Mooney Crash is NJ - Minor injuries

[kpaul]

Another Mooney down and another save by the airframe. @Seth@mike_elliott

https://6abc.com/plane-crashes-after-takeoff-at-cape-may-airport/4663589/?fbclid=IwAR1-W-pa9HfOHIY6SPPW8J8Cr-xrwAiB1JCq9y5bI-ItS2QYZrhm0kmZ2B8

Article says the pilot lost control, only minor injuries.

N78870  1964 M20C

[orionflt]

glad no one was seriously injured, Cape may can get tricky with the winds.

Brian

[Bob_Belville]

Plane registered to James Troy who seems to have had the plane over 10 years. MSer?

 https://flightaware.com/resources/registration/N78870

[Danb]

44 minutes ago, orionflt said:

glad no one was seriously injured, Cape may can get tricky with the winds.

Brian

Brian the winds were wicked on Saturday gusting over 40..

[pwnel]

Jeez, wishing the pilot a speedy recovery.  

I was further north at KBLM - spent the afternoon in the hangar fiddling rather than flying.  Could have gone out if I needed to - but wouldn't have been pleasant.

[Piloto]

From the crash looks like the plane didn't get above the ground. Maybe it was caught on a tail wind or lost power during the takeoff run.

José

[gsxrpilot]

The Mooney cage AND shoulder harness. Missing either one and it might not have been survivable.

[jackn]

Flew into BLM on Saturday. Was a handful. 

[Shadrach]

3 hours ago, Danb said:

Brian the winds were wicked on Saturday gusting over 40..

Indeed! It was not a day to be making pleasure trips. On the upside, most of the leaves are down.  Glad everyone is OK!

[Seth]

4 hours ago, kpaul said:

Another Mooney down and another save by the airframe. @Seth@mike_elliott

https://6abc.com/plane-crashes-after-takeoff-at-cape-may-airport/4663589/?fbclid=IwAR1-W-pa9HfOHIY6SPPW8J8Cr-xrwAiB1JCq9y5bI-ItS2QYZrhm0kmZ2B8

Article says the pilot lost control, only minor injuries.

N78870  1964 M20C

Thank you for the heads up.

-Seth 

[Danb]

4 hours ago, Piloto said:

From the crash looks like the plane didn't get above the ground. Maybe it was caught on a tail wind or lost power during the takeoff run.

José

Yep Jose if a dragger looked like a ground loop

[carusoam]

See if @201er has James Troy in the NJMP files...

http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/N78870.html

 

Nothing to report but an ordinary prior Take-Off in the same ship... at the same airport...

 

Note to James... Check in when able... Hope you are doing well.

Best regards,

-a-

[jackn]

https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20181111X11841&AKey=1&RType=HTML&IType=TA

 

[gsxrpilot]

That sounds like the most easily prevented crash of any. "About" 3 gal??? Seriously? Is there no fuel available on the field? 

[Yetti]

1 hour ago, gsxrpilot said:

That sounds like the most easily prevented crash of any. "About" 3 gal??? Seriously? Is there no fuel available on the field? 

did not need fuel at the field.  The quote in my POH " do not change fuel selector immediately before takeoff" 

NTSB says:

"the left fuel tank contained about 21 gallons of fuel, and the right fuel tank contained about 3 gallons. The fuel selector was positioned for the right tank and remained there for the startup, taxi, run up, and takeoff."

[TomR]

1 hour ago, gsxrpilot said:

That sounds like the most easily prevented crash of any. "About" 3 gal??? Seriously? Is there no fuel available on the field? 

Definitely fuel available. Never want to speculate but 24 gals total is not enough fuel to get to Columbus county airport. Not to mention the fact that CPC is the place you go for cheap fuel. So fuel was almost certainly on the pilots mind. Why the quantity in the aircraft was not checked is beyond me.

[gsxrpilot]

Evidently the quantity WAS checked... and the pilot elected to go anyway.  If the pilot reported that there was 21 gal in the left and 3 gal in the right, he must have checked. But who considers 3 gal to be useable for anything other than taxiing?

I'm guessing he thought he'd use it on the ground and then switch to the left for takeoff, but forgot.

I'm very sorry for his injuries and hope he recovers quickly... but talk about a silly mistake... and one that likely costs all of us in insurance premiums.

[elimansour]

That’s really unfortunate.  I hope the pilot will recover soon.  3 gallons is not a good amount to have in any tank.  With 900+ hrs and 10 years of flying his Mooney this is not a beginner.  It is always disturbing when these types of accidents happen.  Would be curious to know about the chain of decisions/ events that led to taking off with 3 gallons in the selected tank.  Stay safe out there!

[Cyril Gibb]

Since 3 gals isn't visible, there could have been anywhere from 1 to 6 gals in the right tank.  Dumb assumption for the pilot to make.  He took off on that tank.  Dumb move number 2.  He estimated 21 gals in the left tank with no indication that he dipped it.  The flight was 338 NM against a headwind.  Doubtful that 24 gallons total would get him there after runup, taxi and takeoff.  Definitely well below even legal minimums.

Yet another Darwin Award contestant destroying a diminishing number of Mooneys.  That isn't bad judgement, it's stupidity.

[FloridaMan]

As you turn onto the runway, verify trim, flaps, fuel selector. Confirm fuel selector and say the selected tank and amount of fuel in the selected tank. Verify fuel pump, switches, frequencies and transponder. Verify prop, mixture and throttle. 

[bradp]

I keep it even simpler - after checklists are done at the hold short bars I say out loud “what dumb shit can kill me?” and double check: fuel, ignition  flaps/trim, seat/seatbelt.  

 

[Mooney in Oz]

20 hours ago, bradp said:

I keep it even simpler - after checklists are done at the hold short bars I say out loud “what dumb shit can kill me?” and double check: fuel, ignition  flaps/trim, seat/seatbelt.  

 

I also have all of the above - in a Line up checklist.

[aviatoreb]

Just a thought of what could fool any of us.  For example to overly rely on our Digital fuel flow and memory from our last flight to misinterpret how much fuel we think we have before a flight.

My sump points on my wing can stick when I sump, in cold weather especially.  I.e., keep dripping fuel after I remove the cup.  One in particular.  So I just make sure its closed after I sump.  Takes only a moment.  If it is not I just tap it with the sump cup pin.  I learned this the hard way once that it dripped several gallons of fuel in my hangar onto the floor while sitting there for a week dripping.  So when I showed up I thought geee darn I have a major new fuel tank leak. But no - just stupid me and not having sighted the sump closed.  

Well several gallons on the floor is hard to miss for the overpowering smell.  But what if it happened to a tie-down airplane?  What if he assumed he knew how much fuel was there even without sighting it by peeking into the fuel tanks by opening the cap?  It would be easy then to assume there were maybe 10 or 15 gallons but there were less than 3.  Not that he should have done this and it is sort of a contorted scenario but Im just putting it out there.

[Mooneymite]

Technology is the answer.

Trying to remember all those vital items during the takeoff evolution is asking for an “accident”. 

That’s why airliners use EICAS to watch all the mechanical aspects of the machine. 

It has been proven beyond doubt that pilots are capable of forgetting even the most basic things. 

[aviatoreb]

6 hours ago, Mooneymite said:

Technology is the answer.

Trying to remember all those vital items during the takeoff evolution is asking for an “accident”. 

That’s why airliners use EICAS to watch all the mechanical aspects of the machine. 

It has been proven beyond doubt that pilots are capable of forgetting even the most basic things. 

Our more modern Mooneys have a lot of that EICAS system.  I have annunciators that blink at me if my fuel in either tank is low.  My EDM blinks at me if any of my engine parameters are out of sorts.  I have several annunciators that speak to me in English if some of my flight parameters are out of parameters.  But the job is to listen!  And think ahead.

It is easy to look at a fellow like this crash in NJ and say, what a dummy, that could never happen to me because I am not a dummy.  And yet well trained pilots make errors, including professional pilots in airliners.

I think the better lesson is that humans make errors at a given error rate.  Well trained pilots and well intentioned and good behaving people make errors at a lower rate than the other group.  But there is no such thing as a human pilot who makes errors at a rate of zero.  So look at these unfortunate instances and know that it too could be us and use this as a reminder to visualize yourself making the same stupid error and what are you going to personally do to prevent it.

I for one remember one flight 9.5 years ago (when this plane was new to me) when I stupidly misinterpreted how much fuel I thought I had and I landed with embarrassingly little fuel on board and some sweating palms.  If it weren't for a mix of realizing and admitting what I had done once I figured it out, and the willingness to divert immediately, AND some good dose of luck, I was quickly using up the little fuel I had.  Now lets say the policy is to over compensate.