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ACCIDENT SUMMARIES
Aircraft: Mooney
M20R
Injuries: 2 Minor.
The aircraft engine lost power 2.5 miles
from its destination. Prior to departure the 4,800-hour pilot reported topping
off the fuel tanks with 82 gallons of fuel. Examination of the airplane revealed
that the right fuel tank contained approximately 25 gallons of fuel, and the
left fuel tank was empty. The fuel selector valve was observed to be in the
"LEFT" tank position. An engine run was conducted no anomalies were found.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of
this accident as follows:
The loss of engine power due to fuel starvation as
a result of the pilot's improper positioning of the fuel tank selector. A factor
was the lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing.
It is amazing how often this
actually happens. I personally know of one person who did just this and I have
heard of scores of others who have done the same thing. I have to admit that I
find it startling as, surely, if you are flying an aircraft with more than one
fuel selection available, you will be very aware of which tank you have selected
and for how long? I have often wondered how people run a tank dry, and then do a
forced landing, when there is at least one more fuel tank with fuel still in it.
The only answer I have ever managed to come up with is that this must surely be
due to insufficient training in the aircraft concerned. It has always been a
problem that there will invariably be an instructor somewhere that will convert
a pilot to type and skim over the all-important fuel system of that aircraft.
Even that though should not alone be a problem as the pilot converting should
surely have written a technical on the aircraft and would surely actually WANT
to know everything he/she possibly can find out about the aircraft and its
operation? A good example is a Cherokee Six, which has four fuel tanks. The
left-hand main tank is the only one with a return feed so it is absolutely vital
to initially select that tank when going flying as the fuel pump delivers too
much fuel to the engine and the excess fuel is then returned to the left-hand
main tank. If you have a different tank selected then the excess fuel will be
returned to a full tank that is not being utilized and the tank will dump the
excess fuel overboard. I remember once flying a Cherokee Six across the Kalahari
Desert and, before the flight, I made absolutely sure that I knew exactly how
much fuel I was carrying, exactly where it was, and how to select it. The
message here is simple; never fly an aircraft that you do not fully
understand.
Gary
Aircraft: Piper
PA-44-180
Injuries: 1 Fatal, 3 Serious.
The two commercially
certificated flying pilots, accompanied by an airline transport rated pilot and
a second passenger, departed their home field one afternoon. A weather briefing
had been obtained indicating an AIRMET for rime icing from the freezing level to
18,000 feet. The aircraft departed late in the afternoon, climbed to 12,000 feet
and occasionally climbed to 13,000 feet for short durations in order to remain
VMC above a cloud layer. Night environmental conditions existed when both
engines began losing power and the copilot radioed that the aircraft had
encountered "way too much induction ice to the engines," declaring an emergency.
The pilot-in-command reported the outside air temperature at the power loss was
about -20 degrees Celsius and he immediately applied full carburetor heat and
began trouble shooting the problem while descending back toward a nearby
airport. Application of carburetor heat bypassed the ice blocked induction air
filters allowing unfiltered, warmed air to flow directly to the carburetors.
Remedial action by the crew failed to regain full power and the aircraft broke
out of the cloud base too far down the runway to effect a landing. The pilot
then began a turn to line up and land on the adjacent highway just east of the
runway during which the aircraft's right wing struck several trees and the
aircraft impacted near the west edge of the highway a short distance beyond.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of
this accident as follows:
Both the pilot-in-command and the co-pilot
allowing the aircraft to enter into an area of adverse weather (icing conditions
at low [-20 degrees C] temperatures) resulting in sequential induction icing,
induction filter blockage, carburetor icing and the subsequent partial loss of
power in both engines followed by tree impact and collision with terrain during
an emergency descent/approach. Contributing factors were icing conditions, low
temperatures, night conditions and trees.
A contributing
factor was TREES? Why not just state that a contributing factor was getting out
of bed that morning? Seriously though, airframe and engine icing are a very
serious threat to aircraft and any new instrument rated pilot should be made
abundantly aware that he/she may enter icing conditions only if they want to
mess with mortality. There are indeed some light aircraft that are quite
tolerant of airframe icing and they can in fact be safely flown with some ice
adhering to the airframe but you must always have an immediate escape route. I
have to admit to flying aircraft like a Seneca with a fair amount of ice
clinging to the airframe but only when I have been absolutely sure that I could
descend safely and that just a short descent would take me to a temperature
above freezing, where the ice would quickly dissipate. In order to do such a
thing though you really need to be very aware of the performance characteristics
of the aircraft that you are flying and be very, very aware of what action to
take should the ice accumulation advance beyond what the aircraft is easily
capable of carrying. As previously stated, some aircraft are more forgiving than
others. A few examples; a C210 does not like carrying any ice at all, a Seneca
is more forgiving, an Aztec doesn't mind carrying quite a large amount of ice,
and a Baron also does not like any ice at all. Once again, know your aircraft
and rather try and avoid icing conditions completely.
Gary
and then we have a
summary from our roving reporter, Pontius......
Well folks, Pontius has decided to
widen his expertise and has joined IDIOT (Incident Detection Institute Of
Transport). He is doing darn well too, I might add. Just recently he was called
upon to investigate an incident and, here is his finding:
AIRCRAFT: CESSNA 172
PILOT:
30 YRS OLD, CFI, IR
FATALITIES: None
DAMAGE:
Substantial
WITNESS: Line attendant at
our local airport
Pilot came to airport at 9:00am 10 Jul 1982. Line boy reports
padlock on his hangar door was so rusted he had to break it off with a 10#
ball-peen hammer.
Also had to inflate all 3 tires and scrape pigeon droppings
off wind-screen. After several attempts to drain fuel strainers, pilot finally
got what looked like fuel out of the wings sumps. Couldn't get the oil dipstick
out of the engine but said it was okay last time he looked.
Engine started
okay, ran rough for about 1/2 minute. Then died. Then battery would not turn
prop. Used battery cart and although starter was smoking real good, it finally
started and the prop wash blew the smoke away.
Line boy offered to fuel
airplane up but pilot said he was late for an appointment at a nearby airport.
Said it wasn't far. Taxied about 1/2 way out to active runway and the engine
stopped. Pushed it back to the fuel pumps and bought 3 gallons for the left wing
tank. Started it again. This time, he was almost out to the runway when it quit
again. Put a little rock under nose wheel; hand propped it; and was seen still
trying to climb in the airplane as it went across the runway. Finally got in it;
blew out the right tire trying to stop before the cement plant.
When he
taxied back in to have the tire changed, he also had the line boy hit the right
wing with 3 gallons of gas. Witness, who saw the take-off, said the aircraft
lined up and took off to the North. Takeoff looked fairly normal, nose came up
about 300 ft down the runway. At midfield nose came down. Engine coughed
twice, then cut power and applied the brakes which made both doors fly
open and a big fat brown book fell out on the runway and released probably a
million little white pages with diagrams on them. Looked like sort of a snow
storm.
After several real loud runups at the end, he turned her around and
took off in the other direction going south into the wind. Only this time he
horsed her off at the end and pulled her up real steep like one of them jet
fighter planes -- to about 300 ft -- then the engine quit!
Did a sort of a
slow turn back toward the airport, kinda like that Art School guy, and about 30
ft off the McDonald's cafe she started roaring again. He did sort of a high
speed pass down the runway; put the flaps down to full and that sucker went up
like he was going to do an Immelman!
The engine quit again and he turned
right and I thought he was coming right through the front window of the A.M.O.;
but he pulled her up, went through the TV antenna and the little rooster with
the NSE&W things, over the building then bounced the main wheels off the
roof of 3 different cars in the lot; a Porsche, a Mercedes and Dr. Brown's
new Pajero.
When he bounced off the Pajero the engine roared to life and he
got her flying. Came around toward the runway and set her down, once on
the overrun, once on the runway and once in the grass beside the runway. He
taxied to the ramp, shut her down, and ordered 3 more gallons of
gas. Said it was for safety's sake.
Then he asked where the phone booth was
as he had to call his student and tell him he was going to be a little bit late.
Pontius
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