Flight Training - July 2019 - 28

PREFLIGHT ACCIDENT REPORT

BY DAN NAMOWITZ

WHO'S NEXT?
BEWARE THE ROLLING BLIND SPOT

WHEN I WAS A STUDENT PILOT TRAINING

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in a Cessna 152 at what was then a
nontowered airport in Nashua, New
Hampshire, my instructor had me taxi
around in a tight circle before taking the
runway to scan the traffic pattern one last
time-space permitting-in the runup area.
Later, as an instructor working out
of a tower-controlled former U.S. Air
Force base in Class C airspace, I had
my students taxi well to the rear of the
spacious runup area at the threshold
of the two-mile-long runway and turn
into the wind for the pretakeoff duties.
With beginners eager to get in the air, it
was often necessary to have them taxi
much farther back in the runup area than
they expected, but that issue evaporated
once they realized they were sharing the
airport with regional airliners, bizjets,
KC-135 tankers of our local Air National
Guard unit, and sometimes a gigantic
visiting military C-5A. When one of the
behemoths swung onto the runway from
Taxiway Alpha, it was a good idea for us,
in our 1,560-pound trainer, to squeeze the
brakes and nudge the yoke forward a bit
as an added precaution
An aircraft doesn't have to be bigger
than yours, or overburdened with powerful engines, to be something to avoid. But
you can't avoid a hazard you don't understand. A pilot with the best intentions can
inadvertently position an aircraft in a vulnerable position by not knowing another
aircraft type's power output and design
limitations, or what might be commanding that aircraft's pilot's attention.
Take taildraggers. With some, the sight
picture ahead is nothing but engine cowling with perhaps a glimpse of sky. You can
recognize such airplanes by the way they
taxi in a lumbering series of S-turns; they
do that to give the pilot a view of what's
directly ahead with alternate visual checks
over either side of the nose. It's wise to
give such aircraft a wide berth.
One tailwheel aircraft with limited
forward visibility is the two-place Great
Lakes 2T-1A, an aerobatic biplane and
trainer. On June 3, 2018, a flight of three
28  FLIGHT TRAINING JULY 2019

Great Lakes was taxiing forward for takeoff after another airplane had departed at
Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in
San Diego, California. A Cessna 172 with
an instructor and student pilot aboard
was at the hold line, waiting for the
biplanes to depart.
As the biplanes moved forward, the
second airplane in the tailwheel flight of
three hit the Cessna, damaging its right
aileron. The National Transportation Safety
Board's investigation included interviews
with the parties, noting that the 4,471-hour
pilot of the second biplane "began to follow
the lead airplane, and his airplane struck
the airplane stopped at the hold-short line.
He reported that he never saw the stopped
airplane until after the impact."

An aircraft doesn't
have to be big to be
something to avoid.
It's not hard to imagine a pilot in a
flight of three visibility-limited airplanes,
all taxiing into position simultaneously
for a formation operation, being highly
focused on the leader.
The report said the 1,000-hour pilot
of the stationary airplane did not have
the complete picture of what was going
on in the departure line, nor did he know
the constraints the other airplanes' pilots
faced. The CFI "reported that he was not
aware that the three biplanes were part of
a single flight awaiting takeoff clearance.
He also reported that he had never flown
tailwheel airplanes and was not aware of
their limited forward visibility."
The NTSB concluded that the probable cause of the accident came down
to the biplane pilot's "failure to see and
avoid" the stopped Cessna, the NTSB said.
The report gives us a good reason to
become more knowledgeable about the
many aircraft out there that are different
from our own.
dan.namowitz@aopa.org
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Flight Training - July 2019

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