And now a Cessna 210.....

[horsefeathers]

crashed near Roma at 6am today....

 

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/light-plane-crashes-near-roma-in-queenslands-west/story-e6freoof-1226605193022

 

 

[bilby54]

I would really, really like to thank everyone for the phone calls but suffice to say that is was not me but two people have not survived this tragic event.

 

Accident site is about 1 mile away and can see the crash site from home.

 

 

[pilotdave69]

I was at my step daughters place today mowing lawn , finding out her flat mates uncle was on this plane . Very upset girl . The pax was from bathurst area . Sad news indeed .

 

 

[Aldo]

ABC news update http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-25/two-dead-in-plane-crash-near-roma/4591952

 

 

[turboplanner]

Final report for the C210 Roma crash 25/3/13

 

https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/5149386/ao2013057_final.pdf

 

 

[mAgNeToDrOp]

Sad, avoidable, for the sake of waiting ~30 minutes for actual VFR conditions.. :(

 

 

[turboplanner]

There have been a few discussions on several site where a umber of people think they can do it though. The benefit of an ATSB report is that it lays out the details from an aviation perspective rather than a Coroner's perspective.

 

 

[turboplanner]

This is another ATSB of a Mooney going in near Roma around last light in 1996. Some airports, let alone airfields can have very dark surroundings making it extremely difficult to see a horizon around first and last light. Two very good lessons in these two crashes.

 

http://www.atsb.gov.au/media/1345930/asor199602526.pdf

 

 

[Ultralights]

if trained properly, this shouldn't happen, once the wheels leave the runway, you must fly on instruments to the first 500 ft, to prevent whats happened above, NFVR if taught properly is pretty much instrument flying.. if you look outside for 1 second during a night take off before 500ft agl, instant fail.. even once past 500 ft, you only look outside to look for traffic before the turn, then back on instruments again to complete the turn.

 

and how many pilots complete their NFVR training on moonless nights out in the bush? not many sadly. night flights across western NSW with no moon are interesting, almost entirely IFR flying.. nothing to see outside!

 

 

[turboplanner]

and how many pilots complete their NFVR training on moonless nights out in the bush? not many sadly.

And that seems to be what's catching some of them out. Night VFR means, Night Visual Flight Rules - you have to have a horizon and a lot of our country has paddocks over 500 Ha and homestead lighting a few kilometres apart.

 

 

[dunlopdangler]

When I did my NVFR it was called a Class 4 instrument rating and did include operations at night remote of lighting... and it was all on the dials until you got established in cruise then you could afford to relax... I did my flight test on a moonless night, stars were pretty though. The accident that is subject to this thread highlights how quickly it can bite when you break the rules and the tragic outcome in doing so..

 

 

[ben87r]

Only VFR night I've done was circuits at a capital city, so bright as hell but, when using the well lit runway without VSG with all the lights behind you was still pretty scary/cool but, if I wasn't current or trained there would not be anything cool about it. I read a while ago somewhere that FAA has no NVFR and that all PPL's are trained and awarded that privilege, can anyone confirm this? Report said that the pilot was FAA trained.

 

Company that I worked for most only checked them for VSG approaches VFR, if not they were to file IFR if they could.

 

 

[Virago]

I took off out of Serpentine around 11pm on a real dark night in my (then) Beech C33 Debonair some years back. As I rotated, the cabin door came open. There was no moon and the whole area was like a black cat in a coal cellar at midnight. I am so grateful for the thorough NVFR training I had received (thanks George Howie) as I was able to ignore the terrible wind and noise and climbed to 500 ft on instruments. I elected to fly to Jandakot (15 minutes) with the door open as it is impossible to close it in flight, particularly at night (people have died trying). I think I have related this story here before but it was a stern reminder to me to redo my preflight checks after an unexpected interruption.