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Strategies & Market Trends : Rande Is . . . HOME
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To: HandsOn who wrote (9770)7/17/1999 12:41:00 PM
From: Rande Is  Read Replies (1) of 57584
 
Hands, last contact 9:39 pm when starting approach about 15 miles offshore. . . .had to swing to north side of island and make a big right turn almost 270 degrees for an approach back to the Southwest. He'd only been flying for a year, was only rated for VFR, which requires 3 mile visibility. . . in the post-twilight haze, visibility may have become as little as a mile. . . and with the powerful 2 week old retractable gear Piper, capable of flying nearly 200 miles per hour. . . such a turn while descending and decreasing airspeed under such conditions would have been tricky for an experienced IFR pilot. Add to that a recent foot injury and it would have been easy to overcompensate on the rudder for any slipage felt during his turn. . . then suddenly the ocean looks like sky. . .the sky looks like ocean. . .you still can't see the island. . .and if you aren't keeping both eyes on your instruments you could find your plane in an attitude that is difficult to pull out of. . . why? 1. because you can't figure out which way is up and 2. because you are not trained for stunt flying. . .3. you don't even have your instrument only rating . . . . . throw in vertigo [which can have you vomiting within seconds], stall warnings and nervous loud passengers and you are lucky to remember to call in a Mayday and a coordinate.

This will be written up as pilot error, due to inexperience.

To answer your question, if he had crashed on land, his emergency transmitter signal would have been picked up long ago. . .so yes, the plane crashed in the ocean.

Trajic indeed. . .we are all broken hearted. . . . once again.

Rande Is
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