John Denver

....................................................................... A Long-EZ (not Denver's plane)
John Denver was a well known musician whose career had its ups and downs. I liked his earlier music, tired of the later stuff, and find that I really like a lot of it now that my wife has bought a four disk collection of his work.
Denver loved to fly and in October, 1997 he bought a Rutan-designed Long-EZ from its builder. The Texan builder had made the plane with one modification. He had placed the auxiliary fuel tank switch behind the pilot's seat instead of up front where the original plans put it. You needed to use a mirror to see it behind you. John flew it from Santa Maria Airport to Monterey Peninsula Airport, his home base, on October 11, using an estimated 9 of the estimated 19 gallons aboard. The next day he checked plane and fuel, did some touch and go landings, and headed off to the Monterey Peninsula for a flight. Within a few minutes, his engine died, and because of the placement of the switch, and decision not to refill his tanks, so did John Denver.

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John Denver's fatal plane crash apparently resulted from faulty ergonomics.
The popular singer died on Oct. 12, 1997, when his small experimental plane plunged into the Pacific Ocean just off Pacific Grove, Calif. According to investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, the crash was the culmination of a series of small mistakes. But the key factor seems to have been the decision by the plane's builder to place a fuel valve switch in a hard-to-get-at location behind the pilot.
Denver's final act apparently was to reach behind his left shoulder to switch the plane's engine from one fuel tank to another. The uncomfortable stretch caused his right foot to press against the right rudder, according to a final board report. The aircraft -- a single-engine Long-EZ -- pitched up, rolled to the right and slammed into the ocean.
George Petterson, the board's investigator-in-charge for the Denver crash, appeared in a board video showing what it would be like to turn the fuel switch in the cramped cockpit. His pretzel-like pose, coupled with the involuntary movement of his right foot, proved persuasive to the five-member board.
Denver's aircraft was the only Long-EZ ever built with the fuel valve in that location. All 1,200 of the others -- based on a design by experimental guru Burt Rutan -- have the switch on the console directly between the pilot's legs.
Texan Adrian Davis, who built the plane from the Rutan plans, told investigators he put the switch behind the pilot because he did not want to have fuel lines running into the cockpit, especially down where they might rupture in a belly landing. In truth, investigators said, Rutan had accounted for that possibility by strengthening the fuselage below the fuel switch.

mp052006

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