A phrase you
must have heard a thousand times: “there is nothing new under the sun” applies
to bad landings and resultant sequelae. In the latest FAA accident happenings 5
out of 5 accidents involve landings and the day before 7 out of 17. Typical
errors such as: hard landing, busted left main wheel, struck prop etc. As I
have dealt with these before, I don’t want to belabor it now. But If I had to
use one word to help pilots reduce these errors, it would be PRACTICE. Practice
makes perfect, is a phrase commonly thrown about. It would be great if one’s
practice always made a positive change in piloting technique. No guarantee, but
go out and try, so you have a better chance to beat the odds.
Changing
gears, we have recently had an awful (avoidable?) mid-air accident involving an
F-16 fighter jet and a Cessna 150. The pilot and his passenger, his father,
died in the crash. The military pilot was able to safely eject. The F-16 was
IFR, the C-150 VFR. The F-16 pilot was in radio contact with the radar controller,
the C-150 was not. The controller
advised the jet pilot that he had traffic ahead, and if not in sight turn left
180 degrees. The jet pilot replied by
asking “confirm 2 miles?”. The
controller replied “..if traffic not insight turn left heading 180
immediately”. Over the next 18 seconds the track of the F-16 began turning
southerly. Ouch! If you ever have an “immediately” order, you must do exactly
that. Lean on those controls, nice steep bank up to 60 degrees if needed. That
is not a casual order. The result here was a mid-air with two innocents buying
the farm.
Another
landing accident, albeit somewhat unusual, involved a Socata TBM700 landing in Wisconsin. Apparently the plane was
on short final and decided for an unknown reason, to initiate a go-around. Now
the TBM700 is a turboprop with an engine that can deliver a lot of torque to
the prop rapidly. If flown slowly as on short final, the throttle must not be
shoved full open too rapidly as the large amount of torque delivered to the
prop, can overwhelm things. This apparently happened here with tragic results.
The plane supposedly went into a steep left turn, stalling and crashed into the
ground. According to Socata, there have been 36 crashes between 1990 and 2010.
This included 6 crashes where pilots applied power while landing with resultant
stalls and crashes. Power must be applied “steadily and slowly to full climb
power”, as related by a Socata instructor.
So that’s it
for now. Enjoy the coming cooler weather, and watch that power application.
