Originally Posted by
Bend alot
greifandpainforever - I/we feel your pain (and I for one don't mind if you vent a bit) but I would like to inform you in advance that the reports coming out these days are not very good. They try not to hurt any persons feelings alive or dead.
They don't have flight data recorders or cockpit voice recorders or I assume video footage of the exact time of the flight showing weather conditions. The wreckage also wont give much information is weather is the factor.
The long and short is ATSB will be reluctant to say what should be said as they don't have 100% proof and eyewitnesses can be called to any court cases later (as a result of the report) and be proven wrong then that makes a fool of the ATSB and they wont take that risk.
Just want you to be prepared in what may be a long time a very watered down ass covering report with little detail.
And very sorry for that - take good care of yourself mate and the ones around you.
Thank you for your kind words. Just so everybody knows. The AP was starting to fog in on the approach (see tracking) as pilot tries to find AP. Before the plane departs, fog set in fully. Commercial flight also at AP at the time prefers to stay on ground. AF takes off in IFR, eventually impacts terrain inverted and flips over.
Result 2 innocent people who trusted pilot to look after them are dead.
Failing that a mechanical condition of plane or medical incident of the pilot, the cause will be "Spatial disorientation". Possibly combined with some situation that drew the pilot's attention away from instruments.
A very experienced pilot has difficulty in this situation but with training and experience has a very good expectation of only wetting his trousers.
An inexperience pilot just needs to keep the plane straight, get air speed, rotate, listen to engine sound and use instruments to keep wings level until aircraft clears fog bank. All relatively easy UNLESS something goes wrong - that is where experience and training come in to be very important.
Example: conditions induce carburetor icing, engine starts to loose power, vibration. Realization forgot heater. eyes off instruments, find heater control, possibly stall alarm, enrich fuel, loses 200 RPM due to carburetor de-icing, stall warning still sounding, lower the nose to keep up air speed. What the hell is going on!!!!! Start turn to airport. If stall alarm had stopped, the turn brings it back on. Where am I?? stall alarm should not be sounding, Iv'e put the nose down!!!! Looks to instruments it's all confusing!!! inside wing finally stalls, aircraft rolls over hits the ground at a 30% angle and flips. That is what happens without training and lack of experience with IFR will do. Dose that sound plausible. I flew gliders fifty years ago.
If the problem turns out to be medical or mechanical it all could possibly have been better handled by a pilot flying VFR instead of IFR.
The same pilot took his grand children on joy rides apparantly, I bet it was never in IFR conditions though.
The really sad thing is Twenty minutes later fog lifts completely to a clear sky.