Flight Training - July 2014 - 50

ADVANCED PILOT»

ACCIDENT ANALYSIS

What did I miss?

Preflights aren't meant to be theoretical
» By David Jack Kenny

THERE AREN'T MANY good reasons to
wreck an aircraft, but some are worse
than others. It's hard to justify taking
off without either enough fuel to complete the flight or a clear idea of where
to stop for more. And though warnings about the perils of VFR into IMC
begin in presolo training, every year a
couple of dozen pilots pay with their
lives for the mistake of blasting off into
the murk.
Even more perplexing, if that's possible, are the two or three accidents a
month caused by discrepancies that
should have been spotted in any minimally competent preflight inspection.
Fuel and oil are frequently involved.
In January 2014, for example, a Cessna
310 was damaged in a forced landing after its pilot neglected to verify

an emergency landing and
hit hard. The flight was the
first after an oil change, and
On February 29, 2012, a Cirrus SR22 plunged to the
the filler cap hadn't been
ground just seconds before what would have been
secured. The pilot explained
a normal landing at Melbourne, Florida. In this case
that it wasn't on the preflight
study from the Air Safety Institute, you can reconchecklist.
nect the links of the accident chain and search for
Two points come to mind.
lessons in the tragedy (www.aopa.org/Education/
First, the checklist is a startAccident-Case-Studies.aspx).
ing point-not a limit. While
you need a good reason to
skip anything it includes,
there's nothing wrong with adding
that the FBO had topped its tanks as
requested. (His rueful comment after- items of your own. And that's especially true any time an aircraft has just
wards was that "he should not have
come out of maintenance.
assumed the fueling had occurred.")
It's not just vital fluids. Overlooked
This happened three weeks after oil
cowl plugs, pitot covers, and fuel vent
covered the windshield of a Cessna
caps have each caused their share
P210 immediately after takeoff; the
of mayhem. A disconnected ailepilot overshot the runway attempting
ron pushrod caused the
fatal crash of a Remos at
Sebring, Florida; a Piper
Super Cub pitched up and
stalled on an unauthorized test flight because the
gentleman restoring it had
connected the elevator
cables backwards-the
third time he'd made a
similar mistake.
So really look the aircraft
over and take the time to do
it right. A hurried preflight
is scarcely better than none
at all. Case in point: The
Piper Cherokee Six that
crashed, killing all three on
board, because water had
contaminated its fuel. Its
pilot hadn't taken the time
to sump the tanks. He was
running late-for an FAA
safety seminar.
ACCIDENT CASE STUDY:
COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN

Commercial pilot David Jack
Kenny preflights his Piper Arrow
in beautiful Frederick, Maryland.

50 /

FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

http://www.aopa.org/Education/Accident-Case-Studies.aspx http://www.aopa.org/Education/Accident-Case-Studies.aspx http://FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

Flight Training - July 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - July 2014