Comments on: Viral video of Idaho crash

By: blueprinteventgroup.com

blueprinteventgroup.com — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 05:00:41 +0000

This posting AOPA Pilot Blog: Reporting Points

By: Pokerman

Pokerman — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 07:31:14 +0000

After reviewing the slo-mo just before impact with the tree, I thought I noticed the pilot messing with an iPad. Going back to when he started his roll, it looks like the iPad is on the steering wheel. Also, I never hear him shout a warning or say anything before hitting the tree. Is it possible he was distracted by the iPad?

I would like to know if anyone else sees the same thing. You have to look at the slo-mo clip that the right seat passenger gets. You will see it just before impact when the passenger quickly looks over to the pilot. There is only about three frames that show it. I swear I see him holding onto an iPad.

Let me know if anyone else sees it too.

By: Garry Wing

Garry Wing — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 17:01:52 +0000

Lots of good comments/armchair observations here. Easy to critique/second guess; hard to say what you might do until you’re in same/similar situation. I’m using this as an example with students; many things wrong here. I found Stinson 108 wt/balance and POH on-line. Appears to be overloaded (depending how much fuel he had on board (couldn’t have been full; no fuel available at U63). DA surely played a role; it was 81F at MYL at this day/time. In answer to “Tom”‘s question/point… as a glider pilot I can tell you on a hot June day the “darker” portions of earth (dirt, roads, etc.) create thermals/rising air… then, when he gets to the nice lush/green trees — not so much. That’s one (of many) things he didn’t consider/count on. Bottom line, POH says he’s gonna need 5,020′ of PAVED runway (based on tests with a NEW Stinson in 1948); he should have aborted when he didn’t have 70% of 80MPH required when he reached 1/2-way point of runway.

By: found it here

found it here — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 01:58:48 +0000

I like what you guys tend to be up too. Such clever work and
reporting! Keep up the good works guys I’ve included you guys to blogroll.

By: tom

tom — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 23:34:24 +0000

I disagree with some of the posts claiming he should have aborted after takeoff. Prior to rotating, definitely because the roll seemed too long, but with zero hours in a Stinson how long is normal?

After rotating and out of ground effect over the green swampy area the plane was climbing fine until it got to the trees. They continued to climb until it got to the burned trees. That’s when it appeared to sink or the terrain rose to smite them. Hard to tell. I haven’t looked at a topo map of the area to second guess that part. Has anyone else?

Lets hear from a glider pilot here. Which has more thermal opportunity at 2 pm, grass and swamp, green trees or dead trees? In my experience close to the ground, green beats anything else for lift opportunities.

For those who propose the pilot screwed up by not aborting: At what point on the video time counter would you have aborted? IMHO, all was well until he got to the dead trees, then the bottom fell out and the pilot did exactly what I would do: Keep flying until the last piece stops moving.

For those claiming the engine wasn’t leaned: Look at time 0:0:23. I see knobs that are not at the firewall. GAMA didn’t standardize knob locations until 1967, so this is for 1947 Stinson pilots only: Which is the mixture knob? If it’s the black middle one, it is not at the firewall, suggesting leaning. We also don’t know if the pilot fine-tuned mixture during the roll or after takeoff, which is the preferred method vs setting mixture a full power runup over rocks and gravel, which on a tail dragger damages the elevator with debris.

We also don’t know if the pilot took off with a tail wind explaining the long roll, or hit a tailwind over the dead trees, explaining the loss of altitude.

By: Jimbo5300

Jimbo5300 — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 15:09:12 +0000

First time I watched this……I was screaming Abort…Abort..Abort at my computer. I agree with the others here….should definitely be made into a training video. If this video doesn’t drive home the idea that you should always have a “plan B” when things go wrong, I don’t know what will. Glad everyone survived….sad that a classic airplane got trashed.

By: Russn8r

Russn8r — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 02:21:59 +0000

Regarding comments on overweighting — seems true by definition — but the prelim ntsb report is is pretty sparse. Is info available about what the weight was, baggage plus people plus fuel? Also, seems like it was really loafing, more than just full rich would cause.

By: Dale

Dale — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 20:30:41 +0000

I think MOONEYMAN above got it right. This pilot was a passenger on board his own airplane. He needed to have a “Plan B” before he even advanced his throttle, and be willing to do something other than maintain runway heading. While the aircraft was in ground affect, an exceedingly shallow turn could have been executed to return to the runway before he got to the trees. I know, I have been there with 4 pax in a C-172 at 7200′ and 85F. The da was a little over 13,000′ I was also young and very lucky.

By: Pilot

Pilot — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 07:26:28 +0000

Painful to watch- but very informative. Not much more can be said- except- last month I had an inflight engine failure (single-VFR day @7500 AGL) and got safely on the ground. Within one hour, a non-pilot friend sent me the ATC recording for liveatc.net. No such thing as flying solo anymore. Its the curse of technology. However, that iPad this pilot was using could have been configured with a spreadsheet to do his DA/takeoff roll/ t/o over 50′, etc.

For my plane, I have built a little spreadsheet that runs on my android phone… put in the weights at each station and it builds all the calcs — I have other apps for DA and pdf copies of the performance charts stored locally on my phone. I can do the whole thing in under 3 minutes- from the FBO, at the self serve fuel island, under the wing, from the front seat or back- its really brain dead. Its handy and not really that hard to put together.

By: Jonathon

Jonathon — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 05:24:43 +0000

4 adult’s weight, warm afternoon, feild elevation 6370′, rising terrain, long t/o roll, mush back down to ground at 1:00… I noticed someone mentioned they would like to hear an interview of the pilot, I would as well. However, I think this crash illustrates Hazardous Attitudes and Pilot Decision Making are at the forefront of any flight being safe.