Fatal accident in Vic 27 June
 

Very said to hear of a plane crash north of Benlla just after 6 PM tonight

Fatal accident in Vic tonight
 

Another fatal in Vic tonight. We are not doing very well in GA or RAA. Last light tonight is at 5:39pm. If it was an unlit or inadequate strip for night-time it would be a b-loody shame given that Shepparton is just a stone's throw away.



No Cookies | Herald Sun



A PILOT has died when his plane crashed on landing in Victoria's north-east.

The plane was attempting to land at a private airstrip at a residence in Boxwood when it clipped the trees and crashed just after 6pm.

A pilot in his 50s was a single occupant in the plane and was returning from Moorabbin airport.

Inspector Ian Geddes said the pilot flew into the private airstrip located on the property and experienced problems when landing.

"A male pilot returning from Moorabbin airport was deceased at the scene," Inspector Geedes said.

"He crashed on landing the plane. The airstrip was located on his property and apparently he flies all the time."

Ambulance Victoria spokesman John Mullen said the accident happened at around 6.12pm.

"The aircraft has come in to land and has clipped some trees, a male in his 50s was deceased at the scene when paramedics arrived," Mr Mullen said.

"There was only one person in the plane, who was landing on his property, when it crashed."

The plane crashed on Benalla-Boundary Rd and Boxwood Rd in Boxwood.

CFA crews attended in a support role to clean up any fuel that may have been spilt.

A full police investigation is underway in relation to the matter.

SR22 apparently

May he RIP. Sad times for GA lately :(

It was a private unlit strip. Minutes from Benalla.

It was very dark last night around Vic.. Not good at all..

Unfortunately the current supermoon was tucked away last night until nearly 11pm. Earlier in the week would have been a different story completely.

Bad light may have played role in fatal plane crash in north-eastern Victoria - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/478...x2-340x227.jpg

Bad light played a role all right. Last light at 5.40, was nearly pitch black last night until about 8.50 when the moon started to rise ( behind cloud tho ) Was there any lights at this private strip? If not it would have been a suicide run.. I don't know all the details, but this sounds like a totally avoidable accident..

There will be group of people, family and friends devastated over what could have been an entirely avoidable situation.. My thought are with them.

Got to the chute just a bit too late... Very sad indeed.

Hope the attending fire services were aware of the caps system, there is a first on scene webpage manual for dealing with a damaged Sr20/22 which has the rocket still active.
condolences to those involved

Not trying to be smart or cute, but how does someone first on scene know to look up this manual? Wouldn't most rescue personnel be hard pressed knowing it is a Cirrus and not just a "Cessna"?

That is a very good point FTS. Our local fire brigade has been briefed on the Cirrus in particular, however the point would be that you should treat ALL aircraft as live in terms of a BRS as they could be fitted to many aircraft, RA-Aus in particular as well as even Trikes.

If you're fire brigade is from a non-aviation area nowhere near an aerodrome, the potential is there for them to go barreling on in and have some issues. Some might say that would be unlikely, however in many of these areas you're talking about CFA volunteers whom may not be aware of such equipment.

It's a good topic of discussion.

For VH-FTS. The ATSB has a very comprehensive document on how to respond to an aircraft accident. Info here:
http://atsb.gov.au/media/1538966/civ...idguide_v5.pdf
From experience this is issued to all fire authorities in the country and in most cases forms part of the basic training regime. however its fair to say that a fire service not near a GA airport may well not be current on this. Moorabbin airport has for some time had a highly detailed aircraft information card that is kept at at rendesvous points and circulated to local CFA and MFB units. They used to train the local firies quite often and used a Cirrus as a practical example. The last airport manager was keen to get the card more widely used around australia but don't know how far this went.

Thanks for the info gents, sorry about the thread drift.

Does the SR22 have synthetic vision?

Maybe not that vintage. Hard to see trees even with SVT.

Yeah that's kind of my point, having flown synthetic its easy to get a false sense of security. Line up with a runway and wait for the landing lights to show you what you expect to see. May be way off the mark but I know it is a temptation.

SV does not usually have farm strips in its database. Nor would it have it either.

Met this guy only last week, really nice guy . From memory it had the Avidyne package in it. Spoke about how passengers liked the Cirrus over a 210(?) that he flew as it was modern and a pleasure to fly in.

Always seems weird when someone you know dies ..... doesn't seem quite real.
RIP :(

Looks like it did ...

Aircraft for Sale, Plane Sales, Planes for Sale - Aviation Advertiser ? - Aircraft Classifieds / Cirrus SR22 G2 GTS

Final report released...

Investigation: AO-2013-104 - Collision with terrain involving Cirrus SR22, VH-CKS, Boxwood, Victoria on 27 June 2013

So if I read that report correctly, the Pilot was VFR rated only, with no Night VMC rating (or whatever it is called nowadays) and attempted to land at a strip with which he was not overly familiar, had no runway lighting system and indeed was unsuitable for night operations, after last light.

Someone please correct me if I have stated anything incorrectly.

I will refrain from further comment.

Very good point.

Speaking as someone who did road crash rescue in a country NSW SES unit for many years, it's a lot of work just keeping up with the nasty surprises modern (particularly luxury) cars hold, let alone aircraft.

Extra batteries in unexpected places, airbags everywhere, and let's not mention hybrids...

From the report intro:

Whilst it's easy to look on and say wow, what an idiot, I must then surmise that there are a lot of idiots around this isn't the first time I've seen/heard this done.

On the day that the photos of the wreckage were taken, the VMC looked rather VFR aviation benign.

As often typical, very sadly..

Learning from the report...
 

From reading the report it looks to me that the pilot put some thought and planning into the landing...

Via the ATSB report. My bolding:

Pg 2: "The pilot held a Commercial Pilot (Aeroplane) Licence, a valid Command Instrument Rating (Single-engine aeroplanes) and a valid Class 1 Medical Certificate ... The pilot renewed his instrument rating on 25 May 2013. (one month before accident) The pilot’s application for renewal indicated that a significant proportion of his flying since his last renewal was at night ... The pilot had flown the accident aircraft for a total of 267 flight hours, 34 hours of which were at night. During the last 90 days the pilot accumulated 59 flying hours..."

Pg. 5: "...It was reported that the pilot’s previous landings at Boxwood were all in daylight..."

Pg 7: "...the pilot planned his final approach using two pre-selected waypoints and with vehicular headlights illuminating the airstrip. This contrasted with the pilot’s recorded night flying experience, which showed that all previous night landings were on licenced aerodromes that were equipped with appropriate runway and obstruction lighting..."

Pg 7: "The approach was consistent with reliance by the pilot on the provision of lateral and vertical guidance from the course deviation and vertical speed indications on the aircraft’s primary flight display. In this context, although the decent path was relatively constant, the turn onto final was commenced overhead the 4 NM (7 km) waypoint, resulting in the aircraft overshooting the extended centre-line. As a result, the aircraft was to the north of the intended track to the airstrip and required the pilot to track back to the centre-line during the remainder of the approach. This increased the risk that, given the inadequate lighting, the aircraft would strike the trees north-adjacent to the airstrip.

The use of Global Positioning System-derived waypoints for the final approach may have given the pilot a false sense of accuracy and an expectation that a single-point light source was adequate for the attempted night approach and landing. In contrast, the only means of judging the latter stages of the approach, flare and touchdown was by the aircraft’s landing light. Together with the closer-than-recommended location of the trees to the runway, this sole reliance on the landing light increased the risk of the pilot not comprehending the trees in time to take avoiding action."

http://atsb.gov.au/media/5244139/ao2013104_final.pdf








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It's amazing what humans will do when (& this is just a guess in this case) "get-home-itis" is in the back of their minds.

Familiarity with the airstrip (due it was his own property I understand)obviously worked against him in this case & along with the high level of automation in the A/C meant he was led into a false sense of security being able to complete the landing even though it was against the rules & obviously against all common sense.

I just like to think that these sad events & the following reports & discussions etc that are found amongst these pages are going to make someone else in the future faced with a similar so called ability to think twice & save a life or two. All the laws & rules in the book don't mean a damned thing if common sense isn't alive & well in a pilots head at all times.




Wmk2

The odd thing is, there is now another Cirrus that carries that rego, & to an owner in Boxwood! I often hear it on the airwaves.

DF.

I've done it - just once (!), some 35 yrs ago!

But let's add to the challenge - make it a 600 M, up hill, one way strip, and me in a Mooney! Landed there lots of occasions in daylight but never before at night. Kero flares marking the four corners of the strip and a Tojo parked off to one side of the approach end with its head lights shining up the strip.

I can still hear the "THWACK" - as I ran the aeroplane through the top of a prickly bush short of the threshold!

Only once - never again!

If any young pilots read this - DON"T TRY IT!

I got away with it - he didn't!

Dr :8

On page three of the ATSB report there is a picture of the accident aircraft panel.
"...2 Avidyne integrated flight displays ... The brightness of the screens is controlled manually for night operations..." "...an Embedded Terrain Awareness Warning System..."
The panel photo shows a green terrain on the MFD and a red/brown earth colour on the PFD.

Not being familiar with the Avidyne i'm wondering what the displays would have shown during the night approach to the Boxwood airfield. Noting the experience and currency of the pilot i would guess the displays were dimmed during flight to suit the apparently fairly dark night thus retaining the pilots night vision.

Would the Avidynes automatically go bright yellow or similar due to a terrain alert ? Between a possibly suddenly brightening panel on approach and the vehicle lights the pilot would lose a lot of his night vision.








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Nothing.... just an AH in front of you and a map on the right screen. They dim down a fair way, but not down to nothing if I recall correctly. If it was fitted with terrain warnings it would have gone off much earlier and he would have likely pushed the button to silence it.

There is no synthetic vision on the GPS / Avidyne screen either so that wouldn't have helped.


FTDK - I recall doing something similar only to find a flock of sheep on my one way strip. I had another option only 7 nm away but it seemed to difficult at the time. Bunny hopped the sheep, landed solidly and got down successfully, but... never again.

Lateral thinking and had already been studied at Embrey-Riddle( goes to show, there is no such thing as an original idea) Using passive reflector panels to mark an unlit runway. Regardless of legality...if you are going to do something stupid, at least, give yourself a fighting chance. ER's study showed the panels were visible from 5nm away, allowing maneuvering to land, lit only by landing lights. My personal addition would be to survey in something like an aircraft carrier meatball like glideslope indicator to give some amount of obstacle clearance. When I mean survey, I mean simple measurements, erect panels at measured heights a measured distance apart aligned with the strip.

Stupid it may be, but if it saves one life....

i
 

Same serial number and owner's address too. Buffed out already?

this scenario happens more than you think.
(landing in the dark on a home strip)
I know of a guy who thinks nothing of having the wife park on the downwind end of his strip, hazard lights flashing and high beam pointing down the runway.
lands over the top of her in absolutely crap weather.
has done it many times.

in my little garmin gps I can set the display to show an "ADF" needle or a "CDI".
I use the simple ADF (automatic direction finder) needle on the display but I wonder in cases like these if the CDI (course direction indicator) doesn't offer a better display since the offset from the straight-line track is also indicated.
might have told this guy he was off to the side of the intended track.

Underneath The Radar and Binghi; Thanks. I stand corrected.

Teach me to read properly.:=

Seems as though an overshoot would have been the order of the day given the crash location with respect to the airstrip. Crash site red diamond, tree yellow oval.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps429b1eb8.jpg

Interesting pic... so he was way off the mark.

He really needed lights at both end or a way to line up as others have already stated.

Owns a Cirrus and a strip but not willing to spend a few hundred dollars on some cable and low voltage garden lights?:ooh:
Sometimes it is actually easier to do it properly.:(

400 to 1000 hours
 

This incident brought home for me the truth of something that I was told by one of the ex RAAF pilots out at Temora.

His view was that the most dangerous time for pilots is between 400 hours IC and 1000 hours. Over 400 hours and you think you are on top of your game and are therefore prepared to do things that you perhaps wouldn't have before then. It takes you till 1000 hours before you learn just how many things can go wrong. You're either lucky and make it through or unlucky and don't.

Pilot had 600 hours or so.

With just a few less than that, I know I am a beginner but I also know that I have become more bold than I was before. I will be thinking about this poor guy and his family and taking extra caution for the next 400 hours or so.

there is a trap hidden there.
the lights have to be above a threshold brightness or you can't see them.
it would be rather sad to find that your lights were inadequate when you most needed them.
led lighting is available now that is bright enough.