Passenger Lands King Air after Pilot Dies

[Snakum]

I was a low-time SE pilot (400hrs) who'd never flown anything bigger than a Skyhawk when I got my first TO and landing in a King Air. Not a big deal, really.

Kudos to the guy who did it under those circumstances, anyway.

 

[LRvsH25B]

They are lucky they didn't get that guy killed. In my opinion, that was an extremely poor example of how to talk an aircraft down, even if it was successful. Max breaking on a 2 mile long runway? Pull the power bank and figure it out on your own within 10 knots?; full flaps at 120 no slower than 110. How about be aware of the pitch and speed change when going to full flaps, etc (once again, the A/P coming into play) How about Low Idle or Feather the Props when on the ground? They should have got the guy on the phone to tell him how to put that thing on autopilot with heading mode with ALT select active, then left him fly 30 mile circles out over the water or something with the heading bug and at 200 Knots, giving that guy on the phone or some other B200 pilot a chance to come into the cab and speak with him directly to talk him down. Give him N1 or FF, or Torque settings. Use the A/P to fly the approach down to the runway and hit the red button on the Yoke to land it.
I'm glad it turned out well, but the workload on that guy could have been a lot less had they done it right. I'm sure he is still stressed out. Great story........

 

[LJ45]

They are lucky they didn't get that guy killed. In my opinion, that was an extremely poor example of how to talk an aircraft down, even if it was successful. Max breaking on a 2 mile long runway? Pull the power bank and figure it out on your own within 10 knots?; full flaps at 120 no slower than 110. How about be aware of the pitch and speed change when going to full flaps, etc (once again, the A/P coming into play) How about Low Idle or Feather the Props when on the ground? They should have got the guy on the phone to tell him how to put that thing on autopilot with heading mode with ALT select active, then left him fly 30 mile circles out over the water or something with the heading bug and at 200 Knots, giving that guy on the phone or some other B200 pilot a chance to come into the cab and speak with him directly to talk him down. Give him N1 or FF, or Torque settings. Use the A/P to fly the approach down to the runway and hit the red button on the Yoke to land it.
I'm glad it turned out well, but the workload on that guy could have been a lot less had they done it right. I'm sure he is still stressed out. Great story........

Do you know how many different avoinics configurations they have in all the 200's? They got it down on the ground, that is what counts.

 

[LRvsH25B]

Do you know how many different avoinics configurations they have in all the 200's? They got it down on the ground, that is what counts.

No doubt about it, you're right, there's a lot of different setups. Even without the use of the avionics, I think that they could have provided him with a little more basic information as to how the aircraft would react to the configuration changes. For example, set the power to this before you put the flaps to full and that power would ensure you would not get too slow, etc. No matter what avionics it had, there is a torque, N1, or FF setting that would get him within 5-10 knots of what he needed to be at. Like I said, just my opinion. I didnt think there was enough info given to this guy, and I think a little lesser of a pilot would not have had such good luck. Glad it all worked out

 

[popgoesbubble]

So what is the story on the pilot that died? how old was he what was the cause of death it seems really Hush Hush usually the media reports everything about pilots like this.

 

[LJ45]

So what is the story on the pilot that died? how old was he what was the cause of death it seems really Hush Hush usually the media reports everything about pilots like this.

Some of my friends know him and talked to him just a couple of days before he died. He had just got his medical back after a stint being put in. They all said he was a great guy and long time pilot in Monroe, LA.

RIP

 

[popgoesbubble]

Well hopefully he died peacefully and doing what he loved. I'm afraid though that this is just gonna be more ammo to enforce Age 65 on part 135 operators as they the FAA would like nothing else but put more rules in place for Business aviation.

RIP

 

[TFlite]

What if...

Good point. The film crew rescheduled for this afternoon. I'll point that out to them.

-- Tell the "low time" pilot to bring his family and a
-- friend in the sim with him. Have his friend ride in
-- the left seat for the takeoff. During the initial
-- climb, shoot the friend in the head and then tell
-- the "low time" pilot that if he doesn't land the sim
-- safely that his family will die too.

-- I think that's a more similar scenario, so let us
-- know how he does.

 

[Nack55]

I think everyone did a nice job. You can only feed someone so much information before they become overloaded. Giving him power settings, autopilot instructions, headings, altitude inst. etc. would probably be too much, besides the fact that he just saw his pilot (possilby friend?) die in the plane. Bottom line is he got the plane on the ground.

Makes a great case for two pilots in a high performance plane like that.

 

[LRvsH25B]

I think everyone did a nice job. You can only feed someone so much information before they become overloaded. Giving him power settings, autopilot instructions, headings, altitude inst. etc. would probably be too much, besides the fact that he just saw his pilot (possilby friend?) die in the plane. Bottom line is he got the plane on the ground.

Makes a great case for two pilots in a high performance plane like that.

I was not suggesting giving this guy all this info for him to write down then say, "Ok, you got all the details, see you on the ground". No, of course not.

How about, "Ok Bud, you're doing a great job. Select the A/P from the Aft pedestal, black switch on LH side labeled Autopilot. Next to it sleect HDG. The plane is now flying in heading mode and where you turn the heading bug is where the plane will go. Turn that knob to 090 and well get you slowed down and set up on a 25 mile final.

At this point his work load is essentially down to zero.

 

[Andy Neill]

I was not suggesting giving this guy all this info for him to write down then say, "Ok, you got all the details, see you on the ground". No, of course not.

How about, "Ok Bud, you're doing a great job. Select the A/P from the Aft pedestal, black switch on LH side labeled Autopilot. Next to it sleect HDG. The plane is now flying in heading mode and where you turn the heading bug is where the plane will go. Turn that knob to 090 and well get you slowed down and set up on a 25 mile final.

At this point his work load is essentially down to zero.

The controller suggested bugging the heading and the pilot responded he didn't know how to.

 

[400A]

Turning on some autopilot's with the wrong modes selected, or altitude modes not preset properly in some of the King Air models could have easily induced more trouble or loss of control than leaving it off. I used to do owner operator transitions in the 200 with guys who had been to initial, and they could still scare the crap out of you with the autopilot.

As stable as a King Air 200 is, I think they made the right call. Hard to argue with the results.