Twin comanche crashes near Gettysburg last week

[Henning]

You can catch a lot of things that would cause an engine failure without removing the cowl. Birds nest is one.

True, how many people climb in and look for that nest in the outflow?

 

[dell30rb]

My first suspicion was this was an icing related accident as well.

Just a half-hour after it departed, the plane went down outside of Gettysburg, crashing into a farm field and sending debris across a quarter-mile.

Does sound like it. Perhaps by preflight, the OP's friend meant preflight planning and not inspection.

Here is a link to METARS in PA around the time of the crash

http://vortex.plymouth.edu/cgi-bin/gen_sa_parse-u.cgi?ident=PA&if=sfc_dat&yy=13&mm=12&dd=26&hh=07

 

[drotto]

I see a few in there that mention light snow and mist, as well as a wide swings in visibility. So there appears to have been pockets of visible moisture in the air. Icing seem very likely. Add to that basically night flying or at least low light levels, seems like a possible icing situation that the pilot would not have even seen.

 

[Kristin]

Here's a preflight question for you, how much play is within tolerance on your trim tab?

For Comanches and Twin Comanches it is .076".

 

[Henning]

For Comanches and Twin Comanches it is .076".

In other words, very little, less than 2mm.