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- Newsgroups: rec.aviation
- Path: sparky!uunet!infonode!ingr!b30news!catbyte.b30.ingr.com!medin
- From: medin@catbyte.b30.ingr.com (Dave Medin)
- Subject: The home field accident...
- Message-ID: <1992Nov20.154051.27951@b30.ingr.com>
- Sender: usenet@b30.ingr.com (Usenet Feed)
- Reply-To: medin@catbyte.b30.ingr.com
- Organization: Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville AL
- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 15:40:51 GMT
- Lines: 40
-
- Just got off the phone with my old instructor, after being clued in
- that my beloved grass field, Moontown (3M5), had suffered its first
- fatal accident in its over 40 year history when a new 17 year-old PP
- (day after checkride) took a 172 loaded with his friends into a
- tree to the side of the departure end of the RW. From the people who
- saw it, it appears the airplane didn't climb out of ground effect,
- or at least not very far, and drifted far to the right of the
- centerline. The gear caught the treeline to the right side of the
- threshhold. Three were killed and the fourth person seriously injured.
- The airplane was not recognizable as such, with only the vertical fin
- still intact. Witnesses made it to the crash immediately. There was
- no fire. Weather was CAVU with no wind. It was after dark.
-
- I've flown the 172 before--a pre-60's Continental. The plane had a
- reputation for being a slow climber, and most pilots took this into
- account. The teenager flying was known to be a good pilot. Witnesses
- said it sounded like the engine was developing full power at the time.
-
- Although the NTSB findings will probably be available someday, it looks
- like a momentary lapse in judgement and alertness, combined with a
- risky preflight decision on loading contributed to this--something
- that can affect even us multi-100 hour pilots. The trees have no
- preference... Nor is enthusiasm for aviation selective in who it
- strikes.
-
- I hope that relating this will remind at least some who read it, again,
- of the possible consequences of bad decisions surrounding the
- activity we all love.
-
- --
- --------------------------------------------------------------------
- Dave Medin Phone: (205) 730-3169 (w)
- SSD--Networking (205) 837-1174 (h)
- Intergraph Corp.
- M/S GD3004 Internet: medin@catbyte.b30.ingr.com
- Huntsville, AL 35894 UUCP: ...uunet!ingr!b30!catbyte!medin
-
- ******* Everywhere You Look (at least around my office) *******
-
- * The opinions expressed here are mine (or those of my machine)
-