The Last Flight of Scott Crossfield - Esquire Magazine

The Last Flight of Scott Crossfield - Esquire Magazine

November 2006

http://www.esquire.com/features/arti...ssfield_1.html


Rusty

Rusty wrote:
The Last Flight of Scott Crossfield - Esquire Magazine

November 2006

http://www.esquire.com/features/arti...ssfield_1.html


Rusty


The article mentioned that Crossfield's plane often had trouble with
the landing gear. He bought the plane used. There is an incident report
that the plane suffered "substanital damage" in a landing accident
involving the prior owner.

N6579X landing accident August 21, 1978 by prior owner
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=39641&key=0

FAA Resistration for N6579X
http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinqu...umbertxt=6579X

Color photo of N6579X
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0048724/L/

Update on Crossfield's accident
http://www.ntsb.gov/pressrel/2006/060427a.htm


Rusty

Rusty wrote:

Update on Crossfield's accident
http://www.ntsb.gov/pressrel/2006/060427a.htm



Odd he'd fly into a thunderstorm of that intensity; it should have been
very obvious as he approached it.
Level 6 is the highest intensity type of thunderstorm; we're talking
something topping out at around 40 to 50 thousand feet here, with a hell
of a lot of lightning, and rain coming down so fast that it would look
like a solid wall ahead of you (over 5.6 inches per hour). You could
probably see the thunderhead on one of these from over 200 miles away.
Pat

Thanks, Rusty.

/dps

Pat Flannery wrote:
Rusty wrote:

Update on Crossfield's accident
http://www.ntsb.gov/pressrel/2006/060427a.htm



Odd he'd fly into a thunderstorm of that intensity; it should have been
very obvious as he approached it.
Level 6 is the highest intensity type of thunderstorm; we're talking
something topping out at around 40 to 50 thousand feet here, with a hell
of a lot of lightning, and rain coming down so fast that it would look
like a solid wall ahead of you (over 5.6 inches per hour). You could
probably see the thunderhead on one of these from over 200 miles away.
now you're an aviation expert?

scott wrote:

now you're an aviation expert?


No.. but I am holder of the United States Department Of Commerce
Certificate Of Authority to take weather observations # 133,894, and
have used that certificate to aid several thousand aircraft to a safe
landing at Jamestown Airport during my twelve years as a licensed FAA
weather observer who would talk to them over the radio as they
approached the airfield.
Figure this out sometime:
METAR 2247 32018G28KT 260V350 2 1/4 T RA SCT 009 BKN080CB BKN 150
OVC250 35/31 A2931 RMK T TB03 SW-NW MOVG E FQT LTG CC CG CA DSNT SW-NW &
DSNT E GRB12E25 HLSTO 5/8 WNDSHFT 28 PRESRR.
I can read and write this screwy stuff.
.....and in case anyone wonders what that all means, here's a
translation: METAR (new standard international meteorological surface
observation replacing the old SA format*) 22:47 Local Standard Time
(normal hourly report) winds from 320 degrees true at 18 knots with
gusts to 28 knots, wind direction variable between 260 degrees and 350
degrees, visibility 2 and 1/4 miles, moderate rain, scattered clouds at
nine hundred feet, broken clouds at eight thousand feet with a
cumulonimbus storm cloud associated with them, more broken clouds at
fifteen thousand feet, and a overcast at twenty-five thousand feet.
Temperature 35 degrees Celsius, dewpoint 31 degrees Celsius. Altimeter
29.31 inches. Remarks: moderate thunderstorm; thunderstorm began at 03
minutes after the hour, and is southwest through northwest of the
station moving east. Frequent lightning cloud-to-cloud, cloud-to-ground,
cloud-to-air distant southwest through northwest and distant east; hail
began twelve minutes after the hour and ended twenty-five minutes after
the hour; hailstone size 5/8th's inch. Wind's direction shifted at
twenty-eight minutes after the hour; air pressure rising rapidly.
As far as thunderstorms go that's a pretty average METAR report; when
weird **** stated happening they could get a _lot_ more involved than that.
The all-time classics were the ones that the weather observer sent in
regarding the funnel cloud coming at him out of the west in the old SA
format near his standard observation time, which went something like
this (decoded)
"Special report 1335-funnel cloud seven miles west moving east"
"Special report 1341-tornado five miles west moving east"
"Standard report 1347- winds 240 zero degrees at forty knots with gust
to seventy knots, visibility 1/2 mile, heavy rain, eight hundred feet
scattered, two thousand feet overcast; tornado, heavy rain, temperature
41 degrees Celsius, dewpoint 38 degrees Celsius, altimeter 2840 and
falling rapidly. Remarks: tornado began at 1339, two miles west moving
east."
"Special report 1402- tornado 1/4 mile west of station moving east,
observer seeking cover."
"Special report 1420- tornado ended at 1359, funnel cloud two miles
east, moving east.
"Standard report 1448- estimated winds at 280 degrees at fifteen knots,
visibility 3 miles, light rain, overcast clouds at four thousand feet,
temperature missing, dewpoint missing, altimeter missing. Remarks:
tornado ended at 1359; station destroyed observer still alive."
That guy was our hero. :-)

* And which was a complete bitch to learn after the old format, as they
changed just about everything to make it metric and in French as far as
abbreviations went...except of course, the amount of sky cover...under
the old system, the sky was divided into tenths as far as cloud cover
went; under METAR it was divided into _eighths_ as far as cloud cover went.

Pat

On Thu, 12 Oct 2006 01:04:20 -0500, scott wrote
(in article .com):

now you're an aviation expert?

You mean you haven't wandered away to harass some other newsgroup yet,
Grissom?



--
Herb Schaltegger
"You can run on for a long time . . . sooner or later, God'll cut you
down." - Johnny Cash
http://www.angryherb.net

"scott" wrote in message
oups.com...
now you're an aviation expert?

He's provided a greater expertise than you ever have.

"Rusty" writes:

The Last Flight of Scott Crossfield - Esquire Magazine

November 2006

http://www.esquire.com/features/arti...ssfield_1.html

Quoting the very beginning:

The Last Flight of Scott Crossfield

By Chris Jones
November 2006, Volume 146, Issue 5

Nice name. Not me, just another of my co-nominals.

Herb Schaltegger wrote:

You mean you haven't wandered away to harass some other newsgroup yet,
Grissom?

That's interesting...he changes his address then.
I forgot to put the fact that a tornado is a Urgent Special (USP) rather
than a ordinary special. also missed the PKWND remark on the hourly
report (any wind during the hour exceeding 35 knots gets noted by
direction and speed in the hourly report, as
PKWND 320/45 for example...highest wind speed was from 320 degrees, and
was 45 knots.
The book that tells you how to write one of these reports is around 200
pages in length; and the FAA version is simple compared to the one the
National Weather Service uses, which has around half again as much data
in a given report.
It took me a couple years to get fully up to speed on this, but boy did
I see some beautiful storms and other meteorological phenomena. Even saw
a noctilucent cloud one morning before sunrise. Also got to give landing
information to a replica Sopwith Camel one morning (not a ultralight
version- a exact replica other than the spinning rotary engine, machine
guns and all.)
The angle of bank indicator on a Sopwith Camel is really something to
see: A "U"-shaped glass tube full of alcohol or thin oil with a black
marble rolling around in it. Since this didn't take centrifugal force
into account, it must have been a bit iffy to use in a banking turn. :-)

Pat