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Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

fox13seattle.com

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Re: Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

#71

Post by dmix »

AmVess wrote: post #38
rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #11

Was he doing loops/flips intentionally, or did he lose control of the plane? Either way, what an absolute legend to be flying solo at his age.

Intentional loop. He entered it too fast and too low. On the descent, he was going too fast for his aircraft to have any type of control authority and he was a passenger at that point. The aircraft basically stalled out in a dive, and with no cohesive airflow over the control surfaces, the aircraft continued to stall to the point of impact.

That's one hell of a way to go out, especially at 91. On brand for an astronaut.

Re: Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

#72

Post by SoftTalker »

p51-remorse wrote: post #6
BSOhealth wrote: post #4

All respect, this guy is was ~91. I’m uncomfortable driving with my mom. As a total layperson, what sort of tests does a person have to pass annually(?) to maintain a pilot’s license? Or is this dude just so O.G. that he was bound to go out living his dream?

At a minimum, flight reviews every two years. More applicable to a 90yo is keeping a medical.

For private flying, the medical is a lot less stringent (as I understand it.... I'm not a pilot).

Re: Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

#73

Post by Choco31415 »

danielecook wrote: post #63
jvm___ wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The shutter speed was 1/250th of a second, so the earth rotated about 4 miles or 6 kms while the shutter was open. Not enough to blur the photo obviously, but crazy to think about.

I’m confused. Does this math check out? Circumference is 24,901 - so about 1000 mph at equator. 1000 mph / 3600 s / h = 0.27 mps 0.27 * (1/250) = 0.001 miles? Doing this math on my phone but am I missing something here?

Even if we stretch out and look at how fast the Earth orbits the sun, it still doesn't explain the 4 mile figure.

Earth's orbital speed: 66,200 mph

66,200 mph / 3600 s/h = 18.38 mps

18.38 * (1/250) = 0.07 miles

Re: Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

#74

Post by [deleted] »

avalys wrote: post #53

Since there’s a lot of commenting about his age, I’ll remark (as a 36-year-old private pilot) that in my opinion an elderly man flying recreationally is actually much less hazardous to the general public than an elderly man driving a car. Flying is a specialized skill, but once you learn it it’s not especially difficult and requires less sustained focus, reflexes and reaction time than driving. It’s not as if there’s…

[deleted]

Re: Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

#76

Post by dmix »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Anders He took the Earthrise photo, which Nature photographer Galen Rowell described as "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthrise https://www.abc.net.au/science/moon/earthrise.htm

> Joni Mitchell sings on her 1976 song "Refuge of the Roads": "In a highway service station / Over the month of June / Was a photograph of the Earth / Taken coming back from the Moon / And you couldn't see a city / On that marbled bowling ball / Or a forest or a highway / Or me here least of all …"

Great lyrics

https://youtu.be/VfLH0xJByiI?si=W953IQPO98QSSq0K&t=284

Re: Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

#77

Post by subhro »

avalys wrote: post #53

Since there’s a lot of commenting about his age, I’ll remark (as a 36-year-old private pilot) that in my opinion an elderly man flying recreationally is actually much less hazardous to the general public than an elderly man driving a car. Flying is a specialized skill, but once you learn it it’s not especially difficult and requires less sustained focus, reflexes and reaction time than driving. It’s not as if there’s…

> Flying is a specialized skill, but once you learn it it’s not especially difficult and requires less sustained focus, reflexes and reaction time than driving.

Respectfully disagree (as a 40-something year old aerobatic pilot) with the less sustained focus part, not the specialized skill part.

Re: Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

#78

Post by p51-remorse »

SoftTalker wrote: post #72
p51-remorse wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a minimum, flight reviews every two years. More applicable to a 90yo is keeping a medical.

For private flying, the medical is a lot less stringent (as I understand it.... I'm not a pilot).

Eh… a third class medical still is highly sensitive to your medical history. See /r/flying for various tribulations even young people have gone through for relatively benign things.

Re: Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

#79

Post by TylerE »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #39
jrootabega wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Does a solo plane crash have a statistically smaller chance of hurting anybody else?

He was flying aerobatics over a lake (or possible bay, etc) at low altitude on a summer day.

Higher risk.

Re: Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders ID'd in WA plane crash

#80

Post by TylerE »

wszrfcbhujnikm wrote: post #62
AmVess wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intentional loop. He entered it too fast and too low. On the descent, he was going too fast for his aircraft to have any type of control authority and he was a passenger at that point. The aircraft basically stalled out in a dive, and with no cohesive airflow over the control surfaces, the aircraft continued to stall to the point of impact.

What could be the reasons for this? Misread the altitude? Sudden wind?

Barring a pre-crash sequence mechanical failure, this was pilot error. There is a safe speed called Va, or maneuvering speed. While most aircraft will have higher maximum allowed speeds, maneuvering speed is the most important figure for aerobatics because it's the maximum speed at which the airplane's flight controls can be used at full deflection (i.e. maximum effort) without exceeding the structural capabilities of the aircraft.

What most likely happened was was a loss of situational awareness in the pre-loop dive, resulting in a steeper and faster dive than intended.

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