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Bummed about a Mooney down in Houston -3/31/2019

Yetti

By Yetti
in General Mooney Talk

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smccray Mentor

smccray

Posted
Posted

Not going to post an n number, but there’s a flight plan into KIWS (only one M20) for a bravo with a track and a time that fits.  Prayers for the pilot and his family.  Sounds like a bad one. 

 

kpaul Mentor

kpaul

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, gsxrpilot said:

It is certainly ugly IFR in this part of the country.

Yet it appears that the flight was under VFR.  Also, according to the FAA the registrations has lapsed.

Flight Aware shows the last bit below 2300' with VVI up to 6000 fpm.

gsxrpilot Grand Master

gsxrpilot

Posted
Posted
27 minutes ago, kpaul said:

Yet it appears that the flight was under VFR.  Also, according to the FAA the registrations has lapsed.

Flight Aware shows the last bit below 2300' with VVI up to 6000 fpm.

I wonder if it was a ferry flight? El Paso KELP to West Houston. 

Yetti Grand Master

Yetti

Posted
  • Author
Posted

The DPS said nose first.   I would have to guess nose/left wing first.  slow stall spin in maneuvering for the approach to KIWS.   I am violating my rule of not starting / commenting on accident threads.  West Houston was where I learned to fly.

One of my coworkers lost his son in an auto accident yesterday.

  • Sad 1
Yetti Grand Master

Yetti

Posted
  • Author
Posted
1 hour ago, Skates97 said:

One of the articles is saying that it is believed it clipped a power line before crashing. Power was knocked out to much of the neighborhood by the crash site and they were working to restore power. 

https://www.chron.com/houston/article/Airplane-crashed-in-west-Harris-County-13578713.php

Nope not clipped.  The plane is destroyed.   I would suggest the powerline was wrong place wrong time and got run into why the plane was stall spinning out of the sky.   Don't get slow.

RobertGary1 Grand Master

RobertGary1

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Yetti said:

Nope not clipped.  The plane is destroyed.   I would suggest the powerline was wrong place wrong time and got run into why the plane was stall spinning out of the sky.   Don't get slow.

Its still just likely to be space aliens since we're just throwing out random guesses.

-Robert

carusoam Grand Master

carusoam

Posted
Posted

We have a second thread going with links to video... and witnesses that said stall with plane hitting the ground nose first...

The flight track gave odd numbers of + and - 1kfpm At around 4k’ altitude while descending... the data indicates... Something was causing some odd flight characteristics... for a time where a stabilized approach would be good... the data isn’t showing stabilized during the descent...

The man has been identified as 69-year-old Calbert James Waller.

Prayers,

-a-

exM20K Veteran

exM20K

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 1/31/2019 at 8:44 PM, gsxrpilot said:

I wonder if it was a ferry flight? El Paso KELP to West Houston. 

Every ferry permit I’ve pulled is VMC and required crew only.

-dan

Edited by exM20K
gsxrpilot Grand Master

gsxrpilot

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, exM20K said:

Every ferry permit I’ve pulled is VMC and required crew only.

-dan

And this flight kinda fits. Only one aboard and while it was IMC in Houston at the time, he was not on an IFR flight, nor flight following and cruising at a VFR altitude. So he might have pulled the ferry permit thinking he'd beat the weather to Houston.

gsxrpilot Grand Master

gsxrpilot

Posted
Posted

@Yetti you think a stall/spin is more likely here than a loss of control in IMC? The pilot was evidently not IR. The rate of descent shown on FlightAware seemed to me to be just too fast for too long to be a stall/spin and would more likely be an IMC loss of control issue.

I'm just wondering... It's very sad none the less, and always hope to learn something from every one of these tragedies.

exM20K Veteran

exM20K

Posted
Posted
17 minutes ago, gsxrpilot said:

And this flight kinda fits. Only one aboard and while it was IMC in Houston at the time, he was not on an IFR flight, nor flight following and cruising at a VFR altitude. So he might have pulled the ferry permit thinking he'd beat the weather to Houston.

dunno - plane went Houston to California and back in a couple days.  My old 231 is three serial numbers from this one. Sad. 

Nothing on LiveATC.net, but little GA traffic on the frequencies they record.

gsxrpilot Grand Master

gsxrpilot

Posted
Posted
20 minutes ago, exM20K said:

dunno - plane went Houston to California and back in a couple days.  My old 231 is three serial numbers from this one. Sad. 

Nothing on LiveATC.net, but little GA traffic on the frequencies they record.

Oh, I didn't know about the trip west. A ferry flight then doesn't make any sense. It really is sad.

Yetti Grand Master

Yetti

Posted
  • Author
Posted
6 hours ago, gsxrpilot said:

@Yetti you think a stall/spin is more likely here than a loss of control in IMC? The pilot was evidently not IR. The rate of descent shown on FlightAware seemed to me to be just too fast for too long to be a stall/spin and would more likely be an IMC loss of control issue.

I'm just wondering... It's very sad none the less, and always hope to learn something from every one of these tragedies.

The 4000 foot seems like a bad data point since the class B shelf is 3000 and 2000 there. It's pretty hard to IMC loss of control a Mooney with a working wing leveler.  The gear looks down(could have swung down on impact).  One of the more destroyed mooneys I've seen.   Contained debris field so a straight auger in.   Lots of twisting.  Pretty far North of traffic pattern. Witnesses said they heard it before it hit so engine running.  Could have been lost looking for the airport.  Weather IMC loss of control or got slow and stall spun, the way it went down has the same result.

 

 

image.thumb.png.8184ef05cfcd73739bf858f60d2e8bc5.png

neilpilot Mentor

neilpilot

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, carusoam said:

The man has been identified as 69-year-old Calbert James Waller.

Actually Calvert James Waller, who was limited to VFR and apparently flying with an expired 3rd class medical.

jaylw314 Grand Master

jaylw314

Posted
Posted

Looks like no post-crash fire?  Fuel starvation?  Even if people heard the engine running, it's not clear if the engine was sputtering, or if they could have just heard the prop windmilling since it came so close to them.

neilpilot Mentor

neilpilot

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, jaylw314 said:

Looks like no post-crash fire?  Fuel starvation?  Even if people heard the engine running, it's not clear if the engine was sputtering, or if they could have just heard the prop windmilling since it came so close to them.

Maybe you mean Fuel Exhaustion?

Txbyker Mentor

Txbyker

Posted
Posted

On the local news last night they said ATC was trying to help him descend from VFR on top through the clouds.  They were trying to keep him from IAH class B and from going further east of his position.  Sad.

Russ

zaitcev Collaborator

zaitcev

Posted
Posted
On 2/2/2019 at 4:13 PM, Jim Peace said:

his family will sue someone and win.....

we will pay more

It's a given, like the non-descriptive thread titles.

bill98 Community Regular

bill98

Posted
Posted
On 2/1/2019 at 10:48 PM, exM20K said:

Every ferry permit I’ve pulled is VMC and required crew only.

-dan

my MX ferry permit after grass touched my prop without consent - explicitly stated VMC only and I believe it was DAY TIME VMC.
 

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