Where to park a Cessna near the CBD?

[deanm]

In a park, of course!

Light plane makes emergency landing in Adelaide's Victoria Park - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-02/light-plane-lands-in-adelaides-victoria-park/6823844)

"A light plane, reported to be a Cessna with five men on board, has made an emergency landing in Adelaide's Victoria Park".

Deanm

[Pinky the pilot]

Shouldn't this be in the GA section?

[RobShan]

A Cessna with four sky divers about made an emergency landing in Victoria Park on the edge of the Adelaide CBD. From the bits I can pick up from LiveAtc.net and Webtrak, the plane circled for some time over the nearby Adelaide Hills before a traffic allow a run for the drop. However it appears there was an issue as the pilot requested a landing at Adelaide airport before the drop but did not declare an emergency at this stage, he was cleared to sight and follow another aircraft on finals. The next transmission from the plane was a Mayday advising the plane was going to land in Victoria Park.

There were no serious injuries and the pilot missed obstacles and people on the ground.

Plane crash-lands near Adelaide CBD | SBS News (http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/10/02/plane-crash-lands-near-adelaide-cbd)

[deanm]

Shouldn't this be in the Rumours & News forum?

Deanm

[Cloudee]

Flight aware seems to show it was planned to be a 17 minute flight but from the graph information the flight lasted about an hour.

[Desert Flower]

Something just doesn't add up there, does it?

DF.

[Compylot]

Shouldn't this be in the GA section? Indeed.

I usually just come here with a bad bottle of red to peruse the latest on transport category aircraft and their latest f*ck ups involving usually belligerent training Captains, not pesky medium singles conducting a forced landing?

Further, the news article didn't reference anything about "terror", "death plunge" or "seconds from disaster".

So lets just resign this to the "Too Boring to Consider Page" and next time don't interrupt my bad glass of wine with such a misplaced post?

I do drink Red you know, as only real pilots do :=

[The name is Porter]

mmmmmm, I wonder what caused the engine to stop? Anyone? Beulla....Beulla?

[Ixixly]

Cloudee, I'm not entirely sure, but I think that Flight Aware merely takes the distance between the 2 points and divides it by the filed flight speed, doesn't quite work for a Skydiving Aircraft which only moves a short distance over the ground between 2 points whilst climbing.

Ie, I might only be planning to fly between 2 points which are 17 minutes apart at normal cruise speed but if I'm going to climb from SL to 10,000ft then descend back down again that will obviously take longer than 17minutes in a typical SE Cessna.

[Cloudee]

The ATSB is investigating a fuel exhaustion event involving a Cessna 182, VH-DNZ, at Adelaide, South Australia, on 2 October 2015.


https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2015/aair/ao-2015-115.aspx

[On eyre]

Until I deleted it as being presumptuous I posted "Hm - five adult males in a C182 - minimum fuel - traffic delays - Hm this could get interesting" - perhaps I'm a clairvoyant after all.

[Desert Flower]

Until I deleted it as being presumptuous I posted "Hm - five adult males in a C182 - minimum fuel - traffic delays - Hm this could get interesting" - perhaps I'm a clairvoyant after all.

On eyre, a certain pilot with the initials BH & I were discussing lack of motion lotion as being a possible cause over breakfast at the local cafe yesterday morning. So it's not just you! ;)

DF.

[On eyre]

DF - three minds thinking alike lol

[onetrack]

Give the bloke some credit. He bungled his fuel requirements, but he put her down in the middle of a busy city without any major injuries to himself and his pax.
That shows that he at least has some modest degree of flying competence - or do you think he just got lucky? :ooh:

[On eyre]

One track - you have got to be kidding right ?

[Aussie Bob]

One track - you have got to be kidding right ? I think he is serious and I tend to agree with him. It is all very well to say that it should be impossible to run out of fuel but the statistics show otherwise. Experience grows as hours accrue. It mostly seems to be the inexperienced who think fuel starvation should be impossible. (No dig at On eyre intended, for all I know he could have a bizillion hours). I feel sorry for the pilot, but glad he got it down safe. In this industry the worst judge is always another pilot.

[Ixixly]

Let's not get too far ahead either, I doubt there are many (If any) who can say they've never had a flight where they've forgotten something or done something stupid and gotten away with it.

We have no idea what hours the Pilot had, no idea what pressures he had applied by either his Boss or the Clients, we don't know if he did dip the tanks and misread or simply forgot, maybe there was a fuel leak he wasn't aware of.... there is so much that could have led to this so let's not go and shoot the Pilot just yet!

[Sunfish]

…..and the pilot is facing felony charges that will see them permanently disbarred from the aviation industry and international employment, let alone international; travel.

[smiling monkey]

Quoting from the ATSB page;

While conducting parachuting operations, the pilot declared a fuel emergency,

I've never been involved in such ops, but don't they usually take minimum fuel so they can climb quicker with a full load?

[On eyre]

Irrespective of all the above there are really only two rules for safe aviation that I abide by (everything else is negotiable) :-
Rule 1 - Do not fly into the ground
Rule 2 - Do not run out of fuel that may cause you to disobey Rule 1.
That is all.
If you cannot obey these rules forget about flying as a career or as a pastime.
PS. These two rules have stood me in good stead for nearly 50 years.

[onetrack]

On eyre - Very good, and very commendable. Yes, I was being serious. However, as somewhere around 90% of aircraft crashes are invariably listed as "pilot error", there are unfortunately, numerous pilots who don't follow your inviolable rules - and who invariably disobey Rule 1.

What I am saying, is although this bloke does appear to have taken his eye off the fuel ball for an extended period (who knows what other pressures he was under?) until the situation deteriorated to an "Oh, S***!!" moment ... he did manage to save himself and his pax from what was obviously a major initial piloting error, by actions that were all the right ones, from then on.

As the old saying goes, "there but for the Grace of God ...."

One would trust that he has learnt a major lesson, the hard way. Unfortunately there will always be those numbers of people (including pilots) whose only way of learning important lessons, is via the hard way.