Light aircraft crash at Heck Field 27/01/26

[red750]

A light aircraft with two persons on board crashed at Heck Field around 6:30 am today. Details are scarce, with authorities unsure if it was arriving or departing. Fears are that both occupants may be deceased.

[turboplanner]

58 minutes ago, red750 said:

A light aircraft with two persons on board crashed at Heck Field around 6:30 am today. Details are scarce, with authorities unsure if it was arriving or departing. Fears are that both occupants may be deceased.

Details, photos, maps on Brisbane Times if you have a subscription. Both with life-threatening injuries.

[BurnieM]

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/plane-crash-lands-two-people-trapped-in-cockpit-as-field-burns-20260127-p5nx7g.html

 

 

[Blueadventures]

 

Doesn't look good.

[turboplanner]

GE

[red750]

Midday news report.

 

Both male occupants confirmed deceased. Fire spreading fast in dry conditions with a strong wind. 

 

Most stupid report: They haven't located a black box.

[kgwilson]

According to the ABC report a Flight Plan was lodged to "a small town outside of Tamworth". Possibly an EFATO. Terrible tragedy. Condolences to the occupants family and friends.

[Kununurra]

Reported as a Vans RV8A VH-MKX

A tragic loss of 2 lives.

Condolences to the families 

[Thruster88]

RV's normal have a lycoming.  MKX was powered by a Subaru Ej257 turbo. 

[BrendAn]

Just showed him flying a long eze on the news but they did say he owned several planes.

 

[BurnieM]

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/565911

 

[Kyle Communications]

The pilots name has been released. It was Greg Ackman, He was the owner of Mobile One a antenna manufacturer. I bought a lot of antennas from him over the years and use a aviation one here and at the farm. He was here about 18 months ago dropping off a couple of antennas. I dealt with him since the early 1990's. He was a good guy..didnt take crap from anyone either. We got on very well. Vale Greg Ackman

[turboplanner]

Aviation Safety Network Accidents - Vans RV-8, RV-8A

[Kyle Communications]

Trevor Mills was the pilot involved in the accident at Old Station late last year. He also was a good friend. He had a RV8 as well with a suburu engine init initally and I flew in it with him but later he did the turbo conversion. His engine went bang on takeoff and luckily he survived but he walked 2km back to Old Station with 80% burns and broken ribs and back injuries because the fuselage had twisted and he couldnt get the canopy opened quickly enough. He is still in the RBWH and will be for a while yet. He has just had a massive amount of skin grafts. I love building my own aircraft but when it comes to the engines I prefer to stay with tried and tested engines. A lot of auto conversions may be ok but there seems to be far more engine outs in aircraft that have auto engine mods done in them

 

[onetrack]

Subaru's are full of Nissan parts, built under sub-contract to Subaru. Nissan employees are unhappy employees, because Nissan has carried out multiple forced mergers with multiple suppliers and subcontractors, and those employees never ever wanted to work for Nissan. And Subaru reliability is nowhere near as good as it should be. Their diesel engines broke crankshafts by the dozen in the late 2000's, before they carried out a crankshaft redesign that seemed to fix the early problems.

 

Subaru EJ25 problems involved regular head gasket failures, ring problems, piston failures, seal failures, bearing failures and timing belt failures. In comparison, numerous Honda and Toyota engines are virtually bulletproof, but they rarely lend themselves to modification to fit into aircraft - apart from the Viking/Honda aircraft engine conversions. And of course, many Subaru aircraft engine conversions are also carried out with used car engines. Not an engine I'd like to fly behind.

[Thruster88]

5 hours ago, turboplanner said:

Aviation Safety Network Accidents - Vans RV-8, RV-8A

I would point out this is world wide and the RV8 is a very popular aircraft. As an RV owner I read all these accident reports and think is that scenario likely to happen to me. How you fly and where you fly is a big factor in risk. RV's are beautiful, amazing, capable safe aircraft. 

[KRviator]

2 hours ago, Thruster88 said:

I would point out this is world wide and the RV8 is a very popular aircraft. As an RV owner I read all these accident reports and think is that scenario likely to happen to me. How you fly and where you fly is a big factor in risk. RV's are beautiful, amazing, capable safe aircraft. 

Agreed. There's 1,600 -8's flying around the world. Even mine was the 1020th RV-9 completed - the entire RV lineup are very capable and time-proven and up until recently, affordable designs, with very few faults. 

That Glassair at Wedderburn last year also had a Subaru conversion fitted. That's three EJ conversion's crashes with 4 fatalities (and very close to a 5th...) in the space of 12 months or so, from a comparatively small population of Experimental's in Australia.

No sir,  Rotax or Lycoming for me. Or Continental if I'm flying something that came out of Wichita.

[Kyle Communications]

2 hours ago, Thruster88 said:

I would point out this is world wide and the RV8 is a very popular aircraft. As an RV owner I read all these accident reports and think is that scenario likely to happen to me. How you fly and where you fly is a big factor in risk. RV's are beautiful, amazing, capable safe aircraft. 

Most airframes are very safe, the big factor is the donk you use. I could start a flame war by just mentioning one engine name

 

 

[bushcaddy105]

As a Subaru owner, driver and flyer for decades I agree with the comments about the EJ25 QUAD CAM engine, particularly when owner modified, but stand by the unmodified single cam versions of the EJ series.

Our first Outback had the quad cam EJ25 and head gaskets were an issue until I fitted after-market multi-layer ones rather than the crimped steel shim of the OEM gaskets. The EJ25 (single cam) in our current 2012 Outback has done over 300,000 Km with only scheduled servicing and still runs the same as when new.

The EJ22 in my car club registered 1994 Liberty is the same - scheduled servicing and no issues over 200,000+ Km. In my opinion, the most reliable Subaru engine ever.

I plead guilty to carrying out my own conversion of the EA81 in the BushCaddy, but in March it will have been flying for 20 years and currently has done 880+ successful hours.

Please don't condemn ALL Subaru engines!

[danny_galaga]

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/565911?fbclid=Iwb21leAPmT05jbGNrA-ZPRWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHrl1gvXl7mn_MZ9drx3ERglaLgVwft-g4EzIrAHepOiMJGWGJIDqdewcIIbP_aem_fZMM45xwsr1dk40bM1JSXw

[danny_galaga]

Previous engine failure (Subaru)

 

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/78548

[KRviator]

I had it in my mind this aircraft was recently acquired by the owner and I think I'm right. It was listed for sale at an insane (by RV standards) price by LAS last year and went for just $95K.

[facthunter]

Any record of the plane before the two mentioned. Subaru motor with Nosewheel is a tight squeeze . Nev

[jackc]

RIP Greg….dealt with his antenna business for many years, starting in 1977? He started off making CB antennas, some of the best available, even back then.

My business bought from him when I started, 30 years I operated for. His products were all top notch. 

[PapaFox]

Having seen the latest sale ad before, it lists 250hp supposedly, which is pushing pretty hard on that motor. That said, the cruise speed listed, and shown by recent flight tracks doesn't suggest any more than 180