Warbird Information Exchange

It looks like Riggs got his sentencing. He is going to jail:

http://aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentB ... e483bee70&

I think Holm testified against Riggs and walked, but is in hot water over other stuff.

Riggs is appealing this but the city of SM is not messing around.

The plot thickens.

_________________
"If its red or dusty - DON'T TOUCH IT!

What is Holm in hot water about "over other stuff"? Are you at liberty to say? Is it related to this case or something totally different?

Totally different - I'd rather not say because I heard 3 different versions of the story.

_________________
"If its red or dusty - DON'T TOUCH IT!

O.K., no problem, I totally understand. I'm sure we'll hear about it soon enough.

Looks like Riggs made the news again. Channel 2 news is reporting he crashed into a lake in Northern China today & didn't survive.

_________________
Those who possess real knowledge are rare.

Those who can set that knowledge into motion in the physical world are rarer still.

The few who possess real knowledge and can set it into motion of their own hands are the rarest of all.

From the LA Times:

Search continues for local pilot whose plane crashed in China

By Barbara Demick and Dan Weikel
September 17, 2013, 11:26 p.m.
A Southern California pilot who lost his license twice for buzzing the Santa Monica Pier and illegally selling rides to the public remains missing after his small plane crashed in northeast China.

David G. Riggs was reportedly flying a Lancair 320, a high-performance single-engine aircraft made from a kit, Tuesday when he struck the surface of a lake outside Shenyang, where he was planning to perform in an airshow, organizers and Chinese state media said.

His 18-year-old translator was killed instantly, but Riggs’ body was still missing as of Wednesday afternoon local time.

Witnesses said Riggs was practicing a stunt in the rain that required him to gently touch the wheels on the water to produce a skiing effect. Apparently, the landing gear or another part of the plane caught the water.

"We are investigating the cause of the crash," said Xu Jiuqing of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, one of the organizers of the air show.

Riggs was supposed to be performing a stunt inspired by the Tom Cruise movie "Top Gun" for the International Flight Conference & General Aviation Products Expo, which opens Friday.

Riggs’ flight took off at 1:40 p.m. local time Tuesday from the Shenyang Faku General Aviation Base.

"As soon as he took off, he turned right and the plane went straight into the lake," Xu said on Wednesday.

Xu said that the wreckage of the aircraft had been recovered, but that as of Wednesday afternoon, Riggs' body had not.

Riggs, whose aviation company is based in Studio City, is one of the most notorious private pilots in Southern California.

In November 2008, he made several low-level passes over the Santa Monica Pier in an Aero Vodochody L-39 Albatros, a Czechoslovakian-built jet trainer once popular with Soviet bloc air forces.

The Federal Aviation Administration revoked Riggs’ flight privileges for a year and he was convicted of recklessly operating an aircraft, a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to 60 days of community service and 60 days in county jail, but he only served a few days because of overcrowding.

Last November, Riggs lost his pilot’s license for another year for selling rides to the public in an L-39 without FAA approval. The enforcement action stemmed from an accident in May 2012 in which another L-39 crashed in the desert outside Boulder City, Nev., killing a veteran pilot and his passenger.

Authorities said Riggs was flying with another passenger in his own L-39 next to the ill-fated plane shortly before it crashed. He and the other pilot had sold rides to eight people who traveled to Boulder City Municipal Airport.

wtf?

This blockhead's story would be a perfect addition to those "Darwin Awards" e-mails that we see from time to time. It's a shame he took someone else with him when he died.

Just like ol' Ron White says... "You can't fix stupid."

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

How's that saying go? "There are old pilots, there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots"...

This guy sounds like a civilian Bud Holland- an accident waiting to happen. Sorry for his family, but I'm more saddened that this irresponsible jackhole took someone with him.

Lynn

Just what China's budding general aviation scene needs...

How many of you were commenting about the amazing skills shown in that picture of the formation of T-6's skimming their wheels along the lake? Then this pilot does the same and gets condemned?

It was stupid when the T-6 team did it. They just got away with it. This guy did not and killed an innocent.

The T-6 is a tailwheel aircraft (gear ahead of the CG) and that stunt was briefed and practiced. There were only the pilots aboard and conditions were tightly controlled.

Not sure about this Lancair crash, but the history of this pilot makes the circumstances of the crash suspect in my mind.

It is one thing to be a quazlified demonstration pilot with a low level waiver taking measured risks, it is another to seemingly throw caution to the wind at every opportunity while piloting an airplane.

How tightly can you control the wind, waves or other variables that could have sent all of them into the water?
Yes it was briefed. Done by a demonstration team. I still would not do it either as a member of the team or as this other pilot.
Just cause you are "good enough" to get away with it does not excuse the fact you did it.

I find it hard to believe that anyone with a functioning brain would try to water-ski a nosedragger.

Steve