One of our airfields training planes crashed today.


https://www.suncoastnews.com/crime_...78a15c0-2fef-11ef-b153-13102ad4e10c.html


Initial word is engine failure. Wasn’t fuel because they still had 30 gallons on board. Even if there was an error on using tanks that would have meant at least 6 gallons on used tank. Even if you allow 1.5 gallons unusable there was still fuel. So it will be interesting to find out more. Instructor and student. Both got out without serious injury. Plane is done. Wings pulled off and fuselage torn in half.

As always, early information is often wrong.

Crash site about 4 miles from my house. I am supposed to be flying with another plane Sunday morning. We will both fly over the location and try to get pictures.

Do you know the instructor?

The one on Pine Island, I saw that on the news yesterday. They said they clipped a Palm tree trying to land on the roadway. Apparently the one seen in the forground.

I didn’t know the instructor. The flight academy goes through instructors pretty regularly. They are newer pilots who got their ticket and then got instructor certification. This allows them to build up the required hours quickly at no cost (and some small pay) to hire on with airlines or cargo haulers. They are very different than the old hand instructors. I would go to an independent flight instructor before going to one of the flight academies.

That is interesting, so these instructors are like USAF FAIPs... they just learned themselves and now they're instructing. I heard a recent defense of that practice that made sense for the military in that the instruction syllabus was so highly regimented that low hour instructors performed almost as well as high hour instructors did and there were plenty of the latter sprinkled in as well when needed.

Flew today. Went to Winter Haven and had brunch. On the way back weather developed off the west coast and we barely squeezed landings in before the heavy rain hit us. Since the wreck site was west of the field there was a solid wall of weather between us and the site.

Will try again.

Thought I would post the pictures my passenger took.


Here is what was showing.





This shows the wall of rain that the Garmin was showing. Picture doesn’t have the impact that reality had. Lacks the depth and movement of what we were seeing. Also the quality is down since these are shots captured from his video.





Here is turning to final. The rain was just hitting the airfield fencing at the other end of 5he field to our right. The big worry is strong winds around the storm cells. This is where wind shear can occur.





Rain started falling as we were on the taxiway headed to the hangar. Always a lift to successfully do something with a bit more challenge.

Good flying OG, skies like that are nothing to scoff at.

I was working with the tower getting their input. Two other planes took off prior so I had pretty good info on conditions. Otherwise I probably would have diverted to another field.