. It is long over due!!! The
traffic
is hectic... This accident could have been prevented if we had a tower. We
all need to educate the city council before we have a worst tragedy.

Sounds like it also could have been prevented if the Extra pilot had looked
out for traffic already on final. The guy who wrote that account should
probably be informed that number of operations is what affects whether a
control tower is at an airport or not, rather than number of accidents.

Pete

"Peter Duniho" wrote in message
...
"Nasir" wrote in message
. com...
[...]
Georgetown airport needs a control tower. It is long over due!!! The
traffic
is hectic... This accident could have been prevented if we had a tower.
We
all need to educate the city council before we have a worst tragedy.

Sounds like it also could have been prevented if the Extra pilot had
looked
out for traffic already on final. The guy who wrote that account should
probably be informed that number of operations is what affects whether a
control tower is at an airport or not, rather than number of accidents.

Pete

Georgetown is a very busy field. On clear days, its an excersize to fit
yourself into the pattern because there are so many in already. This
accident could have also been avoided if both pilots had made position
reports. Since that is not a requirement, a control tower would have also
prevented this miscommunication (or lack of communication) based accident. I
think thats what the guy meant.

-Nasir

In article ,
"Peter Duniho" writes:
"Nasir" wrote in message
. com...
[...]

The guy who wrote that account should
probably be informed that number of operations is what affects whether a
control tower is at an airport or not, rather than number of accidents.


I should probably keep my mouth shut as I'm not even an official student
pilot yet... but the author of that account is Bill Eldredge, the chief
flight instructor at Wright Aviation (an FBO at GTU). I assume he knows
what he's talking about. Also, AFAIK, GTU has been trying to raise
money for a tower for a while now. I think they increased hangar rates
by a significant amount for just this reason.

"Nasir" wrote in message
. com...
Georgetown is a very busy field. On clear days, its an excersize to fit
yourself into the pattern because there are so many in already.

For an FAA control tower, simple being "a very busy field" is insufficient.
We have several "very busy fields" in the Washington Puget Sound area --
Arlington, Harvey Field in Snohomish, and Bremerton to name a few -- but
none are busy enough to justify a control tower, even though at those
airports on clear days "its [sic] an excersize [sic] to fit yourself into
the pattern".

As with many accidents, there are a number of things that COULD have
prevented the accident. But that doesn't mean that all of those things
should be implemented. After all, the accident could have been prevented by
shutting down the airport. I doubt the folks there want that to happen,
right?

The real problem is that the pilot of the Extra wasn't paying attention to
the airspace in front of him. Trying to use this accident as an excuse to
build a control tower makes no more sense than if the neighbors tried to use
the accident as an excuse to shut down the airport.

Pete

Peter Duniho wrote:

Sounds like it also could have been prevented if the Extra pilot had looked
out for traffic already on final. The guy who wrote that account should
probably be informed that number of operations is what affects whether a
control tower is at an airport or not, rather than number of accidents.

Could the problem be fixed by overhauling VFR pattern procedures? For
example, require all VFR aircraft to join the pattern the same way at
uncontrolled airports, rather than allowing them to come in from all
different directions. You seem to have a *lot* of midair collisions in the
pattern in the U.S.


All the best,


David

Nasir wrote:

Georgetown is a very busy field. On clear days, its an excersize to fit
yourself into the pattern because there are so many in already. This
accident could have also been avoided if both pilots had made position
reports. Since that is not a requirement, a control tower would have also
prevented this miscommunication (or lack of communication) based accident. I
think thats what the guy meant.

Another possibility to fix this problem would be to borrow the "mandatory
frequency" (MF) idea from Canada. Up here, when an airport is too busy to
be completely uncontrolled, but not busy enough for a tower, it is
designated as an MF -- everyone, VFR or IFR, is required to monitor and
report on the mandatory frequency within the control zone during the MF
hours. Sometimes there will be an FSS specialist coordinating planes on the
frequency (and to give NORDO traffic a chance to fly in by prior
arrangement), but the system works fine without one.

The cost of implementing an MF is minimal -- just chart changes -- but it
might have avoided this accident.


All the best,


David