by beaky » Fri May 12, 2006 6:32 pm
Somehow I knew it. Oddly enough, I had first thought "Partenavia" when I saw the plane, but assumed I was wrong...
I am very happy nobody was in there with him, and nobody was hurt below. Let's go over that again:
THE PLT WAS EXECUTING A HIGH SPEED PASS OVER THE RWY AT ABOUT 250 FT AGL. THE PLT THEN BEGAN A RAPID PULL-UP & BOTH WINGS SEPARATED JUST OUTBOARD OF THE ENG NACELLES. RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SEQUENCE FROM A VIDEOTAPE REVEALED THAT THE ACFT'S SPEED AT THE TIME OF THE WING SEPARATIONS WAS 220 KTS. VNE FOR THE ACFT IS 193 KTS. IT WAS CALCULATED THAT, AT 220 KTS & AN 8 DEG NOSE-UP PITCH, THE 'G' LOAD AT THE TIME OF THE WING SEPARATIONS WOULD HAVE BEEN 8.3 G'S.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:
IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION..IMPROPER..PILOT IN COMMAND
OVERCONFIDENCE IN AIRCRAFT'S ABILITY..PILOT IN COMMAND
AIRSPEED..EXCEEDED..PILOT IN COMMAND
Well, duh. And they leave out the fact that the rate of pitch-up through 8 degrees at that speed just made it worse.
The reconstruction might be off by a few knots, but even high-performance aerobatic planes have pull-up speeds well below Vne, whatever it might be... and he was rough with it, to boot.
He should have been satisfied with one good loop. Then we could tip our hats to him, instead of shaking our heads...
:-/
