GAARMS Report: March 2017 fred-gibbs
Fred Gibbs 

 

WE HAVE MADE IT THROUGH FEBRUARY WITH NO FATAL ACCIDENTS, SO LET’S HOPE JANUARY WAS JUST AN ANOMOLY, A “BLIP” IN OUR SAFETY EFFORTS.

The two general aviation aircraft involved in the fatal accidents were operating entirely different. A C210 departed SDL VFR enroute to Telluride on a family vacation trip, while the King Air was on departure for a flight to Mexico. The C210 was being flown VFR and the King Air was IFR: two distinct operations in two distinctly different aircraft.

This is the NTSB preliminary report of the C210 accident:

On January 2, 2017, about 0937 Mountain standard time, a Cessna T210K, N272EF, was destroyed after it collided with mountainous terrain near Payson, Arizona. The private pilot and three passengers were fatally injured. The personal flight was operated under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed for the cross-country flight that departed Scottsdale Airport (SDL), Scottsdale, Arizona at 0912 and was destined for Telluride, Colorado.

According to the pilot's friend, he planned a flight to Colorado with his family for their annual vacation. Preliminary Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Air Traffic Control (ATC) radar data showed an airplane that had departed SDL with a VFR transponder code on a direct course for the pilot's destination airport. After approximately 12 minutes of flight, the airplane reached a final cruising altitude of about 7,950 feet mean sea level. The airplane subsequently descended about 1,300 feet in one minute before it entered a momentary climb, followed by a shallow descent. In the remaining two and a half minutes, the airplane maintained a 300 foot per minute descent rate with some intermittent climbs. The final two radar targets showed the airplane ascend about 425 feet in 12 seconds. The airplane maintained a straight track from SDL to the last radar target, which was within a tenth of a nautical mile of the accident site and indicated a field elevation of 6,670 feet.

The last radar target was recorded at 0937:39. Between 0938 and 0942, an ATC facility received reports from three separate aircraft that had received ELT signals near the accident site. The airplane came to rest on the south face of a mountain rim approximately 11 nautical miles north of Payson Airport at an elevation of about 6,601 feet. The initial impact point (IIP) was identified by an aluminum fragment embedded in a 50 foot tall tree about mid-span and several broken tree branches beyond the IIP. An initial ground scar was marked by airplane fragments, tree branches, and loose dirt approximately 40 feet forward of the IIP. Portions of the wings and elevators were found along the wreckage path. The main wreckage was found approximately 80 feet from the IIP and was comprised of the engine, fuselage, and tail section, which had been displaced approximately 30 degrees upward from the ground. The vertical stabilizer and rudder had separated from the fuselage and were hanging by the airplane's rudder cables. An odor of fuel was detected near each wing fuel tank, which were both separated and breached.

This is the NTSB preliminary report of the C210 accident:

On January 23, 2017, about 1233 mountain standard time, a Beechcraft 300, N385KA, was destroyed when it impacted terrain during takeoff from Tucson International Airport (TUS), Tucson, Arizona. The pilot and the passenger were fatally injured. The airplane was registered to KAAZ, LLC, and operated as a personal flight under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and an instrument flight rules flight plan was filed for the flight to Hermosillo (MMHO), Sonora, Mexico. The flight originated from TUS at 1232.

A witness observed the airplane takeoff from runway 11L and rapidly pitch up in the initial climb. At an altitude between 100-150 feet above the runway, the airplane suddenly yawed to the left while maintaining a nose-up pitch attitude. The airplane then appeared to slow down such that he believed it was about to stall. The left wing dropped, and the airplane rolled left and continued as the nose dropped and the airplane struck the ground inverted. Another witness described the airplane yawing from left to right while climbing. The airplane then rolled left and eventually became inverted, in a manner he described as similar to a barrel roll. The airplane then exited his field of view. After impact, the airplane slid about 650 feet across the ramp on a 060-degree magnetic heading before it collided with an 8-feet tall concrete wall.

(NOTE: THIS WAS THE FIRST FATAL ACCIDENT AT TUCSON SINCE 1993!!)

The point I’d like to make is that an accident can happen to any one of use, regardless of our ratings or experience level. Like Ernest Gann’s novel, Fate is the Hunter, fate knows no bounds, does not care about your ratings, does not care about what type aircraft you fly, or how often or little you fly, nor where you fly…

As of this writing, the NTSB has not released any information or final findings on either of these accidents, and it may be a while until they do. In the meantime we can only speculate, which really solves nothing other than starting some good discussions on what may have happened, which is the main purpose of the General Aviation Accident Reduction & mitigation Symposium (GAARMS) – to involve the pilot into the “Look-See” process of accident reviews and discussions to make you more aware.

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GOT ADS-B Out yet???

I’m sure that you already know the ADS-B Out mandate cutoff date is January 1, 2020. That mandate says you must have ADS-B Out to operate in Class A, B & C, and above 10,000 feet. Note: If you don’t EVER plan to fly in that regime, you do not need ADS-B Out, but if you want to sell your airplane after 2020 and you do not have ADS-B Out, or depending on the capability of the airplane, ADS-B In, it may be very detrimental to the asking price!!! I received some very interesting information from the FAA in the following two charts:

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Notice in Fig. 1 above, that as of June 2016, ONLY 21,341 aircraft have been ADS-B equipped. That is 21,431 aircraft out of a fleet of over 160,000 aircraft! One of them is mine - Is one of them yours?? If not you better start thinking about it.

Figure 2 below says it all! There are almost 160,000 aircraft still to be equipped, with only 2 years and 9 months left to do it. The light pink shaded area (NOTE 1) and the darker pink shaded area (NOTE 2) indicate the “Danger Area” for the rest of the fleet if even 50,000 airplanes are equipped during those times. What all this says is, if you do not move NOW you may just not get into a shop in a timely manner and may not get your airplane equipped in time to meet the mandate. If you don’t, you will end up grounded if you fly out of an area requiring ADS-B Out, like PHX, DVT, GEU, GYR, SDL, CHD, FFZ, TUS, etc., or you will not be able to go into those areas, period!!! And as right now, the FAA has no plan to back off that date.

So, you may have to stop procrastinating, stop waiting for the price to (hopefully) keep dropping, bite the bullet and get crackin’ on this issue before you end on the long waiting list at your favorite, or not so favorite, avionics shop…

SAFETY PROGRAMS:

There are a lot of FAASTeam safety programs on the schedule over the next couple of months all around the state, so go to WWW.FAASAFETY.GOV and click on seminars and check them out. You might find one that interests you…

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Should you desire a safety or educational program at your local airport, simply contact me directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or call me at 410-206-3753. The Arizona Pilots Association provides the safety programs at no charge. We can also help you organize a program of your choice, and we can recommend programs that your pilot community might really like.