Accident Probes

At 10:45 CDT, a Beech B19 on approach for landing at Haerr Field was struck by a Robinson R-22 Beta helicopter. Both aircraft landed safely and there were no injuries. The Beech pilot said he was turning base to final when he heard a thud and felt a bump, then noticed the helicopter at his 10 oclock position and just below. The helicopter pilot said he had heard the airplanes transmissions and thought the airplane was already on the ground. The helicopter pilot said he never saw the airplane before it came right over the top of the helicopter….

Just as how we dress and what we drive help define who we are, so, too, does what we fly.

The practical ones drive sedans and fly Skyhawks; the rowdy ones lean toward sports cars and stunt planes. Somewhere in the mix is the large group of people whose wheels of choice are sport utility vehicles and pick-up trucks.

These load-haulers may be working, they may be playing, but theyre doing it hard. For them, a utility airplane is a natural.

The Cessna U206 has, over the years, gained a well-deserved reputation for its load-hauling ability. With its big rear doors and spacious cabin, it has found work as a cargo hauler, bush plane and jump plane. As an airplane for campers, hunters an…

Roy Rogers had Trigger; the Lone Ranger had Silver. And each of them knew they could count on their horse to help them out of a jam. They knew the horse would always be up to snuff. They knew if the horse could jump that ravine or catch that steaming locomotive. Of course, it always would.

Similarly, pilots put a lot of faith into their trusted steeds. After a while flying the same airplane, rotation comes by feel and sound, with sometimes only a cursory glance at the airspeed indicator. Landings at familiar fields are made without second thought.

While that may not be unsafe, sometimes the shortcuts can be more onerous. Some pilots have virtually abandoned weight and balance calcula…

The vast majority of aviation accidents have a chain of events that lead up to tragedy. It may be long or short, but seldom is it a single catastrophic event that strikes without warning.

Sometimes the events that chain the airplane to the accident are subtle. Only by playing Monday morning quarterback can you spot the links. In examining those accidents you may silently wonder if you would have spotted the potential for disaster in time to avert it.

Other times, the accident chain smacks you across the face. How, you wonder, could anyone have been so foolish?

One December night three acquaintances decided to go flying. They drove to a private airstrip west of Ocean City, Md., and…

Although you hate to admit it, some pilots just seem to be asking for it. They fly like drunken outlaw motorcyclists, always dodging regs and cutting corners. You can usually spot their aircraft by the duct tape on the landing gear. When these guys crash their airplanes, you shake your head knowingly and say, What the hell was he thinking, anyway?

At the other end of the scale, there are those times when a highly trained, proficient, conscientious pilot augers one in. When it happens to airliners the feds spare no effort until they get to a conclusion the experts can live with. But among general aviation crashes, the scorched earth approach to accident investigation falls victim to too…

There comes a time in every pilots career when they get ready to launch on a flight they really shouldnt make.

The warning signs are there. Maybe the pilot isnt feeling up to snuff. Maybe the mechanical health of the airplane is suspect. Maybe the weather is either threatening to go bad or already is below the pilots or legal minimums.

This is the stuff of flying. Forget about stick and rudder. Forget about IFR radio technique. Forget about navigation. Think instead about the C that comes with being PIC. Command. It implies the skill to measure the likelihood of a favorable outcome and the wisdom to know if the risk is worth the outcome. In short, its the competition between judgm…

Pilots and even aircraft owners have a tendency to take airplanes at face value. If a friend or acquaintance asks you to go flying, do you ask to see the maintenance logs, check the applicable ADs, or even tag along on the preflight?

The fact is that the FARs put the onus on the airplane owner to maintain the aircraft in an airworthy condition, and most people trust that the rules have been followed. And when someone asks you to go flying with them, odds are you accept that persons piloting skills as a given without even asking a few simple questions.

The last flight of an Aero Commander 500-B shows just how misplaced that trust can be. The aircraft was being positioned from Lancaster…

Some flights just dont seem to go right. Your tongue turns to mush when you key the mic. You keep chasing altitude and cant quite get the trim set right. Your dyslexia acts up every time you read back a frequency.

Training and attitude help keep the bad flights away and hold the mistakes to a minimum, but recent experience – the mark of a proficient pilot – may be the single biggest determinant of how easily you can keep misfortune at bay.

Recent experience means more than just how many hours youve logged lately. To be truly proficient, you have to revisit your operating handbook from time to time to review critical speeds and procedures. Check the weight and balance occasionally, e…

By ignoring a few rules, pilot takes three friends to the bottom of a lake instead of a hockey playoff

All pilots have had them, those flights where you make a little mistake and it goes unnoticed for a long time.

Maybe its leaving the gear down until you get to cruise, and only then figuring out why the airspeed is so low. Perhaps you left the transponder on standby and didnt correct it until a gentle reminder crackled over the headset. And some people have been known to forget to turn off the autopilot, which makes a traffic pattern a difficult thing to fly.

The point is that minor problems rarely turn into major ones, because usually theyre caught in time. And even if theyre not caught until the airplane lands, there are few such mistakes that carry severe penalties. Occasional…