I was trying to avoid most of the bull$hit speculation and news on this very very sad event... like many close to him I am hurting - there are some regular readers of this forum who were very close to this fantastic gentleman. I know this thread isnt here for this - but for his family and friends my sincere condolences...
Remoak I have to agree with Gadrivr. Emotions aside your response was truely arrogant.
Like many I dare not say that he made a mistake, but unlike some I care not to speculate. There are numerous persons, trained to do so, working on this as we speak. It is all well and good to learn from the mistakes of others, but it is just downright wrong to throw stones and wildly speculate about something that only one person (at this stage) was privvy to the details of.
At the time, with what information and feedback from the aircraft that Andrew had, he made a series of decisions. In this instance I firmly believe that he would of made the correct ones. Doing everything he could, with what he was given.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing- but in this instance he won't get that chance.
Some may never see an engine fail inflight - I have personally been at the controls for 3. All of them the chips fell my way. 2 of them i continued - 1 of them i didnt get a choice. The most recent of my engine failures was put down to fuel contamination. Recent maintenance to fix a leak in the fuel tank had made the sealant from the wet wing come away and create a sludge. This of course blocked the pickup and filters, starving the engine of fuel. Decided to fix not feather - attempted restart - engine restarted with surging - x-fed it and flew home. Each step was planned and happened based on myposition, experience and feedback from the aircraft at the time.
The only facts you know from this accident are: that he was on one engine - he planned a return to Bankstown - something else has occured or become apparent not allowing this to happen, resulting in a tragic loss.
We don't know the cause or extent of the failure.
We don't know the reason in his inabilty to maintain height after descent.
We don't even know if there weren't multiple failures.
We do know he was in control of the situation upto the landing.
We do know he attempted a landing on a road.
Everything else is speculation and requires investigation. He had reasons for his actions and we just don't know enough to draw conclusions...
Granted learning from this could save someones life. But given the wrong information could prove catastrophic as well... in my case above if i turned my twin into a glider I would of wrecked a perfectly good aeroplane, when all i needed to do was not run on that tank. EDFP fails - oh dont switch on the boost pump i readon pprune i need to glide into tiger country or suburbia. Speculation and misinformation is just as dangerous i feel.
Rightly so people want answers... and this will happen in due course. Personal attacks and questions of integrity of this fine young aviator however shouldn't come into question.
I did stay off pprune until I thought I was ready... Still not there yet, but sparing a thought for those on the emotional rollercoaster right now. They will return here, and rest assured the one emotion following grief will be anger...
So please, the ony reason for this drawn out reply is that you keep it clean guys...
cheers,
Rob
Last edited by Xcel; 18th Jun 2010 at 14:13.