AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2024 - 76

bound for MRH. He requested
VFR flight following and an IFR
clearance to MRH when ATC
advised that the nearby restricted
airspace was active.
Again, the pilot attempted to
insert W95 into the flight plan but to
no avail. At one point the dismayed
pilot sighed, " I don't know what I
need to do. I almost want to take it
all out and start from scratch. " He
then added, " I'll tell you what, we
are going to have to navigate, that's
what we're going to need to do. "
It was 1:41 p.m. when the conIt
A
flight track
diagram from
the NTSB
docket shows
the flight
straying into
restricted
airspace as the
pilot struggled
to program the
avionics, and
then its erratic
flight path in the
final minutes of
the flight.
76
was just before 1:30 p.m.
on Sunday, February 13,
2022, when the pilot
of N79NX-a Pilatus
PC-12-prepared to depart
Hyde County Airport (7W6)
in Engelhart, North Carolina,
for a short flight to Michael J.
Smith Field Airport (MRH) in
Beaufort, North Carolina. Six
passengers-two adults and four
teenagers-had just returned
from a hunting trip and were comfortably
settled in the cabin. The
commercially certificated, instrument-rated
pilot was accompanied
in the cockpit by his 28-year-old
son, who was a student pilot sitting
in the right seat.
As the pilot's son updated aircraft
performance and navigation
information into the flight management
system, the pilot asked
him to insert W95, a waypoint to
avoid restricted airspace. But his
son had trouble entering it, and
the pilot shrugged it off. " We'll
get that later. "
At 1:34 p.m., the single-engine,
turboprop airplane took off from
AOPA PILOT / July 2024
Hyde County and climbed on autopilot,
heading southwest along the
North Carolina coastline.
Soon after takeoff, the son struggled
again to insert the waypoint.
W95-Ocracoke Island Airport
located on one of the barrier islands
in the Pamlico Sound-was southeast
of their current flight path and
just east of the restricted area. When
the pilot also struggled to insert the
waypoint he became irritated with
the navigation system.
The weather along the flight's
route was at best marginal. An
airmet issued at 1:19 p.m. was in
effect for instrument flight rules
(IFR) conditions with ceilings
below 1,000 feet agl and visibility
below 3 statute miles in
precipitation and mist. These
conditions were expected to
continue beyond 4 p.m.
Although not on an IFR flight
plan, N79NX had now entered
instrument meteorological conditions
(IMC). The flight was level
at 3,500 feet when the pilot contacted
Cherry Point Approach
saying they were en route to W95,
troller warned that the flight was
about to enter restricted airspace
and to confirm they would stay
clear. But there was no response
from N79NX. The pilot was completely
preoccupied with the
avionics, unsure which direction
to turn away from the restricted
area. But it was too late. The PC-12
entered the area's northeast corner
and the pilot's aggravation was
palpable, as he exclaimed, " What
in the [expletive] am I doing? "
Instead of asking ATC for
vectors to exit the area, the
pilot obsessed over programming,
deleting, reprogramming,
and activating a flight plan in
the avionics. During that time,
the autopilot's selected altitude
decreased to 3,000 feet and the
pitch control mode changed from
altitude hold to vertical speed.
N79NX began to descend, its airspeed
accelerated to 240 knots,
and an overspeed alert sounded
twice while the pilot continued
trying to enter waypoints into the
navigation system. The airspeed
finally stabilized at 147 knots once
power was reduced.
The pilot exclaimed, " I have,
I have got to get a frickin' flight
plan in this thing. " Finally, he
succeeded entering W95 into the
system and N79NX navigated
directly to the waypoint.
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2024

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