TurboArrow IV in Sinaloa

MikeS

MikeS

Pre-takeoff checklist
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MikeS
While looking for something else I noticed Sporty's AirFacts Journal still has an article of mine they published some years back. Since this forum is "Aviation Mishaps", this incident is possibly unusual enough to be of interest in case anyone has some time to kill.

https://tinyurl.com/4wakpy57

The "mishap" occurred in 1977 and was originally published in Private Pilot magazine in October, 1986.

The 74 comments this article generated in Air Facts are as entertaining as the article itself . . . or possibly more so. I was pleased to run across it and finding it readable . . . although all these years later I noticed it still needs some minor editing that I should have caught when writing it.

Mike
 
MikeS said:
While looking for something else I noticed Sporty's AirFacts Journal still has an article of mine they published some years back. Since this forum is "Aviation Mishaps", this incident is possibly unusual enough to be of interest in case anyone has some time to kill.

https://tinyurl.com/4wakpy57

The "mishap" occurred in 1977 and was originally published in Private Pilot magazine in October, 1986.

The 74 comments this article generated in Air Facts are as entertaining as the article itself . . . or possibly more so. I was pleased to run across it and finding it readable . . . although all these years later I noticed it still needs some minor editing that I should have caught when writing it.

Mike
Click to expand...

link didn't work for me. I got "503 Service Not Available"
 
One of the comments.
"...Very well written, Mike; I enjoyed reading about your misery. :)
Do you believe your experience flying the bush in AK may have given you more confidence in your skills than was warranted?..."
@Zeldman , care to chime in here....
 
luvflyin said:
One of the comments.
"...Very well written, Mike; I enjoyed reading about your misery. :)
Do you believe your experience flying the bush in AK may have given you more confidence in your skills than was warranted?..."
@Zeldman , care to chime in here....
Click to expand...

I had to read the article, and I did find it amusing. All I can say is that anyone that has spent at least a summer flying in real Alaska* should be able to read a runway and make a reasonable determination on if the runway is usable or not. My Alaska experience is I learned my capabilities and limits, and learned the airplanes capabilities and always have a way out and use it when needed. When I got back to the real world I realized winds did not bother me as well as reduced visibility. I learned icing is not to be feared but respected. I pushed my limits a lot but knew when to call it off. I don't call it over confidence, just experience, and I do not expect anyone to try what I have done without proper training.

As for the over confidence part on the author I really can't comment on that.

Does anyone know anything about a automatic gear retraction on a small plane.??

But I can attest to the fact that you do want to get out of Mexico before the policia get there...at least that was my experience in 1980.

*Real Alaska is any part of Alaska that you can only get there by boat, airplane, 4 wheeler or snow machine. Juneau and most of the southeast is the exception. If arrival is by a paved road then you are in tourist Alaska. :D
 
Zeldman said:
I had to read the article, and I did find it amusing. All I can say is that anyone that has spent at least a summer flying in real Alaska* should be able to read a runway and make a reasonable determination on if the runway is usable or not. My Alaska experience is I learned my capabilities and limits, and learned the airplanes capabilities and always have a way out and use it when needed. When I got back to the real world I realized winds did not bother me as well as reduced visibility. I learned icing is not to be feared but respected. I pushed my limits a lot but knew when to call it off. I don't call it over confidence, just experience, and I do not expect anyone to try what I have done without proper training.

As for the over confidence part on the author I really can't comment on that.

Does anyone know anything about a automatic gear retraction on a small plane.??

But I can attest to the fact that you do want to get out of Mexico before the policia get there...at least that was my experience in 1980.

*Real Alaska is any part of Alaska that you can only get there by boat, airplane, 4 wheeler or snow machine. Juneau and most of the southeast is the exception. If arrival is by a paved road then you are in tourist Alaska. :D
Click to expand...
Zeldman said:
I had to read the article, and I did find it amusing. All I can say is that anyone that has spent at least a summer flying in real Alaska* should be able to read a runway and make a reasonable determination on if the runway is usable or not. My Alaska experience is I learned my capabilities and limits, and learned the airplanes capabilities and always have a way out and use it when needed. When I got back to the real world I realized winds did not bother me as well as reduced visibility. I learned icing is not to be feared but respected. I pushed my limits a lot but knew when to call it off. I don't call it over confidence, just experience, and I do not expect anyone to try what I have done without proper training.

As for the over confidence part on the author I really can't comment on that.

Does anyone know anything about a automatic gear retraction on a small plane.??

But I can attest to the fact that you do want to get out of Mexico before the policia get there...at least that was my experience in 1980.

*Real Alaska is any part of Alaska that you can only get there by boat, airplane, 4 wheeler or snow machine. Juneau and most of the southeast is the exception. If arrival is by a paved road then you are in tourist Alaska. :D
Click to expand...

" . . .should be able to read a runway and make a reasonable determination on if the runway is usable or not."

True. We would have been fine if I had listened to my passenger and filled in the gully halfway down the runway. A plane with normal gear would not have had a problem with it. A plane equipped as one Lance owner commenter described the device a "Russian roulette of aviation" did not have normal gear . . . nor was I prescient enough to forsee that premature retraction was one of it's many anomalies. It had not done that with earlier experiences with that plane but then, I had never bounced over any gulleys in previous takeoffs. I should have filled in the gulley - ten or fifteen minutes work including rounding up a shovel. I summed up at the end the lesson learned.

As for the earlier comment quoted regarding the word "misery", there was no misery involved. Our ride out on horses through those gorgeous mountains after the first rains of the year was a lifetime joy to remember. My flying life has involved a lot of bush work and the most basic kernel of wisdom I've absorbed is to have a good, strong, capable plane that one can trust to overcome tight situations. A Turbo Airrow IV is not such a plane but then, it was my decision to use it so . . . . I did emphasize the defects and liabilities of the Piper AutoLand system and did so not so much to shift the blame from me to it but rather to bring to anyone's attention the sometimes disastrous and fatal consequences of not disabling this awful marketing gimmick of Piper's. I have reassessed over the years associating the malfunctioning airspeed indicator with the malfunctioning Autoland system and no longer believe it had anything to do with it.

Re ice . . . it truly is to be given great consideration. More than just the weight and compromised airfoils and visibility issues, the more lethal concern is having controls freeze up. If hydraulic boosted perhaps this perhaps isn't such a concern but with conventional controls, it can be a killer.

 
Great read!

MikeS said:
While looking for something else I noticed Sporty's AirFacts Journal still has an article of mine they published some years back. Since this forum is "Aviation Mishaps", this incident is possibly unusual enough to be of interest in case anyone has some time to kill.


https://tinyurl.com/4wakpy57

The "mishap" occurred in 1977 and was originally published in Private Pilot magazine in October, 1986.

The 74 comments this article generated in Air Facts are as entertaining as the article itself . . . or possibly more so. I was pleased to run across it and finding it readable . . . although all these years later I noticed it still needs some minor editing that I should have caught when writing it.

Mike
Click to expand...
 
The Turbo Arrow has an automatic gear EXTENSION system, not a retraction system this guy is scary.
 
Luigi said:
The Turbo Arrow has an automatic gear EXTENSION system, not a retraction system this guy is scary.
Click to expand...
If you'd read the comments as I suggested instead of getting scared . . . .

Try Tractor Pulling. Less scary.
 
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