What Were They Thinking? - Landing Tactics Online For Pilots
When I was president of a flying club we experienced, between the normal assortment of airplanes, 3 Cessna 182 Skylanes. Two experienced a optimum gross fat of two,800 lbs. The latest one particular experienced redesigned landing equipment, and Cessna had upped the greatest gross bodyweight to two,950 lbs. All had Continental O-470 230HP engines. Two pilots decided to get Cessna 182s into the mountains of northern Nevada on a camping vacation. 1 flew the a single with the greater allowable gross fat.
The plane with the higher allowable gross excess weight was loaded to one hundred fifty lbs a lot more than the plane with the reduced allowable gross excess weight. There was no difficulty landing on the large mountain grass runway. But a couple of times later on when they had been going to depart, the two pilots learned a very painful lesson. They carried out the density altitude calculations, paced off the runway and decided that the takeoff was possible but marginal. Here is a astonishing element of the tale. Rather than load the two airplanes to the same excess weight, they put one hundred fifty lbs far more in the plane with the greater allowable gross weight. The plan was for the lighter aircraft to takeoff first and its pilot to radio his assessment to the heavier aircraft nevertheless on the ground. But the heavier plane did not wait for the other pilot's assistance. He just took off and crashed into the trees at the finish of the runway. Luckily the trees have been young, modest, and very adaptable. There was no fire and only slight injuries.
What were they thinking? That each airplanes with the exact same make and product of engine would climb on the very same account when a single plane weighed 150 lbs much more than the other?
Listed here is the genuinely wonderful part of this story: the two pilots experienced PhDs in physics. The Cessna 182 that crashed was repaired and returned to support.
Douglas Daniel, long time flight instructor, invites you to visit at Private Pilot Training Online for more flying articles like this one. You may also feel free to contact Doug by visiting his website.
