AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - June 2020 - 98

P&E

NEVER AGAIN

Close call
First flight in the Nemesis NXT
B Y W.G . H I L L

98 | AOPA PILOT June 2020

NXT slowly crept forward during the runup.
This, of course, was unacceptable, so I taxied
back and informed Sharp and the crew of my
predicament. Hill and I returned to Moriarty
to contemplate plan B. The NXT was subsequently flown to Moriarty, where rudder
pedal extensions were designed and installed.
On April 27, 2017, I finally had a chance to
fly the NXT. Since the winds were forecast to
increase, Hill and I met at Hill's hangar early
to get a leg up on the day and give me a chance
to see how Sharp's racer flew. The NXT has
no forward visibility when being taxied, so
a lipstick camera was located on the right
main landing gear in conjunction with a small
video screen in the cockpit so the pilot could
see ahead. Hill followed me out to Runway 26
to both assist and observe my flight.
As soon as I applied power, I was able
to raise the tail and directional control was
never an issue. I remained on the ground
perhaps a bit longer than needed, which
may have been a function of the elevator
trim position. On liftoff, the NXT seemed

ANNA MILL

AS THE SAYING GOES, there are those pilots
who go to the airport knowing it will be
their last flight and there are those unsuspecting souls who arrive at the airfield not
knowing they are about to embark on their
last mortal ascension.
In August 2015, Steve Hill (no relation
to author), who had been Jon Sharp's crew
chief, and I went to the Mojave, California,
airport to help restore the Nemesis NXT
to flying condition. Sharp's Reno racer had
been stored in a hangar that was damaged,
holding it captive until the hangar doors
were repaired. I was to relocate the NXT to
Moriarty, New Mexico, so that Sharp could
set some world speed records before retiring
the aircraft to the Smithsonian National Air
and Space Museum.
Sharp and his wife, Patricia, designed
and built the NXT around his six-foot-four
frame, and the rudder pedals were not adjustable. Even with cushions and bolsters, I was
barely able to reach the rudder pedals. I was
unable to perform a magneto check as the

very well behaved. I climbed out to the
southwest in order to get a better feel for
how it behaved before returning to land.
Although the aircraft was not unruly, the
air certainly was, and so I decided to cut the
flight short and return to terra firma.
An aircraft incident or accident is almost
never just one thing. It is a series of connected dots that, when added up, can lead
to an untenable situation-or worse. The
first dot manifested itself unbeknownst to
me as I entered the downwind leg.
It had been only a few days before that
I had flown the glider club's Piper Pawnee
towplane. When doing so, I would fly a
close, tight traffic pattern. In hindsight, I
should have flown a pattern commensurate
with the speeds I would be flying the Reno
racer; that is, 150 mph on final and somewhat faster on downwind and base.
Gear down, two in the green, and I started
working to slow the NXT. Because I was far
too close to the final approach, I banked
steeper as I watched myself fly through
final-dot number two. I must have added a
touch of bottom rudder (dot number three).
At that point mortality hovered at my shoulder, a watchful bird of prey, and the next thing
I knew, the NXT departed in a snap roll.
I would like to claim it was superior airmanship, skill, and reflexes that kept me
from dying that day, but I know better. My
guardian angel was watching over me and
only by the grace of God did I make the
control inputs that allowed me to recover
at about 200 or so feet. Steve Hill was privy
to all the above, and this is what he observed:
The aircraft disappeared from my view
and hearing to the west. After a few minutes I
heard the aircraft approaching from the west
and heard Bill's radio call of left downwind for
Runway 26 with gear. The aircraft appeared to
me to be at a normal altitude but maybe a little
close to the runway. By this time the winds on
the ground had picked up and were gusting a
little bit. The winds were mostly aligned with
the runway but may have had a southern component. My perception was such that I almost
called Bill on the radio to remind him to maintain 150 mph pattern speed but I did not.
I watched the aircraft perform a left turn
from downwind to base and the bank angle
seemed a little steep to me. The aircraft continued on a northerly heading with left wing

AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - June 2020

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