Piper Aerostar crash, or, Don't do stupid things in airplanes.

Yikes...the fact he's a 121 pilot for a major LCC kind of surprises me the way he was flying that thing around so low with no margin for error.

I feel that people here may have known him...so I will refrain from speculating...and putting the video thru the bennyhillifier.
 
ChasenSFO said:
Yikes...the fact he's a 121 pilot for a major LCC kind of surprises me the way he was flying that thing around so low with no margin for error.

I feel that people here may have known him...so I will refrain from speculating...and putting the video thru the bennyhillifier.
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Meh. Watched a retired Delta captain loose all his certificates for doing stupid human tricks in an airplane, right in front of the feds. Being a 121 pilot only means you fly an airliner for a living. Doesn't mean you ain't a raging idiot.
 
eightballfreight said:
Eh, you are free to kill yourself all day long in my book.
Don't care. :)
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Same here. However, when they take out another person's life or property in the process of killing themselves, then it becomes a BIG concern in my book. I'm sure one of the reasons why the FAR/AIM is fatter than a bible these days is because some idiot did something reckless which caused damage to other people's life or property, and now we all have to pay for it.
 
Best to let the facts be known before...
tajuvu6y.jpg
 
Sorry wreck there. I guessed it was a 400 hour pilot before reading the rest of the thread. Suicide?
 
Does anyone actually know exactly what he did besides a few low passes and what looked like a tight turn to impact?

I mean I heard the concerned citizens take on it.
 
The Aerostar is the best machine I ever flew. You feel like you are in a Lear, you sense a comunion with the machine right away. It's a pilot's airplane.

Nevertheless, it's still an airplane, and it's limitations are written in the placard. Never go against the placard. Not saying he violated the placard nor he was performing stunts, but that was a pretty strange circuit pattern.
 
ArcherII said:
The Aerostar is the best machine I ever flew. You feel like you are in a Lear, you sense a comunion with the machine right away. It's a pilot's airplane.

Nevertheless, it's still an airplane, and it's limitations are written in the placard. Never go against the placard. Not saying he violated the placard nor he was performing stunts, but that was a pretty strange circuit pattern.
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And it's FAST... for a piston twin. I mean it'll outrun a King Air 90 on 1/4 the fuel.
 
z987k said:
And it's FAST... for a piston twin. I mean it'll outrun a King Air 90 on 1/4 the fuel.
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I flew a Metro II for 2 years. The AEST has the same performance in a smaller package.

It was nice the other day doing 250kt across the ground.
 
ChasenSFO said:
Yikes...the fact he's a 121 pilot for a major LCC kind of surprises me the way he was flying that thing around so low with no margin for error.
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Honestly, I'm more surprised at the way some folks revere 121 pilots (and many other types of pilots, too...) as if they were the Infallible Pillar Of Airmanship.

As @mshunter sort of implied with his post, everyone who operates and aircraft is susceptible to poor judgment or bad decisionmaking at any given time. Many times it is the "best" or "most experienced" pilots who make some of the poorest aeronautical decisions, even if they aren't generally rogue or reckless pilots in general.

Here's a good read that isn't directly related to the crash in the OP, but has some interesting parallels; here were two experienced, respected USAF instructor pilots (both from a cargo background, and one a JetBlue pilot) who, during the course of one cross-country trip, intentionally broke numerous rules and flew the airplane beyond it's limits, resulting in the airplane's destruction and their deaths:

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/1690403/
 
Hacker15e said:
Honestly, I'm more surprised at the way some folks revere 121 pilots (and many other types of pilots, too...) as if they were the Infallible Pillar Of Airmanship.

As @mshunter sort of implied with his post, everyone who operates and aircraft is susceptible to poor judgment or bad decisionmaking at any given time. Many times it is the "best" or "most experienced" pilots who make some of the poorest aeronautical decisions, even if they aren't generally rogue or reckless pilots in general.

Here's a good read that isn't directly related to the crash in the OP, but has some interesting parallels; here were two experienced, respected USAF instructor pilots (both from a cargo background, and one a JetBlue pilot) who, during the course of one cross-country trip, intentionally broke numerous rules and flew the airplane beyond it's limits, resulting in the airplane's destruction and their deaths:
Click to expand...

A Delta Air Lines pilot who was also an AF Reservist with the 457th FS morted himself in 2000 during an F-16 cross country from HIF to NFW, when he decided to do a low pass and low-level loop over the in-laws farm near Tulia, TX; crashing into the farmhouse at the bottom side of the loop, with the family watching.
 
I've been around a few Aerostars, a very unique aircraft.

Rule number one: When taxing with the window open NEVER stick your arm out and wave.

1495845.jpg
 
Hacker15e said:
Honestly, I'm more surprised at the way some folks revere 121 pilots (and many other types of pilots, too...) as if they were the Infallible Pillar Of Airmanship.

As @mshunter sort of implied with his post, everyone who operates and aircraft is susceptible to poor judgment or bad decisionmaking at any given time. Many times it is the "best" or "most experienced" pilots who make some of the poorest aeronautical decisions, even if they aren't generally rogue or reckless pilots in general.

Here's a good read that isn't directly related to the crash in the OP, but has some interesting parallels; here were two experienced, respected USAF instructor pilots (both from a cargo background, and one a JetBlue pilot) who, during the course of one cross-country trip, intentionally broke numerous rules and flew the airplane beyond it's limits, resulting in the airplane's destruction and their deaths:

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/1690403/
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Very interesting read. I can only imagine how their friend must feel having known the flight was illegal and not trying to stop them.
 
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