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NTSB releases preliminary report on plane crash in Rockingham County, Va.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a preliminary report on Tuesday that provides details on a single-engine plane crash that killed a pilot after departing Winchester, Va., on Jan. 11. (dcnewsroom.blogspot.com) Altro...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Get home it is strikes again. Night, mountains, you better be IFR or very, very, familiar with the local,region.
An incredible challenge to deal with perceptual narrowing due to fear and stress while at the same time telling yourself not to trust the few senses you have left. Its not intuition that keeps you alive its training and experience.
Too much airplane - not enough training?
Obviously, we all have various flight training experiences. I was lucky, large PT141 school, no busted check rides, no extra training, a diploma, ASMEL, CFI-II. Less than 400 hours total time, all in training, maybe a few pleasure flights in my local practice area.
Then I got my first job in KMTH, FL doing rental check outs and whatever primary students I could dig up. One of the advantages of the less than $200/week salary was use of a VFR C-150 for the cost of the fuel.
Somehow, I ended up well after the end of evening civil twilight in Key West,with girlfriend, no moon, departing runway 27 - over the ocean, had to get the plane back before morning, out over the ocean, sans any form of horizon.
I realized at Vr that this IFR stuff was no joke. Yes, I had my ratings,hood time, and Link Trainer time.
Staring into the black. I think "Startle Factor" and :Rookie Factor" hit at 100AGL. Then remembering I'm supposed to ever so gently simultaneously use Attitude indicator for an easy 25 deg bank left climbing turn, using the airspeed , and needle and ball, VSI only. No outside reference.
My first actual IMC, and I had my girls life in my hands. The climbing 180 degree turn to When I got leveled off at 3,000 ft heading down the now visible visible occasional street lights heading east gave me time to take a breath. I had successfully departed IFR and got headed roughly east and home.
That was over 35 years, and 20,000 flight hours ago, but it's one an important memory.
A simple unexpected IMC departure (I hadn't experienced a night departure over a moonless night over the ocean, nor had I even considered how different having zero references outside the aircraft after Vr was) The adrenaline was there alright and I learned that just because I had the un-blemished training record, I'm still learning something new quite frequently.
Then I got my first job in KMTH, FL doing rental check outs and whatever primary students I could dig up. One of the advantages of the less than $200/week salary was use of a VFR C-150 for the cost of the fuel.
Somehow, I ended up well after the end of evening civil twilight in Key West,with girlfriend, no moon, departing runway 27 - over the ocean, had to get the plane back before morning, out over the ocean, sans any form of horizon.
I realized at Vr that this IFR stuff was no joke. Yes, I had my ratings,hood time, and Link Trainer time.
Staring into the black. I think "Startle Factor" and :Rookie Factor" hit at 100AGL. Then remembering I'm supposed to ever so gently simultaneously use Attitude indicator for an easy 25 deg bank left climbing turn, using the airspeed , and needle and ball, VSI only. No outside reference.
My first actual IMC, and I had my girls life in my hands. The climbing 180 degree turn to When I got leveled off at 3,000 ft heading down the now visible visible occasional street lights heading east gave me time to take a breath. I had successfully departed IFR and got headed roughly east and home.
That was over 35 years, and 20,000 flight hours ago, but it's one an important memory.
A simple unexpected IMC departure (I hadn't experienced a night departure over a moonless night over the ocean, nor had I even considered how different having zero references outside the aircraft after Vr was) The adrenaline was there alright and I learned that just because I had the un-blemished training record, I'm still learning something new quite frequently.
Awesome comment. I learned SEL in a 150 but nothing like you.
Too bad some knucklehead rolled N6391K into a ball and walked away.
I had to switch to the C172 :(
Too bad some knucklehead rolled N6391K into a ball and walked away.
I had to switch to the C172 :(
... into a ball on the takeoff roll. Right side door popped open, apparently.