February 2002
Nov. 27, Evansville, Ind. / Mooney TLS
Subscribers Only At 15:13 central time, a Mooney M20M crashed about a mile north of Evansville Regional Airport as the pilot was attempting to return to the airport after takeoff. The pilot and passenger were killed. The pilot reported smoke in the cockpit and then said there was a fire onboard at an unspecified location. The flight, planned to be an IFR flight to Indianapolis, had taken off only a minute earlier....
Nov. 26, Reidsville, Ga. / Cessna 310
Subscribers Only At about 16:05 eastern time, a Cessna 310C lost engine power and crashed in the ensuing forced landing at Reidsville Municipal Airport. The pilot and four passengers suffered minor injuries, but the airplane was destroyed. The flight had originated earlier in the day at Niagara Falls, N.Y., and had made a fuel stop in Hickory, N.C., departing about 14:15. All four fuel tanks had been topped off at Hickory. The pilot took off on the main (tip) tanks, cruised on the inboard tanks until they were nearly empty, then switched back to the main tanks. After about 20 minutes, the engines began to surge and lose power. The pilot diverted to Reidsville but could not make the runway. The pilot said the...
Nov. 21, Brookville, Pa. / Cessna Skylane
Subscribers Only At 18:30 eastern time, a Cessna 182 lost engine power and was damaged in the ensuing forced landing, leaving the pilot with minor injuries. The pilot said he departed at about 16:45 on a cross-country trip. He set power and leaned the engine to about 11.5 gph. After about 2 hours, 15 minutes of flight, the engine lost power. He reported the loss of power on 121.5 and another pilot helped the pilot troubleshoot the problem. The pilot checked the magnetos, turned the carburetor heat “ON” and checked the fuel selector, which was in the “Both” position. The pilot ensured that the primer was locked and set the mixture to full rich, the throttle to full open, and the boost pump to “ON.” The pilot...
Nov. 21, Eagleville, Calif. / Aero Commander 500
Subscribers Only At 11:26 Pacific time, an Aero Commander 500S struck mountainous terrain on Eagle Peak, killing the four occupants. The flight departed Reno, Nev., about 10:45 on an IFR flight to Wenatchee, Wash. The pilot requested 12,500 feet msl as a cruise altitude and the sector controller informed the pilot that he was unable to clear the flight to that altitude because the minimum enroute altitude for the route segment was 14,000 feet. The pilot then canceled his instrument flight plan and stated that he was VFR on top at 10,500 feet. At 11:26, the controller lost radio and radar contact....
Nov. 19, Patterson, La. / Grumman American AA-1B
Subscribers Only At 17:30 central time, a Grumman American AA-1B lost power on initial climb from Williams Memorial Airport and crashed, killing the pilot. A witness said the airplane began a “shallow climb” after takeoff. When it was at about 90 to 100 feet agl, the engine lost power, regained partial power and then lost power again. The witness saw the airplane’s nose lower and the airplane made an “abrupt” steep right bank past 90 degrees and crashed....
Nov. 16, Spearville, Kan. / Piper Saratoga
Subscribers Only At 18:39 central time, the pilot of a Piper PA-32R-301 lost control and crashed three miles north-northwest of Spearville. The pilot was killed. IMC prevailed and no flight plan was filed. A witness observed the airplane fly over his house heading southwest, turn south and go into a fog bank. The airplane then came out of the fog heading west and diving to the ground....
Nov. 15, Leesburg, Va. / Cessna Skyhawk
Subscribers Only At 18:16 eastern time, a Cessna 172S was destroyed by an explosion and fire after the pilot shut down the engine on the taxiway at Leesburg Executive Airport. The pilot was seriously injured. The pilot said he was flying to a nearby airport to pick up a passenger and return. The aircraft had been loaded for a departure the next day to make a fishing trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The airplane was loaded with fishing gear, camping gear and 15 gallons of 100LL avgas in four, five-gallon cans. The fuel cans and the gear were secured under a cargo net in the airplane two days prior to the accident. The pilot said he taxied to the runup area and got an overwhelming fuel smell. He shut...
Nov. 13, Santa Monica, Calif. / Cessna 340
Subscribers Only At 18:35 Pacific time, a Cessna 340A overran runway 21, vaulted an embankment and came to rest on an airport service road during an aborted takeoff at Santa Monica Municipal Airport. The pilot and passenger were killed. Witnesses reported the airplane passing low and fast down the runway. They then reported hearing the engines retarded to idle, skidding noises and the sound of impact. A flight instructor saw the airplane taxi directly from an airport restaurant parking area to the runway, without stopping in the runup area. The airplane’s flight control lock was found installed in the pilot’s control column....
Nov. 12, Graham, Texas / Piper Cheyenne
Subscribers Only At 23:25 central time, a Piper PA-31T1 crashed on approach to Graham Municipal Airport. The pilot and his three passengers were killed. The pilot was instrument-rated and IMC prevailed, but a flight plan was not filed. The flight was reported overdue the next day and the crash site was found three days after the crash. The wreckage indicated the airplane crashed while in controlled flight. A weather station 32 miles from the crash site reported broken cloud layers at 600 and 7,000 feet, visibility four miles in mist, temperature 15, dewpoint 14 at the time of the crash....
Nov. 11, Sarasota, Fla. / Cessna Skyhawk
Subscribers Only At about 10:51 eastern time, a Cessna 172S crashed while landing at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. The student pilot was not injured. The pilot departed from runway 4 and felt the trim forcing the nose of the airplane down. She informed the control tower that she was having difficulty and the controller cleared her to land on runway 32. She attempted to manually control the trim, but was unsuccessful. She put both hands on the control wheel and activated the autopilot red disconnect button with negative results. She said she “knew she was not flying the airplane.” She did not attempt to turn the autopilot off at the control head because she had not received any training in how to...
Nov. 10, St. Augustine, Fla. / Extra 300L and Vans RV-3
Subscribers Only An Extra 300L and an amateur-built RV-3 collided in flight while flaring to land at St. Augustine Airport. The Extra suffered minor damage and the RV-3 was substantially damaged. No one was injured. The Extra pilot said he was on a sales demonstration flight with a prospective buyer and announced the flight inbound on the airport’s Unicom/CTAF, apparently without success. They heard other airplanes announcing their positions in the traffic pattern for runway 2 and made a standard entry into a left downwind at 800 feet behind a Cessna. As he flared to land, he felt a bump similar to a hard landing, then landed straight ahead and saw the RV-3 on the runway behind him. The RV-3 pilot said he ov...
Nov. 10, Mounds View, Minn. / Beech Bonanza
Subscribers Only At 16:20 central time, a Beech V35 lost power and struck a tree and crashed one mile south of the Anoka County/Blaine Airport. The pilot and one passenger were seriously injured and one other passenger suffered minor injuries. The rear-seat passenger said they had been making left traffic for runway 35 and had been operating in the traffic pattern for 20 to 30 minutes when the engine quit. As they turned base to final the airplane’s right wing hit a tree and the airplane went straight down. The passenger exited through an emergency door and noted the airplane beginning to burn. He then got the other two occupants out of the airplane. An initial examination of the engine and other airplane sy...
Nov. 10, Corning, N.Y. / Cessna 152 and Cessna 172
Subscribers Only At 17:00 eastern time, a Cessna 152 struck a parked Cessna 172 during landing rollout at Corning-Painted Post Airport. Both aircraft sustained substantial damage. Neither occupant of the 152 was injured. The flight instructor said he landed on runway 31 and planned for a “long rollout” so the student could practice taxiing. During the rollout, the student pressed the left brake, and the airplane veered off the left side of the runway, striking the parked Cessna. The left wing of the Cessna 152 impacted the left strut of the Cessna 172. The Cessna 152 rotated to the left, and its propeller then sliced through the empennage of the Cessna 172 and came to a stop....
Nov. 09, North Las Vegas, Nev. / Cessna Centurion
Subscribers Only At 18:49 Pacific time, a Cessna 210K suffered a collapsed landing gear while landing at North Las Vegas. The pilot and passenger were not injured. The landing gear would neither fully retract nor fully extend after takeoff and the pilot elected to return to North Las Vegas. The accident flight was the first flight of the airplane following an annual inspection in which the landing gear was reported as having a discrepancy. The gear was re-rigged and the aircraft placed on jacks. Mechanics successfully cycled the gear 10 times using a external hydraulic pressure source. The accident flight was the first takeoff after the inspection. The emergency manual extension hand pump would not give a la...
Nov. 09, Puyallup, Wash. / Piper Arrow
Subscribers Only At approximately 21:30 Pacific time, a Piper PA-28R-200 on short final for runway 16 encountered rotor wash from a helicopter operating near runway 16 at Pierce County Airport/Thun Field. No one was injured. The airplane experienced a roll, yaw, and sink rate excursion upon encountering the rotor wash. The crew applied corrective flight control inputs in an attempt to counter this excursion, but the airplane touched down in grass adjacent to the paved runway surface. The flight crew, which included a flight instructor and a private pilot receiving flight instruction for his FAA commercial pilot practical test, continued the landing rollout in the grass, but the airplane’s nose gear collapsed...
Nov. 09, Ogden, Utah / Agusta A119
Subscribers Only At approximately 14:45 mountain time, an Agusta A119 helicopter crashed during landing at the Mackay-Dee Hospital helipad. All three occupants were slightly injured. The pilot said the approach was a little high and he lowered collective control. Rotor rpm and N2 decayed to 96%, then dropped to 80% and did not recover. A hard landing ensued and the helicopter rolled over on its left side. The helicopter, one of three in operation, had approximately 39 hours time-in-service. Previous maintenance discrepancies included several reports of rotor rpm and N2 decay of approximately 4% whenever collective was lowered, but all of these discrepancies occurred during ground tests....
Nov. 07, Winston Salem, N.C. / Cessna 310
Subscribers Only At 11:18 eastern time, a Cessna 310Q crashed into a residential area six minutes after takeoff from Smith Reynolds Airport, killing the pilot. Controllers said the pilot notified them that he was experiencing oscillations in the airplane’s controls. Then the pilot said he had the problem under control and was continuing onto his destination. Shortly after that the pilot radioed that he was experiencing “a lot of down pressure on yoke.” Shortly after that the airplane crashed. The airplane crashed 55 degrees left-wing low and 60 degrees nose-down....
Nov. 07, Backus, Minn. / Taylorcraft F-19
Subscribers Only At approximately 20:00 central time, a Taylorcraft F-19 struck a tree while in cruise flight nine miles west of Backus. The pilot suffered minor injuries. The flight originated in Park Rapids, Minn., about 20 minutes earlier and was en route to Pine River. The weather was reported as 400 feet overcast with three miles visibility, mist, temperature 43, dew point 42. The pilot was not instrument-rated....
Nov. 05, Lucile, Idaho / Cessna 185
Subscribers Only At approximately 18:00 mountain time, a Cessna A185F departed McCall, Idaho, for a planned 45-minute flight to Cottonwood. The airplane was reported missing by a family member, and the airplane’s wreckage was located the following day approximately 3 miles south-southwest of Lucile. The pilot was killed. The aircraft crashed on the west slope of the river canyon where it makes a 90-degree right turn, from north to east. A bowl is located adjacent to this 90-degree turn, generally to the north and west of the turn. No pre-accident anomalies were found. A thin layer of clouds was reported at the time at 5,500 feet, and the accident site was at 2,700 feet. There was no moon at the time of the a...
Nov. 03, Avalon, Calif. / Piper Cherokee Six
Subscribers Only At 16:45 Pacific time, a Piper PA-32-260 lost power after takeoff and was ditched into the Pacific Ocean about four miles south of Catalina Island. The pilot and two passengers were not injured. The pilot reported the engine began making a “rattling” noise with a loss of engine power after takeoff. He was unable to return to the runway and landed in the ocean. The Catalina Island airport manager stated that a pilot reported hearing the accident airplane prior to departure and that the engine sounded “terrible or strange.”...
Nov. 03, North Lima, Ohio / Maule M7-260
Subscribers Only At about 13:30 eastern time, a Maule M7-260 was damaged while landing on a private lake in North Lima, Ohio. The pilot was not injured. The pilot reportedly landed on the lake with the landing gear inadvertently in the extended position, and the airplane flipped over. ...
Nov. 02, Argyle, N.Y. / Cessna Skyhawk
Subscribers Only At about 14:10 eastern time, a Cessna 172D crashed while returning to land at Argyle Airport. The pilot was not injured. The pilot said the oil access door popped open shortly after takeoff when he was at about 150 feet agl. He decided to return for a landing and made a left turn toward the airport. He said the airplane then “lost lift” because of strong wind and the airplane struck the ground about ½-mile from the approach end of runway 21. Wind at an airport eight miles away was reported as 190 degrees at 14 knots, gusting to 18 knots. ...
Too Much, Too Fast
Subscribers Only Last week I was scheduled for my second solo flight, and I arrived at the airport (a controlled, class D field) ready and willing. It had been a rainy day up until that point, but the weather had broken, and it was now clear VFR with 10 miles of visibility and a scattered layer at about 6,500. It was 4:00 pm, and I figured that I could get in at least a good hour before sunset. My first solo the day before had gone splendidly and I was feeling confident in my abilities to go up and do it again. I got my weather briefing, preflighted the aircraft, a 1998 Cessna 172R, and was all ready to start her up when I was interrupted. My instructor, who had been in the pattern with another studen...
Grow Up Already
“Welcome to the new world, where freedoms are lost on a moment’s notice through vague Notams, backed by a fleet of fighter jets.” That’s something I would expect to read in a political editorial, not in a safety magazine. Who is the enemy here? What are you trying to say? I’ve been a reader of Aviation Safety for several years and have found it a worthy publication. I have even recommended it to many of my pilot friends. However, I found the article “You Can’t Fly There!” [Risk Management, December] totally out of line. I gave myself a cooling-off period, but a day later I’m still as livid as I was when I read it. I’m an experienced general aviation pilot and an active CFI. However,...
Clip-Wing Cessnas
Subscribers Only The following information is derived from the FAA’s Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts. The FAA reported that there have been numerous instances of structural corrosion of the wing attachment fitting on virtually all Cessna single-engine airplanes. The agency recommends an inspection to determine the airworthiness of the parts. Mechanics should remove the top and bottom fairings covering the wing/fuselage attachments and inspect the spar block, the center wing spar and the wing spar assembly for corrosion. The areas of concern for the Cessnas indicated are the spar block, spar channels and the upper end of the doorposts. Any evidence of corrosion in...
NTSB Preliminary Reports
Subscribers Only The following briefs were selected from the 121 preliminary reports filed with the NTSB in December 2001. Statements in quotes were taken directly from the NTSB documents. The information is subject to change as the investigations are completed. Nov. 02, Argyle, N.Y. Cessna Skyhawk At about 14:10 eastern time, a Cessna 172D crashed while returning to land at Argyle Airport. The pilot was not injured. The pilot said the oil access door popped open shortly after takeoff when he was at about 150 feet agl. He decided to return for a landing and made a left turn toward the airport. He said the airplane then “lost lift” because of strong wind and the airplane struck the...
Unwanted Push
Subscribers Only [IMGCAP(1)] One of the most basic tenets in aviation is that an airplane ought to take off and land into the wind. Yet each year the accident statistics show that some pilots refuse to follow this basic rule. And each year the tailwind factor results in bent aluminum, injured passengers, or worse. Right off we’ll acknowledge that there are occasions when a downwind departure is necessary. For example it is quite common due to ATC traffic flow and airport congestion at large terminals such as JFK, LaGuardia, Teterboro or Washington’s Reagan National. Then there are airports such as Aspen, Colo., with a mandatory downhill departure on runway 33 – often with tailwinds – due to surrounding t...
Spotting Trouble
Subscribers Only [IMGCAP(1)] Thunderstorm. That word causes more angst among aviators than just about any other atmospheric phenomenon. The thought of getting tangled up in the violent bowels of a mature thunderstorm – heavy rain, severe turbulence, hail and lightning – weighs heavily on the mind of any pilot flying or planning to fly when thunderstorms are active. And that angst is well founded. Every year a number of aircraft, their pilots and passengers are lost to thunderstorms. A vast array of ground-based and airborne technology, probably worth billions of dollars, is dedicated to helping pilots identify and avoid thunderstorms. The past 20 years has brought a wide acceptance of cockpit-based lig...
A Handle on Repairs
Subscribers Only [IMGCAP(1)] Advice: $50. Good Advice: $100. Questions Answered: $50. Dumb Questions Answered: $100. Service: $50/hr. Service if you participate: $100/hr. For most owners, airplane maintenance is a pit of quicksand. If you plunge in, it’s easy to get in over your head. But if you stay out, mechanical problems can accumulate until dispatch reliability and safety are severely compromised. The question each owner has to ask is how involved in maintenance they want to be. The question has many answers, and the road to answering it depends upon first determining your objectives. Is the goal to save money? Improve reliability? Log hours toward the A&P requirement? Next, you have to ask yo...
No Radar? No Problem
Subscribers Only [IMGCAP(1)] Listening to ATC is a favorite diversion for my wife as we approach our destination, particularly when the weather is ugly. The chatter between pilots and controllers can be comforting, giving an eavesdropping passenger the impression that we’re all professionals quietly going about our routine missions. But what’s truly routine to a pilot can startle a passenger unfamiliar with the finer points of IFR flying. I recall the look of horror on my wife’s face the first time she heard the phrase “radar contact lost” when I was cleared for an approach while we were bouncing around inside some turbulent gray clouds. Like many, she had the impression that we couldn’t land without...
Give Me Altitude
Many wags love to toss around cliches as if they’re the clever soul who invented them. There’s a grain of truth to most of them, of course, but, gosh, it gets tiring explaining the mystery and the dynamic environment of flight with such cookie-cutter phrases. While we all might dust off a cliche from time to time, there are times when you might live one and wish you hadn’t. That’s when it becomes crystal clear just why the cliche has emerged from the fermenting stew of language. However, recently I turned a cliche on its tail and discovered a kernel of wisdom there, as well. “It’s better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than in the air and wishing you were on the ground....
Get Down Right Now
Subscribers Only [IMGCAP(1)] Aviation training is often bashed for having a tombstone mentality. We tend to ignore certain shortcomings until an accident or incident instills new religion. Emergency descent training is a prime example of this. Throughout my private, commercial and ATP courses, I don’t remember getting instruction in emergency descents. Yet after the ValuJet, Swiss Air and FedEx accidents—each of which involved fire in flight—every checkride I’ve had has included an emergency descent. What’s the big deal with emergency descents? And is this skill worth your attention? Take one look at the burned wreckage of the FedEx DC-10 at Newburgh, New York in 1996 for your answer. That crew had...