A Friendly Reminder.

[jmcquate]

Harsh but true Brett

 

[squorch2]

Yeah, the first two minutes were reaaalllly loooong... as he approached the trees I was thinking "can't turn, I'll descend. can't land, trees are in the way. can't fly ahead, terrain is rising. fuuuuuuuu"

 

[Flugelman]

Better a straight in semi-controlled crash where shedding the wings between the trees somewhat cushions the impact, instead of a stall/spin straight down, nose down impact. Just sayin'...

 

[kmac]

Let's not forget we lost one of our own in a similar incident in Idaho back in 2005. (LT Ben "Tater" Becker)

 

[ryan1234]

What kind of plane? a Beaver?

It was a Stinson 108... think it throws out around 165hp. The mixture handle was all the way rich in the video, not sure it would have saved the day...but leaned would probably have added about 10-20% more power.

Not saying it happened here... but that particular Franklin engine was designed to run on 80/87 and has some unusual plugs... so running rich at 6000'+ with 100LL could pretty easily rob the engine of a lot of power by fouling the plugs.

 

[Hotdogs]

Better a straight in semi-controlled crash where shedding the wings between the trees somewhat cushions the impact, instead of a stall/spin straight down, nose down impact. Just sayin'...

Or, it could rip the wings apart upon impact throwing fuel everywhere. Shitty situation all around.

 

[BACONATOR]

Absolutely agree. This is a vital lesson in VERY limited light GA aircraft. I remember taking my sister and her husband to lunch in big bear in a 172. We couldn't even maintain altitude at 9K due to the downdrafts coming off the mountain range north of the LA basin. After lunch, I decided we didn't need gas as we still had a little over half a tank, and leaned out the engine on run-up. It was the LONGEST takeoff roll of my life. Probably cleared the trees on upwind by 100 ft and we had about a 200ft/min climb out over the lake until I could circle long enough to get over the pass to the north and fly back via apple valley. I had enough foresight know the density altitude was REALLY high that day (probably 9k-ish at least), kept fuel light for the way back, and leaned out the engine. What I DIDN'T do was use flaps and execute a max climb takeoff. Lesson learned. Luckily mine was only marginally dangerous. I am a big fan of "there I was" to teach people from your own mistakes. Sacrifice a little dignity and maybe you'll save someone from killing themselves and others.

 

[scoober78]

Yeah, seriously Brett...I don't think I've rolled that long in anything. That was absurd.

 

[lowflier03]

Reminded me of another video I have seen. 2 guys in an L-19 were doing a video study of some beetle infestation of trees or something in the mountains. The pilot never noticed the constantly increasing altitude until the stall horn went off. The video ends with their crash into the trees. Took 3 years for someone to discover the footage and figure out what happened. The video tape survived, unfortunately the pilot and passenger did not.

 

[IKE]

A reminder to always compute your density altitude before high-elevation departures.

There's an app for that.

 

[PropStop]

That's why you compute TOLD, at least swag it in a genav plane. Part of my pre takeoff brief in any light civil is, "i expect us to be off deck in approx x feet, if we pass y feet to the end of the runway we'll abort and figure out WTF is going on." And I've had to abort a t/o before and figure out what was going on - just wasn't anticipating how soft the ground was, had a lot of friction.

 

[BACONATOR]

That's why you compute TOLD, at least swag it in a genav plane. Part of my pre takeoff brief in any light civil is, "i expect us to be off deck in approx x feet, if we pass y feet to the end of the runway we'll abort and figure out WTF is going on." And I've had to abort a t/o before and figure out what was going on - just wasn't anticipating how soft the ground was, had a lot of friction.

Agree. Never did it before, especially having my military experience spoil me with tons of power available. I'll be doing this on all future flights in a light civil plane when flying into or out of ANYthing other than a major airport (Burbank, Van nuys, Palm Springs etc). If there's a question, calculate the distance. If it's even remotely close to a good fraction of the runway, I'll do a short field/max climb take off.

Normally, "V1" isn't a concept considered in the small civil/PPL world, but it's an important idea. Gotta have a "bingo" takeoff roll distance, and if you pass it, abort and give yourself enough space to brake safely and figure out what went wrong.

 

[ryan1234]

Agree. Never did it before, especially having my military experience spoil me with tons of power available. I'll be doing this on all future flights in a light civil plane when flying into or out of ANYthing other than a major airport (Burbank, Van nuys, Palm Springs etc). If there's a question, calculate the distance. If it's even remotely close to a good fraction of the runway, I'll do a short field/max climb take off.

Normally, "V1" isn't a concept considered in the small civil/PPL world, but it's an important idea. Gotta have a "bingo" takeoff roll distance, and if you pass it, abort and give yourself enough space to brake safely and figure out what went wrong.

Usually anything with at least two turbine engines in the civilian world has a V1/Vr/V2... other than that, even on a private multi-engine check ride for piston stuff the accelerate-stop is a big ticket item.

The pilot was a retired ARNG CWO, some sources say a helo pilot with service in Vietnam

 

[MattWSU]

Here is some good commentary as well as a simulation of the mishap. Pilot was indeed a Huey pilot during Vietnam. Commentary starts around 5:20.

http://www.aopa.org/training/articles/2012/120814youtube-crash-pilot-was-going-to-abort.html

 

[707guy]

Reminded me of another video I have seen. 2 guys in an L-19 were doing a video study of some beetle infestation of trees or something in the mountains. The pilot never noticed the constantly increasing altitude until the stall horn went off. The video ends with their crash into the trees. Took 3 years for someone to discover the footage and figure out what happened. The video tape survived, unfortunately the pilot and passenger did not.

Saw that video as well...

I am a big fan of "there I was" to teach people from your own mistakes. Sacrifice a little dignity and maybe you'll save someone from killing themselves and others.

Ditto...I used to read Approach every time it came out.