Plane down in Maryland

I have met him a couple times at my flight school. He was a really good guy. This is horrible!
 
I dunno, I buy it from a plane crash at 80, I'm going to call myself ahead of the game. Beats the declination I saw in my folks after they hit 80.

All that said, sorry for you guys, loss, and RIP the victim. Can happen to any of us.
 
Well, don't be surprised if all that wisdom changes a bit over the next few years.

With any luck the guy I'll be training to fly the jet next month won't read that article.



steingar said:
I dunno, I buy it from a plane crash at 80, I'm going to call myself ahead of the game. Beats the declination I saw in my folks after they hit 80.

All that said, sorry for you guys, loss, and RIP the victim. Can happen to any of us.
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many engines will pop on decent.
 
Very unfortunate that we lost an esteemed member of the aviation community in this. :sad:

One person that was interviewed (a pilot, I think) indicated that it looked like they tried to turn back to the runway from a low altitude. He described a "wing stall". If so, even more tragic.

We'll have to see what the actual reports say....
 
How prone is the Musketeer to carb ice? Very, very humid here yesterday, eyewitness heard a backfire on short final....maybe got too lean?
I haven't been into Davis for quite some time now. Lots of houses have sprung up around it, though there's still a lot of corn too.

Tragic.
 
How sad.

People allways repeat this 'the only time you have too much fuel is when you are on fire' line. Well, if you are operating a 160hp 4-seater out of a 2000ft runway in July is the other time.

It's not that either of them was lacking in experience.
 
weilke said:
People allways repeat this 'the only time you have too much fuel is when you are on fire' line. Well, if you are operating a 160hp 4-seater out of a 2000ft runway in July is the other time.
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Are you trying to say they had too much fuel? Did you actually read the report???

They completed two successful takeoffs prior to the crash - they clearly had the performance with full fuel.

During the post-accident investigation, they found the fuel selector in a middle setting (confirmed by witness marks) not fully set on either tank and found an absence of fuel in the engine fuel lines.

Somebody before the final T/O bumped or mis-aligned the fuel selector and they ran the thing out of gas on the takeoff.
 
weilke said:
How sad.

People allways repeat this 'the only time you have too much fuel is when you are on fire' line. Well, if you are operating a 160hp 4-seater out of a 2000ft runway in July is the other time.

It's not that either of them was lacking in experience.
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"The fuel selector was discovered in a mid-range position between the left and right fuel tanks. Fuel system continuity was confirmed from the left tank through a void at the wing root to the fuel selector and from the right tank to the fuel selector. The fuel selector was tested with no anomalies noted. When the fuel selector was placed to the center position, similar to where it was found after the accident, fuel would not flow through the fuel selector. In addition, there was a witness mark from the fuel selector knob on the plate that covered the fuel selector. The mark was consistent with the center position indication that the fuel selector was found in."
 
I took that to mean that they tried to switch tanks when they couldn't get enough power to climb out.

That summer, I did operate a 160hp plane out of a 2400ft strip not far from there. The trees and houses are awfully large at every takeoff.
 
Not that it was factor, but it seems the instructor was naughty, not reporting any medications, yet they found evidence of SSRIs, Crestor and drugs for treating diabetes. Oops.

I read the report to infer that the pilots turned the fuel selector to the other tank, as one would routinely do to balance fuel, at some point on the ground before the takeoff.
 
Why would they be messing with the fuel selector doing T&G's?
 
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Aviation really can be unforgiving. Even dotting your Ts and crossing your Is can get you into trouble.
 
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