Hi All,
The accident we are talking about was not a bird strike (
Date 12/11/2006 ATSB Ref #: 200606756 "During the takeoff from runway 27 in crosswind conditions, the aircraft was unable to generate sufficient power to sustain flight. The aircraft was destroyed when it impacted water during the forced landing.").
It is still not clear why the aircraft was "unable to generate sufficient power to sustain flight". Taken on face value suggests some form of power plant failure, but why? The causes are multudinous. Mixtures set incorrectly? Prop pitch set incorrectly? Plug fouling? Fuel pump failure? Was the fuel boost pump on? Were phase one checks followed when the EFATO occurred? (This would've sorted out any mixture or prop problems). If there were six on board, was it in C of G? Was the plane above MTOW? How full were the tanks? Doing rapid changes in heading whilst taxying with less than 1/4 tanks can lead to fuel starvation because the fuel line ports become uncovered as the fuel sloshes about in the tanks. This is documented in the POH.
There have been two other incidents of P.68 involved in bird-strike at YRTI (25-Oct-2005 ATSB #: 200505499 and 23-Dec-2005 ATSB #: 200506892). The information on the link provided by #110 is incorrect: (please don't refer to:
https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/cras...ottnest-island).
From #109: "
Two they require some 20 degrees of flap to take off otherwise they stick to the runway."
With due respect, I disagree. The take off flap for the P68 is 1st stage at 15 deg, no more. I have found the handling characteristics of the P68 to be very docile. When trimmed correctly for take off, it is no more sticky than anything else I've flown. Also helps if you load the P68 correctly. Climbs away nicely on two engines.
I also found something in #66 to be interesting about adding 10 kts to the blue line speed as a decision point, my main concern about that is that it delays your decision so you are further down the runway and have less stopping options in front of you. I would much rather reject a take-off earlier in the piece. I know about speed decay, I have done winch launching with launch failure in gliders!
WRT #112 "
I'm not surprised by that statement, given the excessive time normally taken by the ATSB to now issue reports, and the standard of those reports." I think that 16 years is long even for ATSB standards.