B206 accident in Lagos 28/8/2020
Depends a little on the individual aircraft, but one Longranger I flew regularly did better than 117lb per hour. Incredibly economical really.
Another had a dodgy low fuel warning calibration - always good for an adrenaline kick towards the end of a carefully planned flight.
Another started REALLY hot.
Another...
Had a colleague put the aircraft back in the hangar with not much more than fumes in it. This after having flown a customer to their destination, then taken off again and RTB - all with the low fuel light on. What a pr*ck.
Another colleague got so close to running out of fuel that the fuel pump pressure warning came on - he was in a state of shock at realizing how close he came to running out of the magic liquid.
Another had a dodgy low fuel warning calibration - always good for an adrenaline kick towards the end of a carefully planned flight.
Another started REALLY hot.
Another...
Had a colleague put the aircraft back in the hangar with not much more than fumes in it. This after having flown a customer to their destination, then taken off again and RTB - all with the low fuel light on. What a pr*ck.
Another colleague got so close to running out of fuel that the fuel pump pressure warning came on - he was in a state of shock at realizing how close he came to running out of the magic liquid.
Last edited by Torquetalk; 25th Sep 2020 at 15:33.
Thread Starter
What were they thinking?
Last edited by Torquetalk; 25th Sep 2020 at 16:50.
Direct line from NAF to Lagos is approx 250nm on a NW track and with a headwind component (westerly to North westerly wind typical for this time of year). Inadequate planning and fuel calculations. Nig regs dictate a VFR fuel reserve of 30 mins (14-15 gals). From a planning standpoint this flight would have been flown intentionally well into VFR reserves with no contingency, and only then with a topped off tank.
insurance companies get sticky if a flight wasn’t legal. Improper fuel management already puts them on the wrong side of that equation.
Why oh why oh why don't the local authorities secure the area? The video in the first post has all of the locals climbing all over the wreckage, old people and young people and everything in between I assume looking for something to salvage.
Essential as the fuel gauge is in US gallons, delivered in litres and aircraft weight calculated in kilos. Great system in Oz
Thread Starter
What planet do you live on?
I told them to stop, but they ignored me.
Well, he *almost* made it.
The distance from the NAF in Port Harcourt to Lagos is, what, 250 miles? A clean and light, high-skid 206B should be capable of about 105 KIAS at 80% torque. That's 2.4 hours, give or take.. With 91 gallons onboard and 26 gph, he *should* have had an endurance of 3.5 hours with full tanks. But did they get the thing 100% full? And remember, they dicked around, running it and test-flying it for a total of .5 the day before, so that brought his endurance down to 3.0. Still, that *should* have theoretically given him a 30-minute reserve.
With no en route refueling available, he probably thought/prayed that he could make 100 knots groundspeed, which would give him 2.5 en route. But apparently the flight took 3.0. Did they not go in an absolutely straight line? Were the winds higher than predicted/planned? Can we imagine the thoughts going through that pilot's mind as he looked at the GPS and saw a GS of only 80 knots? Holy cow, what an awful, depressing feeling that must have been! But instead of turning back at the point-of-no-return, he pressed on, maybe hoping the winds would die down and he could get the groundspeed up. Tragically, that never happened.
Once we take off, pilots are eternal optimists. And that pilot's optimism caused him to run his little 206B right out of fuel. With the prospect of a long flight like that...another pilot might have stuck a couple of 5-gallon jugs of Jet-A in the baggage compartment and set down along the way to put them in. Or...the smarter thing to do would've been to top the tank off again before departure.
The distance from the NAF in Port Harcourt to Lagos is, what, 250 miles? A clean and light, high-skid 206B should be capable of about 105 KIAS at 80% torque. That's 2.4 hours, give or take.. With 91 gallons onboard and 26 gph, he *should* have had an endurance of 3.5 hours with full tanks. But did they get the thing 100% full? And remember, they dicked around, running it and test-flying it for a total of .5 the day before, so that brought his endurance down to 3.0. Still, that *should* have theoretically given him a 30-minute reserve.
With no en route refueling available, he probably thought/prayed that he could make 100 knots groundspeed, which would give him 2.5 en route. But apparently the flight took 3.0. Did they not go in an absolutely straight line? Were the winds higher than predicted/planned? Can we imagine the thoughts going through that pilot's mind as he looked at the GPS and saw a GS of only 80 knots? Holy cow, what an awful, depressing feeling that must have been! But instead of turning back at the point-of-no-return, he pressed on, maybe hoping the winds would die down and he could get the groundspeed up. Tragically, that never happened.
Once we take off, pilots are eternal optimists. And that pilot's optimism caused him to run his little 206B right out of fuel. With the prospect of a long flight like that...another pilot might have stuck a couple of 5-gallon jugs of Jet-A in the baggage compartment and set down along the way to put them in. Or...the smarter thing to do would've been to top the tank off again before departure.
