Good bye to a friend

[ibaflyer]

I lost my next door neighbor and his wife yesterday. He was a pilot comming home from a weekend trip with his wife on board and failed to make it home.

Conditions were IMC at the time and after a failed attempt at the approach into our home airport, he was flying the published missed procedure when they encountered icing and lost control of the plane. According to witnesses, they observed the plane in a spin, with the engine sputtering all they way to the ground. There were no survivors.

I had told my neighbor about this web site and even though I do not know if he ever visited it or registered as a member, I am sure he would have enjoyed all of the comments from all of you.

He was a good pilot, over a thousand hours and held and IFR rating and was considering his commercial cert. of which we were going to work on at the same time. I will miss my neighbor and our talks about flying while sitting on each other's decks and drinking beer.

I will miss you but may you now always have blue skies and tailwinds Neighbor Dave.

 

[Timebuilder]

I lost my next door neighbor and his wife yesterday. He was a pilot comming home from a weekend trip with his wife on board and failed to make it home.

As a pilot, I'm sure that something is just screaming at you about this. One of the most often mentioned things in accident reports is that the pilot was on his way home. The need to get home, a form of get-there-itis, can have a profound effect on judgment and preflight planning.

The best remembrance we can give your neighbor is to learn from this tragedy. It is partiicularly important when flying aircraft that are not equipped for known icing to take the tempertures into account before you leave for home, or anywhere else for that matter. If you have low temps and IMC at your destination, and you have to go missed, how long can you sustain control of the aircraft if you experience icing? Is there another field nearby where conditions are better? Are you assured that you could make it to this airport? Are you better off waiting for VFR with your particular airplane?

We can add this lesson to to the stack with the Wellstone crash, where it is more than likely that icing was a contributing factor. If a pilot has doubts about how to estimate the effect of temperature and moisture at his destination, then a call to an instructor, experienced friend or flight school is a good idea. Use your resources to stay alive.

I am saddened by the loss of your neighbor. This didn't have to happen. New pilots: take note!