Loss at Felts Field

[Rodger Pettichord]

For those who have the ORBX enhanced Felts Field, you might want to know that the Moody missionary folks who do their flight training out of Felts lost three people the other day in a Cessna crash just short of the field. Investigators haven't pinned things down yet, so that's all we know. The instructor pilot was killed along with two Moody student pilots. The latter two left behind wives and small children. In the Felts Field ORBX addon, you can find the Moody HQ building in the complex on the southeast of the field. 

[spud]

RIP to all three.

[Gypsy Pilot]

Sad

 

 

[Rodger Pettichord]

Information update. The investigators are still in early process, so nothing official is out yet. But eyewitness accounts say that the small Cessna "came apart in the air." Both wings separated from the fuselage. IS such a thing possible on a small Cessna?

[John Dow]

4 hours ago, Rodger Pettichord said:

Information update. The investigators are still in early process, so nothing official is out yet. But eyewitness accounts say that the small Cessna "came apart in the air." Both wings separated from the fuselage. IS such a thing possible on a small Cessna?

 

A learner might, on finding that the aircraft has entered a dive due to poor airmanship or other reason,  haul back on the yoke suddenly, which in still air might result in a momentary g load close to airframe limits.  If that was combined with an unfortunate air pocket, theoretically the result could be failure of the airframe.

 

Unlikely but theoretically possible IMHO.

[Gypsy Pilot]

I just read the FAA accident report and it appears that they entered a steep turn in a possibly overloaded aircraft at too slow a speed and entered a high speed stall and the student panicked.

 

https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20180713X54012&AKey=1&RType=HTML&IType=FA

 

The 172R with 3 ea  170 pound men and full fuel tanks will be overloaded by around 120 pounds.   It will fly but you have to be extra careful because the extra weight increased stall speed.

 

It's a sad fact that so many pilots become complacent and do not do even a basic weight and balance before a flight.

 

I  feel that coupled with what John said about a student pilot could have caused the wings to fail.

 

Just a guess.

 

Dale

[Rodger Pettichord]

Thanks for the explanations. How very, very sad that these young men with young families were lost. Goes to show that an airplane almost always plays by nature's rules.