crashed

[hotprop]

I'm not an owner nor have I ever flown in a 337. My interest in this case is a somewhat personal one as a mutual non-flying friend had introduced me to the person that was in the right seat, who I only knew by his Polish nickname as Wojtek, pronounced voitek. I flew with him twice when he was still a student pilot. My friend called me this week to tell me that that was the guy I flew with some 12 yrs ago. At the risk of being accused of and flamed for kicking the dead in their grave and patting myself on the back at the same time, I do feel vindicated that I warned my friend not to fly with him. I know this guy piled on the ratings since I've flown with him, but it was his absurd rationalizations about what was possible, permissable that I found troubling, and for my friend's sake, I cautioned him not to fly with him.

I've read all of your posts on this thread and indeed you all seem like such good eggs that I felt compelled to write what I just wrote, for I could feel your collective concern about the airworthiness of your aircraft. 337'S have their issues, which plane doesn't, but I believe in this case there is just to much evidence of people who flaunted, played fast and loose, and thumbed their noses at the laws of physics. Weight limit? Zero fuel weight? If it fits it will lift it. V speeds? Why would they put all those numbers at the end of the A/S indicator, let's see what it's like, besides it's overbuilt 150%, let's have some fun! This kind of thinking can break an EXTRA, or a F-18 for that matter.

1. 15:46:50 the airplane was at 1,400 ft msl, on a heading of 156 degrees at a ground speed of 148 knots. Then just 10 seconds later 15:47:00, the airplane was at 600 ft msl, on a heading of 062 degrees at a ground speed of 171 knots. If this radar data is to be believed, that's dropping 800 ft, accelerating 23 kts while turning 94 degrees in 10 seconds with 5 people on board. Are you kidding me?

2. I'm having a tough time untangling the various V and weight limits, with all the different variants, stc, mods, etc., so I submit this for your perusal. I found this on FlightAware. N12NA's flight from KBTV Burlington, VT to 47N Central Jersey Regional on Sept, 2009. Don't know if someone knows how to get the winds aloft data for that day, but check it out. Note the ground speeds and what in my estimation seems like a dive bomber approach. From 16500ft to 2400ft in approx 30 miles, and 6 mins. Doesn't that seem excessive. Here's the track- http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N...259ZZ/KBTV/47N
Here's the radar log- http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N...V/47N/tracklog

One last thing before I step down from my soapbox, I love aviation. Been in it for 42yrs, 20yrs as a pilot. I felt very proud to have achieved that. Human nature being what it is, I believed that it showed a special sense of competence in an individual to be able to do this. It pisses me off when jokers come along with bird brained notions and make all of us flying look like one step above the village idiot, not to mention the loss of innocent people who place their lives in our trust. Great fun that it can be, it's an unforgiving hobby we've chosen. One fool and in this case maybe two and we all get a black eye. One last thing, last annual inspection was done Feb09. Maybe, if only, could of, might have caught a gremlin, but I think the only gremlins were in the two front seats.

Peace Out

[hotprop]

Here's a picture of N12NA

[hharney]

Hotprop

Your handle implies one of two things: 1) IFR in the ice, or 2) like hot rod. After reading your message above I assume it's not #2.

Thanks for your input, I think the members came to that same conclusion based on the reports. Sad deal. The worst of it, as you have read, we are beating up our aircraft because of it. That's just part of the passion that we all share. We are concerned about what may have happened and if there is something wrong with the mod's or the airframe. I hope we can get through this without a lot of pain.

I wouldn't always rely on flightaware log. I have seen too many stray figures in my own flights.

Thanks for the photo, it was posted on the first page of the thread too.

[jchronic]

Hotprop -

Before anyone starts jumping on you for your tell-it-like-it is message, let me heartily second your thoughts. Someone early in the thread made a comment that "The FAA [NTSB] will probably blame the pilot." Yes, they probably will because that's where the facts point, and beyond that, sadly, statistically that's where the fault usually lies.

I got into flying marine surveys doing some work for the (late) pilot in the NJ Skymaster fuel exhaustion accident. He was a nice guy and I liked him personally - but his operational pratices were loose at best, and they finally caught up with him.

To the point, they also unfortunately caught his innocent passengers, apparently like in this recent case of hot-dogging. My view is that everyone probably has the right to kill themselves in their airplanes...but they don't have any right to take innocent people with them, and there's nothing wrong with calling a spade a spade when someone does.

Ahab

[WebMaster]

There is an updated SAIB, from the FAA.
Thanks to our left coast contributor for bringing it to my attention
Also, there's an article on Aero News.

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?C...-6c0f5a25b4a8&

[hharney]

http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=htt...suyyztQGa2fD2w

[Gord Tessier]

I sure am glad I had that mod. removed from my plane. The upper skins on mine were cracked. My engineer thought it was due to a poor installation job. Now we know it was due to the outboard section of the wing generating so much lift it was bending at station 177. Nice engineering design, not!
I hope the lawsuit is successful!

[hotprop]

hharney
There is one more choice that non-flyers ask when they see the handle, "Are you in real estate?". NOOOOOOH! Saw it used in a/c classifieds, thought it would be a cool handle. Sorry about the redundant pic, thanks for the heads-up on FlightAware.
Even though in this case the blame, IMHO, rests on the shoulders of plane misuse, I can only be concerned about the tip tank winglet ext mod. Wrinkled skins and smoking rivets, never really a good thing, B-52's notwithstanding. You would think someone did the due diligence thing. I believe I'm not alone in thinking STC suggests something other than - Caveat Emptor. Watching the ' Owen Bell - Aviation Enterprises ' thread with interest, as I''m sure you all are.
jchronic
Thanks for your kind words of support. "Loose operational practices", that's a good nut shell. To many in the 'Count the wings, kick the tires, light the fires, thorough pre-flights are for wusses' camp out there. Respectively hope your handle is not implying a medical condition, In case, hope it's jcure real soon.

[jchronic]

Thanks but, no, 'Chronic' is the family name, anglicized from some now obscure Germanic spelling. Why they picked that version, the family has wondered for years especially those of us who've had to listen to the smart comments from the medical people during physicals every year!

However, on that subject, I did recently have to have a pacemaker put in and for those who may be facing a medical recert process with the FAA, I'll be glad to share my experience, such as it's been so far. But that would be another thread......

Ahab