Plane down NW Cunamulla Qld

[FlyingVizsla]

Heard on the ABC local radio this morning that a plane made an emergency landing after engine stoppage at 8:30pm last night 1st Oct. The pilot, said to be from Springsure (folks, its not me), and passenger are OK.

 

Report in the Australian http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/two-survive-crash-landing-in-qld/story-fn3dxiwe-1226731258462

 

Nothing on ABC news site yet.

 

Sue

 

 

[rankamateur]

Sue was the 29 year old pilot bit the give away?

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

Sue was the 29 year old pilot bit the give away?

Yep, as I am barely 21 & definately Not flying around at night with a 30yr old no matter what he says.

 

I don't know who it is, most probably someone from one of the properties in the area, I can't think of anyone in town that fits the description. The ABC has a story now http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-02/pair-walk-away-from-bush-landing/4993128?section=qld

 

Sue

 

 

[facthunter]

I don't recommend flying at night with one engine anyhow no matter how old you are. Nev

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

ABC has a follow up story with pictures - the passenger used a tablet to email family to help locate them.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/10/02/3860483.htm?site=westqld

 

Still don't know who it is. Everyone here has either a chopper or C182.

 

Sue

 

 

[fly_tornado]

Fuel exhaustion?

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

Piper PA-28

 

VH-CCQ - registered to someone in Victoria. The aircraft was reportedly flying from Melbourne to Charleville and ended up approx 95NM sort of the destination.

 

"9 km north of Cunnamulla, Queensland on 1 October 2013. During the cruise, while maintaining 4,000 ft, the aircraft experienced a total power loss. The pilot conducted a forced landing, at night, into a field. Both occupants received injuries and the aircraft was substantially damaged."

 

ATSB report here http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2013/aair/ao-2013-168.aspx

 

 

[turboplanner]

I've done a few long trips like this, so this one will be interesting for me.

 

The Cherokee is quite suitable for long trips, but the longer the trip the more the workload. Up that route the refuelling stops get much more scarce when you need them, and if you have to divert from your flight plan early in the day due weather, or are held up for an hour somewhere like Parkes for refuelling, and you're weight limited so you have to calculate how much fuel to put in, the subsequent refuelling points are not going to be the ones you did the research on at your desk. Add two or three different weather conditions - from northern NSW you are dealing with sub tropical patterns where the weather is at a different time of the year and behaves differently, so the workload and stress levels go up as the Cherokee chugs along.

 

You may be right FT, but although it's rare in a Cherokee, total power loss could be a faulty alternator for example.

 

It looks as if he was Night VFR rated, and if it was a stopped engine that precipitated the forced landing, it shows that even at night out near Cunnamulla, which I suspect would be dark (ie no town lights, close farms for a horizon), if you keep your head, set up glide speed, and do a normal round out, even in scrub you can be lucky.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Turbs can you explain what "Night VFR" is? Sounds like a full moon and plenty of ground lights are required. He had neither.

 

 

[turboplanner]

A NVFR rating is where you book an aircraft at a major airport like Moorabbin, with city lights as far as the eye can see, do a few sessions of circuits until you stop dumping the undercarriage into the ground, then go and do a night nav to somewhere where there are lights all the way, turn the instrument lights down to a dull red (you've really made it when you get to do this), shine your torch out over the wings every ten minutes looking for ice build up, fly back to the major airport, brag in the coffee room and go home.

 

Some GA people like to make use of the rating for night trips; other's say it can come in handy if you get caught after last like (when by rights you should be dead anyway since you had an hour or so to call it quits and do a precautionary).

 

I'm in Facthunter's camp on this one, it always struck me that if you did have an engine failure it was Russian roulette, and the serious crashes (not this one) all seem to occur in places where the paddocks a big acreage and the farmhouses are several kilometres apart.

 

In this case, so far the cause is reported as engine failure, but O.K. you're right, the rating does require you to navigate by reference to the ground just as you do by day, so there has to be a degree of moonlight/horizon light etc.

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

I was based out on Nappa Merrie Station mustering, it's a little further West from Cunnamulla. On clear nights, as they have been lately, you can see everything in sharp contrast just from the brilliant starlight. Moonlit nights almost seem too bright. Anyone who hasn't seen the brilliance of starlight once you get well inland away from the moisture in the coastal atmosphere is in for a treat when they eventually do so.

 

Navigating on starlight nights out there is a breeze, with well spaced homestead lights and dotted small towns, it's much easier than closer to the city where there are lights everywhere and they merge together. Landing is easy enough with the starlight too but made much harder if there are lights around to spoil your night vision, so as long as there's no cloud its not much harder to choose an outlanding on a bright starlit night than on a sunny day.

 

There's one major difference though, with starlight, or moonlight, everything is seen in shades of grey, the only colour being the occasional bushfire, and fluffy grey trees don't look nearly as dangerous to land among (read: crash into) as they do in the daytime.

 

 

[gooneybird]

When I showed interest in getting my nvfr other wise pilots said I should always pack a party hat and whistle to take on night flights,the reasoning is that when the noise stops it,s likely to be your last party!

 

 

[Teckair]

Some people reckon you should carry a pistol somewhere handy in case the noise stops.

 

 

[metalman]

I know CCQ,,, one of lilydales planes, it's had quite a career, I think it was the one that nearly had the tail ripped off by a birdstrike.

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

Looks like it took a wing off at the root, on a tree. I keep getting calls to ask "was it you?" but so far no one knows who the "Springsure" pilot was, my theory is that the Qld media has got the name confused with something in Vic eg Springvale.

 

 

 

[Tex]

Whatever the cause of the fan stopping, it appears the pilot has done a pretty good job in the circumstances

 

 

[frank marriott]

but although it's rare in a Cherokee, total power loss could be a faulty alternator for example

TP - could you expand on this please - I don't understand why a faulty alternator in a Cherokee would give an engine failure? [if thats what you are saying]

 

 

[Bandit12]

Perhaps Turbo means electrical power, rather than engine power.

 

 

[frank marriott]

Perhaps Turbo means electrical power, rather than engine power.

Yep, but that is why you always carry a torch, preferably one that will fit in your mouth.

 

 

[kaz3g]

M

 

Yep, but that is why you always carry a torch, preferably one that will fit in your mouth.

'Cause it muffles the screams of terror?

 

Kaz

 

 

[kaz3g]

I was based out on Nappa Merrie Station mustering, it's a little further West from Cunnamulla. On clear nights, as they have been lately, you can see everything in sharp contrast just from the brilliant starlight. Moonlit nights almost seem too bright. ....Navigating on starlight nights out there is a breeze, with well spaced homestead lights and dotted small towns, it's much easier than closer to the city where there are lights everywhere and they merge together. Landing is easy enough with the starlight too but made much harder if there are lights around to spoil your night vision, so as long as there's no cloud its not much harder to choose an outlanding on a bright starlit night than on a sunny day..

When I had my station in the Gascoyne, it was well known one of the locals went out on starry nights to encourage other squatters' cattle to cross over their boundaries into his run. He did it in a PA28 which is unusual because high wings are almost universally preferred for this sort of work albeit in daylight.

 

Kaz

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

When I had my station in the Gascoyne, it was well known one of the locals went out on starry nights to encourage other squatters' cattle to cross over their boundaries into his run. He did it in a PA28 which is unusual because high wings are almost universally preferred for this sort of work albeit in daylight.Kaz

..so he was a sort of Thief in the Night?

 

 

[Jabiru Phil]

When I had my station in the Gascoyne, it was well known one of the locals went out on starry nights to encourage other squatters' cattle to cross over their boundaries into his run. He did it in a PA28 which is unusual because high wings are almost universally preferred for this sort of work albeit in daylight.Kaz

I can relate to this! Plenty of great stories from the outback that are not published.

 

Spent a few years up north in the 50's

 

My mind still boggles that no one ate their own meat, ear tags down the dunny etc, played tennis next week as if long lost friends.

 

Talking about Cunnamulla, Whilst caravaning a few years ago, i met a guy in the pub that was desperate to get the cattle mustered before the boss visited from Sydney. I asked the barman "what gives" he said that this guy had been in town for the past week and is just sobering up.

 

Always wondered if he retained his job!

 

Sorry for the off topic comments

 

Phil

 

 

[turboplanner]

TP - could you expand on this please - I don't understand why a faulty alternator in a Cherokee would give an engine failure? [if thats what you are saying]

Brain fade, I was thinking that if the warning light didn't come on, or if the pilot ignored it thinking it was faulty, after a few hours the battery would be flat.

 

Of course the Cherokee has magnetos.

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

Cunnamulla airstrip is about 6km NW of town with PAL lighting. He landed about 9km north. I am guessing, either he didn't have info for Cunnamulla at hand, or he decided it was better to land close to or on a road where a wreck might be obvious. I spent some time in the 1980's at 'cumulla, and again in the 1990's I was in Charleville. Magic place - mulga scrub, vast properties, see forever. Still don't know who it was. Our local paper comes out today, our amateur journo might have ferreted out the info. I got my NVFR in western Qld. Whole different world out there at night. My first nav was from Longreach to Barcaldine and shortly after take off the destination was obvious shining away, with only odd farm house lights. Hit the PAL frequency and the strip would light up in the darkness. The NVFR was to get me home, particularly in winter, when running against headwinds and last light.

 

 

 

Sue