Aviation Safety

At the risk of falling into the category of the uninformed, I would like to comment on Graveyard Spirals [Reality Check, May].

The flight tests of an airplanes stability is broken into categories of static, dynamic and maneuvering. Control forces and the airplanes response to various test conditions are measured against the FAAs requirements. These are done with the basic requirement that the airplane should tend to return to trim condition exepect that the airplane is not expected to roll wings level when measuring stick force per g in maneuvering flight.

The tests of the phugoid mode, the spiral mode and the lateral-directional stability are done hands-off. The object is to dete…

At 1742 Pacific time, a Cessna 172N lost engine power during cruise flight and was damaged in a forced landing to I-10 near Alhambra. The pilot and two passengers were not injured. The pilot reported his calculations were in error and the airplane ran out of fuel….

At 1845 central time, a Cessna 172L struck terrain during the landing flare on runway 35 at the Dalhart Municipal Airport. The pilot suffered minor injuries. The pilot said he was flying from Liberal, Kan., to Albuquerque when he decided to land at Dalhart due to thunderstorms ahead. During final approach, the wind was down the runway, but he was struck by a left crosswind gust during the flare. The airplane departed the runway, struck the ground, and impacted a ditch before coming to rest nose down. The ASOS at the airport recorded a wind shift at the time of the accident, with gusts reaching 44 knots….

At 1700 eastern time, a Cessna 182 made a hard landing at a private airstrip, damaging the airplane but leaving the pilot uninjured. The pilot said he departed Hilton Head, S.C., and had been flying all day. He said he was very fatigued as he made his landing approach. The airplane landed hard, buckling the firewall and damaging stringers in the fuselage….

At about 0822 eastern time, a Cessna 172S crashed near Lutz, killing the pilot. The pilot had crashed his experimental Rotorway 162F helicopter into the roof of a Tampa house at 2130 eastern time the night before, and it was discovered that the helicopter carried the wrong N-number. In the airplane crash, the pilot departed Vandenberg Airport at 0709 and orbited for about 15 minutes at 2,100 feet. The airplane then moved slightly west and orbited a roadway intersection for nearly an hour. Attempts to communicate with the airplane by the Tampa Tower and a Sheriff helicopter on several frequencies were unsuccessful. A witness reported hearing the engine rev up before the airplane pitched dow…

At approximately 1700 mountain time, a Beech A35 was damaged in a gear-up landing at Mondell Field. The pilot was not injured. The pilot said he had just purchased the airplane and was making a local flight. When he returned to the airport for landing, he forgot to lower the landing gear and inadvertently landed wheels up. The airplane is equipped with an audible landing gear warning system that is activated whenever power is reduced below 12 inches of manifold pressure and the landing gear is still retracted, but the pilot said he didnt know if his airplane was so equipped. In any case, he said, he didnt hear the warning horn prior to touchdown….

At about 1010 Pacific time, a Grumman AA-5B struck terrain shortly after departing from Santa Paula, killing both aboard. A witness said the airplane departed runway 22 and turned to a left downwind as it climbed. He said it held a high climb angle and appeared to be angling toward the mountains. The tops of the mountains were obscured but there was a patch of blue sky ahead of the airplane over the mountains. The airplane collided with a 55-degree slope about 200 feet below the crest of a ridgeline that ran northeast to southwest. No preaccident anomalies were found….

At approximately 1745 central time, a Cessna 150 lost partial engine power and crashed during the ensuing forced landing near Fort Worth. The pilot was not injured. The pilot said he was climbing through 50 feet agl when he noticed the engine starting to lose power. He continued to climb and flew a traffic pattern, turning to downwind at about 200 feet agl. He elected to land in a field ahead of him about a half-mile east of the runway. An FAA inspector reported the mixture control rod had separated from the carburetor….

At about 1405 mountain time, a Piper PA-23-160 crashed about three miles west of Nogales International Airport, killing all three aboard. The airplane had been rented in Chandler by an applicant for a CFI-MEI certificate. Also aboard were a CFI and a private, multi-engine pilot. The designated examiner who was scheduled to give the CFI practical test said he was conducting the test when, on engine start, he noted the left engine did not produce sufficient power. He canceled the flight for mechanical reasons. The instructor pilot consulted with the operators mechanic and apparently concluded the return flight to Chandler could be made safely. The examiner observed the CFI applicant sitting i…

At about 0730 mountain time, a Fisher Celebrity biplane suffered a wing separation near Chandler, killing the pilot and passenger. A witness who was building the same type of airplane said the pilot bought the airplane eight months earlier but had not received original construction plans with it, so he would contact the witness with questions about the airplane. Three weeks before the accident the pilot told the witness the airplanes wing fabric was delaminating. About four days later the accident pilot called the witness and told him he had spoken to the factory about the problem. He also said he had washed the airplane and it looked a lot better. The witness offered the accident pilot s…