Fatality Crash Aerostar Austin Texas

RIP

Brand new owner. He bough it 22nd of Aug. This particular Aerostar had been sitting for quite some time and according to another owner on the AOA board, the right engine had proven hard to start in the past. Wonder if that had something to do with engine failure?

Also, as a side, the Aerostar flies excellent on one engine. But if you're configured for landing and have more than 20 degrees of flap (30 or 40), you're adding tremendous drag. In my plane, I do approaches on 20 degrees, then on late final I add 30 and on very short final 40 degrees so as to not drag her in with power. Full flaps add so much drag, that you almost need full power to keep flying. Pure speculation, but if he was configured with full flap and lost an engine, he would get slow real quick. Don't know if the new pilot had got any training in the aircraft, but this is one of those Aerostar gotchas. You need to lose the flaps with any trouble.
 
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Dang, another one in my home town, that is sad. Just like many said, brand new owner in an old plane that hasn't flown in a while, that could be a huge factor. He supposedly got slow and low and didn't make it to the runway.
Though why did ABIA close the airport down and divert planes to San Antonio if they have two paralleling runways and neither of them was occupied by the downed airplane? (which dropped short on final, not anywhere near the runway) That is a little illogical.

There was also a Glasair at the Executive airport that flipped over on the 13th. No fatalities! Only a minor injury to the passenger. Landing between storms in gusty conditions, likely culprit.
 
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