201er

Frankly, if he'd just respected FAR 91.155 and stayed out of clouds, 4 people would still be alive. From the recordings of him speaking, I don't think the phrase "inadvertent flight into IMC" applies. Judging from his lack of desire to take ATC's suggestions for exiting the clouds, it makes me think his continued flight into poor visibility was in fact advertent. Worse yet, I suspect that it was indeed the plane's sophistication and equipment that gave him the confidence to go forth with this. However, his skills and experience with this equipment were obviously insufficient. If he alone survived this crash, I'd hold him guilty of negligent homicide.

There is a pretty big difference here though. He was both inexperienced AND flying in an illegal manner. Taking off below landing minimums for an experienced instrument pilot is not inherently dangerous, but it brings backup safety margins close to nill. Even though the percent of fatalities in IMC is much greater than VMC, the total number of accidence in Day/Night IMC combined is less than the number of daytime VMC fatalities! Plus, I bet you over half those IMC accidents were by VFR pilots committing inadvertent flight into IMC. Or in the case of the subject of this discussion, intentional flight into IMC! Also, I just wanted to point out again that the equipment available was totally irrelevant. ATC was offering multiple options for the guy to be able to land VFR without having to rely on his autopilot, glass panel, or chute and he flat out refused! Nothing short of ATC remote controlling his airplane could have saved him from his attitude!

What kind of role does RPM and blade angle of the constant speed prop play between LOP and ROP operations? For example it is possible to operate at the same RPM while ROP/LOP but the % power delivered to the prop will be different and thus the blade angle will be set differently by the governor. What effect does that have? Which achieves better prop efficiency? What about better speed? Another observation is that you generally need a higher RPM (when already comparing WOT settings) to achieve equivalent power LOP that you would attain ROP at a lower RPM. How does this affect speed/efficiency? In other words what difference would operating 2500RPM ROP vs 2600RPM LOP? Both might achieve 75% power but which is faster? Which is more efficient (not for fuel but for prop)? Does running higher RPM (2600-2700) for the sake of attaining higher power LOP worthwhile? Or does the prop loose too much efficiency at those speeds?

I dug my plane out on Saturday because I had a compassion flight scheduled for Sunday (and I wanted to assess the situation in advance). There was some melting. Sunday there was a pool of ice engulfing all my planes wheels an inch deep!

Eh, I'm afraid of that.

How many inches of snow does it take on the horizontal stabilizer to tip a Mooney?

And insurance is for the rest.

Anthony, I don't think it only comes down to power to weight ratio. These aircraft have differing drag profiles and airfoils. Furthermore, one has a constant speed prop and the other doesn't. According to your numbers, an M20J at standard gross of 2740 is 1/13.7 which is very close to the 14.3 of the cherokee but I can tell you in practice, the 201 far far outclimbs the cherokee 160s I've flown which come in at the same 1/13.7!!!!

I slowed down not to overtake you on purpose. I was firewalled 2700RPM but 11gph LOP to catch up to you. Then I brought things back to about 50% power and LOP to stay with you (about 2200RPM/24" 7gph).

Alan, that's one slippery bird! It took me some effort to catch up to you. Who needs a bonanza? Hope you didn't mind me pooling a ride back with you.

Was she hot at least?

I'm on my way out. See ya guys soon. Good news, spring is here (even though it's 15 below)

Ok, thanks for the clarification. But the fact is you still have to spend the money doing the "flight credits" so it's no savings of time/money compared to just getting a BFR. I don't think it's a bad program but it serves no advantage over just getting a BFR.

I looked into the requirements for Wings to count as BFR and it's totally pointless. It does NOT replace the BFR entirely. It just replaces the mandatory ground portion. You still have to go fly with an instructor (which makes sense). At that point, what it saves you is pretty meaningless since you still have to take the time to schedule instruction. Still, some of the courses are very interesting and informative so I still go to them but don't even bother worrying about the credit. I think it's a good program if you ignore the credit parts.

Hey guys, sorry for the short notice but we decided to host a Ground Hog Day Mooney Fly In tomorrow (Feb 2) at Millville KMIV at noon! Cris and I will be there. Anthony, I can give you a ride. Who else wants to join us?

How could any rule or law have stopped him? 91.155, 91.13, and 91.129, were already broken during the flight to name a few. Most of the videos/discussions start with the pilot being over the airport in the clouds. But if we rewind back a little, there was a point at which he made the conscious choice to enter them and continue flying in them. He was very very far behind the airplane (and quite likely wasn't even adequately familiar with available systems). If he waited a few hundred more hours and built experience flying local in a skyhawk and continuing his education, he would have at least known how to talk to the tower, seek help, and been less distracted with the mechanics of flying and been able to dedicate more attention to the EMERGENCY and treated it as one rather than brushing it off as "not wanting to get stuck."

I think the pistol grip fails the new assault weapons ban! Don't tell anyone

Oh like buying a Cirrus fresh out of flight school?

Honestly, I like the things with fewer sections the way it is now. I only check a few sections anyway, so having interesting tangents mixed into existing sections catches my attention. But adding more sections will just end up getting overlooked by me. My four half pennies.

You know the pilot has absolutely no idea what he is doing when he has to ask the tower if it's a good idea to land or not, "I am still trying to decide if I should land at dupage or not, do you think that is a good idea or not?"

But neither JFK Jr nor this guy ever would have and it's rooted in a common invulnerable attitude! Both were the kinds of people who would not turn around or accept help. Otherwise we would not have heard about them. This guy didn't even have to activate the AP, he could have been VFR into another field but elected not to! This is more of an attitude problem than a control of aircraft problem.

No wonder you get such a big discount for being instrument rated! That is just terrible how he was tossed multiple lifelines and refused to take them even if just for the sake of his passengers!

No, just a magically light invisible headset! Thank you Phil

They wanted $25 for preheat on top of $10 parking fee so I said to hell with it and started up cold just fine. I just try to make up for it by preheating more often on my own. All snow was melted when I got back (on grass too, so I know they didn't plow). Thanks Seth.