Fundamental AIrmanship Principles

[Gnarly Gnu]

You are correct SDQDI. I wasn't thinking. The C130 above was the NVG case event. The 747 which I posted was the rolling cargo.

My apologies for confusing the two accidents.

 

 

[Butch]

Sander Veenstra is a name well known to anyone who was around the ultralight scene in the late 1970s and 80s. Sander was probably the most prolific builder of planes in Australia. He had a workshop that I spent a lot of time in, at Officer, near Berwick to the East of Melbourne.By around 1983/4 he had outgrown that workshop and he moved to Tocumwal for a short while then purchased a tract of land that had a private airstrip and large shed at Nagambie, near Mangalore. The demand for his planes was strong and for some time he had been building planes in batches of six and was working all hours, both to meet the demand, and to pay the substantial debt he'd entered into. Initially he'd been building planes that were most like motorgliders, they had a single wheel, inverted V tail and a relatively small 18hp direct drive pusher engine. He was achieving glide ratios around 18-20:1 and he'd attracted the attention of some notable people, Bert Flood, for example, owned a number of Sander's planes and Sir Jack Brabham was another keen participant.

In the early eighties I went and had my first ultralight flight with a guy called Werner Becker ( I think it was a dual Thruster) near Rushworth not far from Nagambie.

 

I met Sander a couple of times as he was a friend of Werners. I was all set to start flight training with Werner when Sander had his accident.

 

I bailed out when someone as talented as he was came to grief, wish I hadn't, would have had years of flying behind me!

 

As in most accidents it's distraction, not enough time, pressure to get it done and limited finance's to be able to say no.

 

 

[KRviator]

This is just tragic Even well trained and highly qualified pilots can do it under pressure.Always, always, check your flight controls. There is no excuse. It takes a few seconds, and ultimately once you get into the air, they're the only thing you've got! You can possibly scrape by without everything else.

 

http://www.c-130.net/c-130-news-article291.html

As a former Herc Loady, it makes me wonder what he was doing, as part of the loadmaster's before-takeoff checks was to observe the relative movement of the internal actuators - clearly visible in the wing box and up the ducks bum - in response to the pilots' commanded inputs. Could be the USAF is different, but still.....

[dutchroll]

They were doing an engines running offload/onload and the USAF checklist for that doesn't call for a flight control check. Somewhat unbelievably. So there were several holes, as usual, lining up in this accident sequence.

 

 

[facthunter]

On the Airbus A-300 a brake and full control check was done every taxy out. Annunciators show every control movement in response to stick and pedal movement. There are traps for the unwary, though. I think it was American Airlines, with the same model they had the type conversion course shortened with respect to the automatics, and a crew selected autopilot while taxiing,??? and during the taxy the trim ran to full down.(nose heavy) unnoticed and the plane was unable to be rotated on the TO run and over ran the runway end. It was procedure to move the elevators at 100 knots and call elevators free, giving plenty of time to stop if there was a problem. Know your aeroplane... Nev

 

 

[poteroo]

Control locks and flags need to be very obvious, or they can be missed on the initial walk-around of the aircraft. However, they shouldn't be missed when the controls are moved through full deflections from the inside, and then inspected and moved again during the 'detailed' preflight.

 

I know of 2 serious errors in preflights which resulted in the aircraft being taken-off with the pins in place. In both cases there were no flags or red plastic covers attached to them. In one case the pin was a 3 inch nail with a 90 deg bend at the top! In the other case, (a C55 Baron), the correct pin didn't have any of the wires and plastic warning pieces attached or in place over the engine controls or switches.

 

The C182 with the nail conversion control lock was flown by an instructor on a 'maintenance' check. He managed to operate it on power x trim, landed safely and had his licence suspended within half an hour. The Baron episode was at night with a full load and unfortunately saw 5 fatalities.

 

It's one check that you really need to do both thoroughly, and at several times in the pre-takeoff phase. Students need to have it front & centre of their training.

 

happy days,

 

 

[dutchroll]

On the Airbus A-300 a brake and full control check was done every taxy out. Annunciators show every control movement in response to stick and pedal movement. There are traps for the unwary, though. I think it was American Airlines, with the same model they had the type conversion course shortened with respect to the automatics, and a crew selected autopilot while taxiing,??? and during the taxy the trim ran to full down.(nose heavy) unnoticed and the plane was unable to be rotated on the TO run and over ran the runway end. It was procedure to move the elevators at 100 knots and call elevators free, giving plenty of time to stop if there was a problem. Know your aeroplane... Nev

Still done that way on Airbus models (full control check with synoptic page showing control surface deflection) just before taxy. Don't call anything related to flight controls at 100 kts though.

Our company had an uncommanded autopilot engagement just after takeoff on a B767 some years back. I know the guy who was flying it pretty well. Flying pilot thought he'd lost control of the plane because the controls froze, but the other pilot instinctively pressed the autopilot disconnect and they got the disconnect warning much to their shock! To this day I don't think they know why it self-engaged, as it's quite a distinct button press on the glareshield to engage the autopilot.

 

 

[facthunter]

The A 300 B4 isn't sidestick by the way. The elevator was to do with checking it moves. Everything is checked is the point I'm trying to make. On Smaller stuff I always go one around the world before lining up. It helps to remind the passenger to keep feet and hands clear of the controls. Nev