Plane down Chicago area

Catalo

Catalo

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Catalo
172 just crashed a few miles north of my home airport (kdpa) . 1 dead was only the pilot on board and the plane is obliterated. Not too much on it yet they think it stalled.
Kind of hits a little harder when it's so close to home. Doesn't help that its a perfect day out. Clear skies and almost no wind.

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Catalo said:
172 just crashed a few miles north of my home airport (kpwk) . 1 dead was only the pilot on board and the plane is obliterated. Not too much on it yet they think it stalled.
Kind of hits a little harder when it's so close to home. Doesn't help that its a perfect day out. Clear skies and almost no wind.

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk
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Sad deal....:sad::sad::sad:..

Airspeed = life... Get slow and gravity will end your suffering..:(
 
It was from my flying club. I do not know yet who the pilot was but most likely I knew him. It was the club plane that I flew the most.
 
Just checked the flight schedule and if the person on the schedule actually took it, I knew the guy. Sad.
 
Sorry for your loss. Never good. Looks like a high velocity impact.
 
N801BH said:
Yeah, that was my first thought too.... But, maybe it jammed in full deflection one way or the other..:confused::confused::confused:

Didn't 150's / 152's do that at one time??
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Isn't it a requirement of certification that the plane be controllable (if awkwardly) with full rudder deflection?

My RV is.
 
N801BH said:
Yeah, that was my first thought too.... But, maybe it jammed in full deflection one way or the other..:confused::confused::confused:

Didn't 150's / 152's do that at one time??
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They did but it has since been AD'ed. How does a "rudder failure" occur? Like having the cable disconnect or break?
 
Jay Honeck said:
Isn't it a requirement of certification that the plane be controllable (if awkwardly) with full rudder deflection?

My RV is.
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I "think" Boeing 737's can't fly with a hard over rudder....

Colorado Springs and US Air 427 proved that...
 
Ryanb said:
They did but it has since been AD'ed. How does a "rudder failure" occur? Like having the cable disconnect or break?
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I could handle a broken cable as the rudder would just weathervane into the incoming air.....:dunno:
 
N801BH said:
I could handle a broken cable as the rudder would just weathervane into the incoming air.....:dunno:
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That rudder has TWO cables, one for full starboard deflection and one for full port deflection. Even if BOTH of them broke, as the quote says, it would simply weathervane. Otherwise you have rudder one way or the other. Unless it just came out of maintenance and they find an open-end jammed in the mechanisms.

Jim
 
Jay Honeck said:
Isn't it a requirement of certification that the plane be controllable (if awkwardly) with full rudder deflection?

My RV is.
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Well, we know from experience that is not the case (Boeing 737 comes to mind).....

Looks like Ben beat me to it.
 
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weirdjim said:
That rudder has TWO cables, one for full starboard deflection and one for full port deflection. Even if BOTH of them broke, as the quote says, it would simply weathervane. Otherwise you have rudder one way or the other. Unless it just came out of maintenance and they find an open-end jammed in the mechanisms.

Jim
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Another possibility is he may have experienced some kind of jam/failure and while trying to resolve it got too slow and stalled/spun it in.
 
Very possible, im just trying to think how it led to this outcome..? I would imagine even with a broken rudder you could still make a controlled crash landing and walk away, but maybe im wrong. From the pictures it looks like it was a high speed impact.
 
If the rudder was just weather-vaining, I think it might be difficult to get uncoordinated enough to achieve a full blown spin.
It seems hard to imagine that a 172 rudder system could cause this. Even if it jammed full scale, why would it be full scale in the first place? Doesn't make sense to me.

That said, I'll leave that to the investigative experts.
 
This is a sad event, for sure. I wonder if it was an elevator malfunction and the word rudder came out instead?

I have no clue and will stop speculating and leave it up to the investigators.
 
Kritchlow said:
If the rudder was just weather-vaining, I think it might be difficult to get uncoordinated enough to achieve a full blown spin.
It seems hard to imagine that a 172 rudder system could cause this. Even if it jammed full scale, why would it be full scale in the first place? Doesn't make sense to me.

That said, I'll leave that to the investigative experts.
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Sorry, should have read the OP post. I thought it was a 150. A 172 is damn near impossible to spin if you WANT it to, much less by accident. But as others have noted, this is nothing more than a smoking hole in the ground...damn near vertical straight in. Only one way I know of doing that.

Jim
 
A stall, in and of itself, is an unlikely cause...a spin perhaps, or elevator malfunction. Should be interesting to eventually learn what the cause was.
 
Very sad,

Wondering why there are so many GA accidents lately. Is it the age of the fleet, things failing because of age, is it decisions made before the flight, is it actions/inactions made by the pilot in command?

So the fire triangle is 1. fuel 2. oxygen 3. heat.

What is the aviation triangle? 1. preflight decision (to fly or not) 2. Preflight inspection 3. Flight management.

Comments please.
 
You know the chain. It usually takes about three mistakes to kill yourself. Pilots say "Go" when they should have said "no." Poor preparation. Poor execution. Pressing on when one should have turned back (In too deep). Failure to recognize one's limitations. Too much airplane coupled with a false sense of security (or the "Cirrus trap"). "Hey man...watch this..." Never say die...then do. Flying is wonderful and relatively safe, when performed with a great deal of respect for nature, and executed with an abundance of caution.
 
What makes this worse he was maybe 5 minutes north of the airport so it couldn't have been long after take off

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Was this N62681? I flew that plane when I belonged to the club.
 
acrophile said:
Lately? The accident rate has been declining for decades:
http://www.flyingmag.com/technique/accidents/fatal-general-aviation-crashes-drop-all-time-low

Yes, it's still bad, but it used to be far worse.
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I bet if that article was written today the statistics would be a little different. It seems like in the past year or so there has bee an increase in the number of these we are hearing about.

I could be wrong and its an awareness thing more then anything. But it seems like we are hearing about more of these lately or in the past year or so.

It would be great if there was none. Things dreams are made of.

Tony
 
acrophile said:
Lately? The accident rate has been declining for decades:

http://www.flyingmag.com/technique/accidents/fatal-general-aviation-crashes-drop-all-time-low



Yes, it's still bad, but it used to be far worse.
Click to expand...


I've been flying for 10 years, and have never been in a spin, accidentally or on purpose. I bet 90% of us non-CFI pilots can say the same thing. I think that is a fault in our training. Spin recovery - PARE - is still just a theory to me.

Every time I see a smoking hole, I think I should take an upset recovery course somewhere.
 
Another reason I am very thankful that Colonel Al was my primary instructor. My '57 172 was legal to spin (in the utility category) and spin it we did!
 
1600vw said:
I could be wrong and its an awareness thing more then anything. But it seems like we are hearing about more of these lately or in the past year or so.


Tony
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I agree, it does seem like there have been more than normal lately. Will be interested to hear the cause of this one.
 
A sad day. Listened to the audio... could have been any one of us.

May he rest in peace, and always know he died doing what he loved to do.
 
nddons said:
I've been flying for 10 years, and have never been in a spin, accidentally or on purpose. I bet 90% of us non-CFI pilots can say the same thing. I think that is a fault in our training. Spin recovery - PARE - is still just a theory to me.

Every time I see a smoking hole, I think I should take an upset recovery course somewhere.
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Not a bad idea but.... in my "spin recovery" training, rudder was required. In a non-functional rudder situation, I am not sure what he could have done. :confused:
 
To add, this one seems unique and more unusual compared to most accidents that are reported. As mentioned before, this looked like a high velocity impact, not just a crash landing. It looked like a spin or atleast a stall must have occured.
 
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