King Air down Boyne City, MI

Whats going on in Michigan? 3 days 2 fatal accidents. Michigan winter weather settling in?
 
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The approach to N98 Boyne City is not difficult but you had better nail those altitudes on the step downs and not get low!! BIG hill that you get pretty close to on approach there! If you mix up a fix and descend early, you WILL hit the trees. KIYRE above 1540 is no joke. Its an LP only - don't let a +V run you into stuff. Was this N290KA?

Some scattered lake effect yesterday.
 
The approach to N98 Boyne City is not difficult but you had better nail those altitudes on the step downs and not get low!! BIG hill that you get pretty close to on approach there! If you mix up a fix and descend early, you WILL hit the trees. KIYRE above 1540 is no joke. Its an LP only - don't let a +V run you into stuff. Was this N290KA?

Some scattered lake effect yesterday.
Both Boyne City and Boyne Mountain airports have some pretty serious terrain around them, IIRC. At least for Michigan, that is.
 
Both Boyne City and Boyne Mountain airports have some pretty serious terrain around them, IIRC. At least for Michigan, that is.

yes they do! I’ve been in and out of both… It’s not quite like Idaho back country but it’s much more significant terrain than pretty much the rest of the state… the area as a whole is and definitely right around those airports are.
 
yes they do! I’ve been in and out of both… It’s not quite like Idaho back country but it’s much more significant terrain than pretty much the rest of the state… the area as a whole is and definitely right around those airports are.

Yup. Been there on a sunny day and coming into Boyne you definitely need to keep altitude up. I am glad I went there first time on a clear day. It's distracting as the airport is between hills and the city on the west side.....as said above..for flat Michigan its more challenging than the typical strip....but minimums are minimums for a reason.
 
I learned to fly out of N98 and can vouch for the challenging terrain. Yes it was 290KA. Two souls aboard.

Last reported data showed the airplane 3.55 miles from the runway, slightly north of course at 1,375' and 89kts. Looking at the plates for the RNAV 27, too low & too slow. The pilot was highly experienced in that airplane and had flown into that airport many times. The 21 year old kid with him was a pilot, but seemingly a freshly minted private pilot. I can't speculate as to his experience otherwise.

Tough time for their families, and we're keeping all in our hearts.

Fly safely, all.
 
I learned to fly out of N98 and can vouch for the challenging terrain. Yes it was 290KA. Two souls aboard.

Last reported data showed the airplane 3.55 miles from the runway, slightly north of course at 1,375' and 89kts. Looking at the plates for the RNAV 27, too low & too slow. The pilot was highly experienced in that airplane and had flown into that airport many times. The 21 year old kid with him was a pilot, but seemingly a freshly minted private pilot. I can't speculate as to his experience otherwise.

Tough time for their families, and we're keeping all in our hearts.

Fly safely, all.

Possible the new ppl. tried the approach and they were both preocupied loosing track of air speed? Speculation is all we have... Until Dan Gryder speculates and puts us all to shame.
 
So what is the "normal" approach speed in a King Air? 100kts, 110kts?
 
I learned to fly out of N98 and can vouch for the challenging terrain. Yes it was 290KA. Two souls aboard.

Last reported data showed the airplane 3.55 miles from the runway, slightly north of course at 1,375' and 89kts. Looking at the plates for the RNAV 27, too low & too slow. The pilot was highly experienced in that airplane and had flown into that airport many times. The 21 year old kid with him was a pilot, but seemingly a freshly minted private pilot. I can't speculate as to his experience otherwise.

Tough time for their families, and we're keeping all in our hearts.

Fly safely, all.

now this would be ground speed right? Do we know what the winds were to guesstimate an airspeed? Still intuitively seems slow…
 
now this would be ground speed right? Do we know what the winds were to guesstimate an airspeed? Still intuitively seems slow…
I believe you are correct. Yes, it would take a wind greater than was present that day to produce a ground speed that low in that airplane configured for a normal approach.

Again, this is all speculative and I'm happy to wait for the professional report to come out for us to learn from. Ultimately, I'm just bummed that these guys suffered an early end seemingly just enjoying a trip north as aviation comrades.
 
I dont know about all the pro pilots here but early on during IFR training, I used to find myself often letting the speed start to drop on glidepath to below what we liked(close to stall). My instructor would point to me...watch the speed watch the speed....when I was doing instrument training. It was not dangerous due to his skills and attention(he would warn me if we got to within 10kts of stall. I was so focused on the crosshairs that I would ignore the airspeed...and without that "watch the speed" warning probably stall..crash. I would mistakenly rely that my RPM setting would keep a certain speed but thats not always the case. When correcting the glidepath by pointing the nose up you lose speed without adding power easily leading to a stall. Now I am super OCD about my speed esp after the FAF.
Anyhow not sure what happened here...super sad. RIP.
 
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