That Is Not Going To Buff Out

On April 30, quite a storm rolled through Oakland County.

While the winds were gusting heavily, the flight school successor to Flight 101 that currently owns N73455, a Cessna 172M, was apparently trying to move it to shelter with a tug.

Unfortunately they had decided to get it to shelter, and then tried to do so, but too late.

 

It flipped and was damaged.

A recent photo taken by a friend who saw it this week, shows it was even more substantially damaged after that first photo was taken, with the damage possibly occurring when they went to flip it back over afterwards. 

A sad end to the plane I did my first solo in.

N73455 was, verily, a flying aluminum beer bucket of bolts (with non-essential pieces of the interior consistently falling off).  

So much so, that at least one local DPE had consistently refused to ever do a checkride in it (and all the other aircraft in that flight school) because of its condition.

But for all that, it was still a great and smooth flying aircraft.  When you were a student and didn't know any better about what condition an aircraft should be in, it was great. 

So farewell to N73455, she had a rough life, and wasn't cared for as she should have been, and her life was ended due to the same neglect she suffered all her life as a flight school aircraft.  

For all that, she always flew true, and gave many a student pilot their first thrilling gateway to a future of flying.  

MiG-23 Down At Thunder Over Michigan

I didn't make it to Thunder Over Michigan this year.  Thus year, MiG-23 didn't make it out. No cause has been announced yet, with one rumor calling it a bird strike, and NTSB is investigating.

The Detroit News: Plane crashes during Thunder over Michigan airshow finale at Willow Run

Both pilots of the MiG ejected safely, with no reported serious injuries from both the ejection and splashing into Belleville Lake. 

Aircraft crashed into a parking lot beside an apartment building outside the airfield.  Aside from some cars getting trashed, it appears that thankfully no one was hurt.

Thanks to Matthew W for the provided a link to Twitter with video of the incident.

Early Accident Analysis - That's Not What They Mean When They Say Contact Tower

The accident in which the Mooney caught the three-wire, along with the rest of the Tower,  in Gaithersburg, Maryland drew quite a bit of attention given its rather rare occurrence of the plane hitting the tower, remaining intact, and both occupants surviving the incident.

There is an early analysis courtesy of AOPA which is rather interesting:

In short, the pilot was flying IFR, doing an RNAV 14 approach and had clear issues both getting onto the appropriate heading to reach the initial fix and then handling after hitting the final approach fix.  With weather conditions below minimums and some windshear, the pilot descended below the RNAV vertical guidance and seemed to be off laterally as well to strike the tower.

Two Airplanes And Crews Down In Airshow Collision

A terrible accident at the Commemorative Air Force’s Wings Over Dallas Show occurred yesterday.

Fox 4: Historic military planes collide in mid-air crash at Dallas Executive Airport

The B-17 Texas Raider, seen in better days above,  was lost with all on board.

The P-63 Kingcobra that struck the B-17 was also lost with its pilot.

Freom looking at the various videos of the collision, it looks like the P-63 deviated from its own airshow lane and crossed into the B-17's airshow lane and hit it behind the wing, severing the rear fuselage leading to both planes having uncontrolled crashes.   The NTSB investigation will probably provide more detail in time.

Given the angle of approach, The B-17 pilots most likely never saw it coming and had no chance to react, and had no chance at all to recover after the collision.

That makes six dead in a tragic accident, along with the loss of two irreplaceable historic aircraft.

Another Case Of VFR Into IMC With Sadly Predictable Results

Flying as a VFR pilot into IMC conditions is still one of the top killers of pilots, most especially if you're not instrument rated. On July 15, it killed a pilot and his passenger.

The Detroit Free Press: NTSB: Pilot of crashed airplane in west Michigan was not instrument-rated.

The pilot of this accident was indeed not rated for instrument flight, and he took off in conditions I wouldn't even try to take off in even with an instrument rating.

Two commercial pilots at the airport observed the departure, the report said: One reported that the ceiling at the time was no higher than 100 feet and the other said the plane entered "instrument meteorological conditions" as it crossed a road about 1,300 feet past the departure end of the runway.

The pilot likely had a bad case of get-there-itis and didn't want to wait for the weather to clear.

Yes, while under Part 91 you can legally takeoff IFR in 0/0 conditions but it's really not recommended to do so. 

100 feet AGL is not much better than 0/0 and not good takeoff weather as it doesn't leave you an out to safely and legally return to the airport if something bad occurs.  It's below the visibility needed for non-precision and precision approaches both.  Oceana has RNAV approaches, but 100 feet is way below minimums for it.  

If you're not instrument rated don't try and fly instrument conditions, especially don't try to fly in very bad instrument conditions.  

Instrument flying really is different from VFR flying and it's likely not going to work out how you would prefer it to go.

Sad News From The Battle Creek Air Show

WMMT: One dead after truck explosion at Field of Flight in Battle Creek

The Shockwave Jet Truck was racing two planes as part of the Field of Flight air show and was reaching speeds of 300 mph when it exploded, apparently at the time its parachute was deployed to slow it down.

The driver of the Shockwave Jet Truck was killed in the explosion and has not yet been identified in the news.  May he or she rest in peace.

Air Show activities for the rest of the day have been cancelled.

Deterring Dry-Fire Disasters

Had a call from a client this morning.

A good, solid, experienced shooter.  Lots of trigger time and dry-fire time.

He had been dry-firing at home in his basement and had put his pistol down on his table.

He picked up the pistol to shoot it again, aimed at his target, squeezed the trigger and .  .  .

                                     BANG!!!!!!

The incident was described to me as time standing still, he could hear the 'tink' of the brass that ejected hitting his table, he saw the dust fall from the ceiling and only then had a nice ringing in his ears.

His immediate reaction was WTF!?!?!

He had picked up his carry gun he had taken off and put on the table and which was identical to the gun he had been dry firing, rather than the gun he was dry-firing. 

Ooops.

Luckily, he still had the gun pointed in a safe direction at a wall when the shot went off.  It went through the drywall and then stuck behind it and did not exit anywhere.  Some ringing in the ears and that was the extent of the damage. Apparently no one outside the house heard the shot go off in his basement either.  No physical harm nor legal repercussions for the negligent discharge.

"That'll never happen to me",  you say.

Hopefully not, but you're human, and at some point in the future you are likely to make a mistake.  Whether through complacency, carelessness, or clumsiness, you may very well put a hole where it was neither intended nor desired.

The idea is to mitigate the damage from that future moment of negligence that may hopefully never take place but is just waiting for you to slip up and for the opportunity to happen.

When dry-firing, make sure there is no live ammunition in the room where you are practicing. Unload and clear the gun you are going to dry-fire in another room before you even go to the room you are dry firing in.

Make sure there are no live firearms or ammunition in the room you are dry firing in, as in none.

Before you begin to dry-fire, check again that the firearm is unloaded in chamber and magazine, really look, and check again, and then check one more time.  

Make sure any practice magazines for reloads are similarly completely empty of live rounds, which should all have been left behind in the other room, right?

Make sure when you dry-fire that you still do not point the firearm at anything you do not want to destroy, and you have a solid backstop at all times. This will save you from complete disaster when you've managed to still manage to get a round chambered even after you swore up and down that the gun and magazines were empty.  My client's incident is now having me rethink my habit of aiming toward the TV with targets arrayed in front of it while dry-firing.

If the gun leaves your immediate possession or you've put it down, and it is not in your hand or holster, stop and start your safety checks all over - check it again to make sure it is unloaded and you didn't just pick up its twin, or Murphy came by and did a swap of pistols  - or more likely you did it in a fit of absent-mindedness.

If you practice under the impression that you will have an incident someday and you need to do everything possible to prevent it from happening and causing irreparable damage, you'll be a lot safer than saying "That'll never happen to me."

The Third Time Was Not The Charm - Or Weight And Balance Matter

Weight and balance is a key preflight step before you takeoff in an aircraft. When you mess it up, bad things tend to happen.

In this case the pilot scored a double - being both overweight and out of balance.

The Detroit News: Report: Plane over weight limit, attempted multiple takeoffs before crash last July

The aircraft involved is an Icon A5, an amphibian that's getting quite a reputation for accidents. This is due not to any particular fault with the craft itself, but instead due to it's pilot's attitudes when flying it - either beyond its envelope or otherwise in an ill-advised manner.

Thankfully no one was killed in this accident.

Snowbird Down

A Canadian Forces CT-114 Tutor Aircraft of the Snowbirds Aerobatic team has gone down near Kamploops BC.

Global News: CF Snowbird crashes near Kamloops during B.C. stop of cross-Canada tour

There's video of the incident at the link

At least one of the occupants ejected from the aircraft, but there are unconfirmed report is that there is a fatality involved.

Here's to hoping that the report of a fatality is wrong.

Update: Sadly, it's confirmed that one of the team members has died in the crash and the other on board was seriously injured, but is expected to survive. A pilot and a team technician were on board. No names are being given out yet.

May there be a speedy and full recovery to the injured team member.

RIP to the lost Snowbird's team member in this crash, you were an inspiration and example of excellence not just to the people of Canada but also beyond its borders.

Further Update: It was just announced the lost team member was Captain Jenn Casey, the team's public affairs officer. The injured pilot is Captain Richard MacDougall.

Speaking Of Mid Air Collisions . . . .

The below picture is what happens when a Daddy Cirrus SR22 loves a Mommy Cirrus SR20 very much:

Picture from @wjxt4/Twitter and Flying Magazine.

No, in 9 months there won't be a Cirrus Vision Jet created.

Nobody was killed or seriously injured during the crash that happened last week and the SR20 had a pilot and flight instructor on board and the SR22 that landed on top of them was allegedly flown by Rob Meier, a former player with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

That's a nice million dollar plus accident right there, and another reason to spend more time looking outside the airplane and to be careful out there.

Weight And Balance Are Not Optional

Cessna 172s while having 4 seats, are really 3 seat aircraft when it comes to adults.

Overloading it, as is the case with any airplane, leads to some very bad consequences.

The Detroit News: NTSB: Plane overweight in crash that killed 4

According to the report, the Cessna 172 had a maximum gross weight of 2,457 pounds. Using weights from the medical examiner’s report, plus 10 pounds of baggage and 35 gallons of fuel, the NTSB found the plane had a gross weight of 2,550.6 pounds but would have been within center of gravity limits.

A second calculation, adding 10 percent to the body weights to account for thermal injuries and increasing the baggage weight to 15 pounds, determined a gross weight of 2,622.6 pounds, or 165 pounds overweight, with a center of gravity outside the plane’s operating limits.

Being overweight and outside the center of gravity limits is a very bad thing. Compounding the error, after realizing he was low and slow, the pilot made a left hand turn back to the airport, more than likely stalled in the turn and crashed with fatal results.

Unfortunately, the pilot did the weight and balance calculation in his head and was off by quite a bit, and not in a safe direction. A very sad and completely avoidable accident.

No, Weight And Balance Checks Are Not Optional

Over at Bayou Renaissance Man, you can watch a video where having an airplane being overweight on takeoff had some bad but not fatal consequences.

Now we get another reminder that weight and balance is not optional, this time fatally so.

The Detroit News: Cargo plane crashes along Nile River in South Sudan

A cargo plane that was reportedly overloaded crashed along the banks of the Nile River after taking off from the South Sudan’s capital, killing at least 25 people.

Given the plane was built in the Soviet Union in 1971 and the likely shoddy maintenance and lackadaisical compliance with checklists and regulations in that part of the world since, weight and balance probably wasn't done or was ignored with a shrug.

Denial of basic pre-flight requirements and maximum takeoff weight limits results in you crash landing on the banks of de Nile.

You Don't See That Kind Of Accident Report Everyday

The Detroit News: NTSB: Pilot of spaceship unlocked braking system early

That the NTSB conducted an investigation of an accident involving a spaceship sounds like something out of the world of tomorrow.

Sadly, it's all too real today that the co-pilot died in the accident and the pilot was badly injured. The article states the report points to the not so fail-safe design of the braking system and human error as the culprit.

Unfortunately, we learn often by the dangerous mistakes of others and improve from there.

No one said space flight was going to be risk-free, nor can it be if we are eventually going to have a real space program - both private and governmental - with people going into space and really doing things in space. Hopefully all the right lessons are learned from this accident.

The Hits Keep On Coming...

I had just completed a seminar presentation at the business center at Michigan State University in East Lansing on business entity legal considerations and was heading back to the office this afternoon to get some work done and then start a relaxing weekend.

It was not to be.

At the corner of Hagadorn and Mt. Hope, minding my own business, stopped completely at a red light with a grey Nissan Titan truck to my front and nothing behind me, relaxing after a fun but involved presentation, looking ahead at the lights, waiting for them to change and wa-bam!

The RAV4 was struck from behind, hard enough that it was pushed forward to hit the truck in front of me even as I was on the breaks.

I had a very weird feeling as it happened, watching my car moving closer to the truck - I clearly remember thinking "What the heck is happening, my car is moving forward and I'm on the brake, what the hell?"

Not a pleasant feeling.

And this was the result:

Ouch. In addition, my left pinky finger feels sprained or something and hurts like a bugger. I'm not sure how it happened as both hands were on the wheel at the moment of impact. The back is also sore but the neck is fine so far.

In addition to mine, he managed to make his car not look too good either:

Interestingly, there was no damage to the Titan visible, but my front bumper had some grey marks on it and one of the plastic things popped out and I shoved it back into place.

It turns out that the fellow wasn't paying attention, had looked behind him to talk to his kid, saw the cars in the lane next to him move and must have just hammered the gas pedal. The problem of course was that that lane was the left turn lane and it was moving on a green arrow!

Thankfully the kid was unhurt because he was properly buckled up in a booster seat, so the guy is not a complete moron. Nice fellow, very apologetic and was kinda shaken and shocky over the whole incident.

The lady whose truck my car taped was also a decent sport about it and was impressed her truck had no damage and the front of my car only a bit considering the impact we both felt. Given the extensive damage I called the police and about a half hour later the Meridian Township Police officer arrived, got everyone's data and heard everyone's statements and went to write his report. Good and courteous fellow. So we got an accident report out of it and the guy was cited, I believe for careless driving. Happily, the RAV was still drivable so I drove it homeward and called my friend who owns a collision shop and I dropped it off there and it now awaits the adjuster's assessment. That's a non-preferred way of starting a weekend off with a bang. It's also the second frickkin time I've been minding my own business stopped at a red light and I get rear ended by someone not paying attention. I'm beginning to wonder if inattentive drivers are mistaking the spare tire cover for a target marker. Sheesh.

Useless Question of the Night

Question: If you slice a Ford Fusion into parts, do you call it a Ford Fission?

On vehicles, and the value of Paying Attention

So, on the way to the USPSA match yesterday and going to pick up my friend Rob for his first match, I was minding my own business. Stopped at a red light with a car to my front, a car (A Kia Sportage) to my rear and a Police car ahead in the left lane with a car behind it.

The light turns green. The officer floors it, and the car behind her proceeds in her wake. The car ahead of me pauses, considers and takes its sweet time deciding to move, and then finally begins to roll forward. I take my foot off the brake, and I'm about to hit the gas and

BANG!

The whole RAV4 jumps forward and I'm pressed against my seat belt from the impact.

The lady driving the Kia Sportage decided not to wait for the traffic in front of her to move.

This, I think, is about to suck.

So we pull over and I indicate we should get off the main road so we make the turn rather than going through as planned.

Flashing lights then appear. The officer actually heard the bang and came back. So we all pull into a parking lot and get out to inspect the damage.

Amazingly, it seems by RAV4 is unmarked.

It appears Mrs. Kia rammed into my tire cover on the rear of the car. The tire cover must have flexed to avoid cracking or denting, and once I get a car wash we'll see if there are any scratches. Both the flexing and the dirt likely acted as a buffer to the impact. I had figured on massive damage given the sound and the feeling but there is nothing really visible at first glance.

Her Kia however looks quite the worse for wear - the plastic grill is badly cracked and the hood has a nice fold in it. Did I mention she's got plently of prior dents in the vehicle from what look like plentiful prior accidents?

So she tells the officer the following story:

She's on her way to church and saw the light turn green, then looked down and reached down to get something while hitting the gas.

She also mentions she's originally from Chicago and couldn't believe the guy in front of me didn't hurry up and go when the light turned green.

Brilliant. This kind of driving attitude and attention to detail could explain a lot of the pre-existing damage on her car.

So we all hand over our licenses, registration, insurance and I produced my CPL as required, no big deal.

The lady begins to claim she can't find her license or insurance or registration.

Another police car shows up and the officers confer.

After awhile, losing all the time advantage of leaving early for the match, the second officer comes up, hands me my paperwork and a copy of the accident receipt in case I need to pull the accident report and says I'm free to go.

She gets to stick around a while longer.

So the score is now RAV4 - 1 Kia Sportage - 0, with an own-goal no less.