Two men in a Bonanza left the Aspen airport and didn’t make it over the Continental Divide. That is not unusual.
I learned to fly in Colorado with mountain pilot instructors. Drilled into all their students are some hard lessons about the winds aloft, mountain waves, and density altitude. There are passes you cross eastbound and passes you cross westbound depending on the winds aloft.
Aspen is especially tricky. Those two souls should have talked to the locals and added 20-30 minutes to their flight time by taking a safer route. What you don’t do at Aspen is take off in the middle of a summer day and immediately head eastward unless you have something with a 4,000+ feet per minute climb.
Winds aloft producing mountain waves can fool you. One time I was eastbound over Corona Pass in a C-180, 70 mph indicated airspeed, idle power, 40° flaps, and climbing 3,000’ per minute. The wave spit me out at around 18,000’. Then we dropped at 2,500’ per minute but were over much lower terrain.
Maybe it is wrong to make judgments until the facts are in but in this case I will speculate the key ingredient in this crash was pilot arrogance.
One addition. I've never had a problem walking into a FBO office and asking for advice no matter where in the country I might be.
1969 I was at Northway, AK in a C-170 that I was to deliver to Anchorage. After talking to the locals, made that very expensive call to the customer and advised him to come get his C-170. Two days later in the right seat enroute to Anchorage I was so happy I made that decision.
9 comments:
I never flew in mountainous terrain, but I do remember the upward thermals from freshly plowed black fields!
I flew a very light helicopter home from Torrance, CA to the St. Louis area 19 times.
On more than one occasion the turbulence at Banning, CA made me think landing and waiting until the sun quit providing energy to the ground was a rational idea, and that was probably in "light to moderate" turbulence. Whatever, it was scary.
Helicopters are not impacted by turbulence in the same way fixed-wing aircraft are. The rotors are natural, flexible shock absorbers.
Bonanzas are part of Darwin's Law, aren't they?
FOB indeed.
This is my Dad’s AT-6 story.
It is the fall of 1945, and the war is over. My dad has returned to CONUS from England after his combat tour flying 35 missions as a B-17 pilot with the 447th Bomb Group. He is stationed in San Diego, and has been tasked with transferring some number of AT-6’s from there up to Oakland. Suffice it to say that he is now an “old hand”. He has this down pat.
Stretch out pre-flight, paperwork, whatever through Monday into Tuesday until it is too late to make the flight. Make flight Wednesday, stop in Fresno for fuel, arrive Oakland late afternoon. Spend Thursday with post-flight, paperwork, whatever. Now no point in catching a train to RTB because it will be the weekend. Spend Friday and Saturday at his folk’s place where he grew up, catch a train for San Diego on Sunday. Rinse, lather, repeat.
One fine day, a freshly minted infantry 2Lt. asks my dad if he can get a ride. “Sure thing” says my dad. Tells 2Lt when to report to the field and to check out a chute. They head out at the appointed time and land in Fresno for fuel, the off again to Oakland. They are cruising north, snowy mountains far to the east, blue pacific far to the west. Life is good. But, a little bumpy. So my dad requests, and is cleared for an altitude change, which smooths out the ride.
About the time my dad’s watch tells him he is arriving, he checks his landmarks. Yup, there’s the mountain, there’s the bridge over the bay, there’s ….wait, whut?
Oops, that’s not Mt. Hamilton, that’s Mt. Diablo, and that’s not the Dumbarton bridge, that’s the San Francisco Bay Bridge. You see, at the Fresno fuel stop, he neglected to check the pilot report board, and so was unaware that his altitude change also gave him a tail wind. He has flown past the airport. As I mentioned, the war just ended, and folks are still a bit jumpy about un-accounted for aircraft in the sky. If you arrive too far outside your ETA, you will fill out stacks of forms explaining WHY you arrived outside your ETA.
They are at about 7000 ft. My dad contacts Oakland control and says he is about to enter the pattern. He tells his passenger to tighten his straps and hang on. He then rolls the plane on its back and executes a screaming split-S to lower altitude, enters the pattern, lands, taxis to the ramp, and shuts down. He steps out on the wing, and checks on his passenger. The 2Lt. is green, and has possibly wet himself. He struggles to exit the cockpit, and in the process, snags the release for his parachute, which deploys over the tail of the plane. He makes a feeble effort to gather the chute, gives up and hits the release, and is last seen desperately running for a place to heave his cookies.
drjim
I've felt some of that turbulence.
GB
Been years but I remember an oldtimer saying, "If it weren't for Bonanza's, we would be up to our asses in Doctors". I have like two flights in one. Nice, but like any airplane, must be respected. Have just enough seat time in a H-13 to know it was not for me. Never could come close to hovering. Autorotations? No sweat.
RHT447
Wonderful story! Somewhat reversed, we had a man, Orm, in our company who grew up in a crop dusting family in East Texas. He needed to be in Frankfurt for some medical appointment and we were in the field. A Captain from the aviation detachment flew him there is a L-19. Smartass pulled back the power, started acting all panicky then asked, "I've done everything I know, do you want to try?" They proceeded to Frankfurt about 6" above the Main River. Under the many bridges along the way.
@Greybeard - Did you work for Robinson in Torrance? I used to live there, and had fun hanging out at the airport.
Ah yes, mountains can and WILL kill you! We lost two pilots and their wives when they rented a Piper and flew up to Tahoe. Decided to go 'sightseeing'... didn't survive. That Piper didn't have the climb rate a P-3 did.
OldNFO
Too common a story.
drjim-
I was the Robinson helicopter dealership in a MidWest City.
And the first time I went to Torrance in '83, that factory was a small facility on Crenshaw Blvd, just North of the plant nursery there.
Do you remember it? How that company has changed!!
Yes, I remember it very well. He went from a small place to an all new building at the airport, right on Airport Drive. One of my Techs at Radio Satellite Integrators went to work there after I quit RSI. He was making wiring harnesses, and I got a tour of the plant. The owner of the company had a little helipad at his home up in the Palos Verdes, and would fly to and from the factory. Well, he did until a local Karen about had a heart attack...."I Though He Was Going To Crash....It Was HORRIBLE!!!!", so he quit doing it after she threatened legal action **even though the FAA had approved it**.
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