Yet another bizarre story

bob loblaw said:
Man, I do feel for the guy.
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I don't.

Seriously, running out of fuel? I've never understood how a pilot can let that happen. That's a pretty big mistake. So he got there to begin with because of a serious pilot error.

Then he tried to takeoff in an area that was either (A) obviously too narrow for an aircraft of that size, or else (B) he overestimated his precision as a pilot and didn't maintain adequate control.

Either way, it's his fault. It sucks that he wrecked his plane, but it sounds like it was something that was going to happen to him sooner or later.
 
jrh said:
I don't.

Seriously, running out of fuel? I've never understood how a pilot can let that happen. That's a pretty big mistake. So he got there to begin with because of a serious pilot error.

Then he tried to takeoff in an area that was either (A) obviously too narrow for an aircraft of that size, or else (B) he overestimated his precision as a pilot and didn't maintain adequate control.

Either way, it's his fault. It sucks that he wrecked his plane, but it sounds like it was something that was going to happen to him sooner or later.
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Do you know the man? If you don't know him, how can you say that sooner or later he was going to wreck his plane. I hope you don't think that he woke up yesterday and said, " you know, today looks like a good enough day to run out of gas and make an emergency landing on a road. I will land on the road and wait until the next day and put some gas into the plane and hit a truck while trying to take-off from the road. " " yep, sure looks like a good enough day to do that. Well I better get started, I gotta run this plane dry and put it down on a road."
 
Timbuff10 said:
So where is the video of this bozo trying to make his exit?

Article said the cameras were rolling...
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Google this TV station WAFB-TV and you will see video of the accident.
 
jrh said:
I don't.

Seriously, running out of fuel? I've never understood how a pilot can let that happen. That's a pretty big mistake. So he got there to begin with because of a serious pilot error.
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I got pretty darned close flying back from ABQ to PRC one evening.

I was too muddled in minutia trying to figure out why my figures weren't matching up enough to realize that I didn't plan for the unexpected winds, passed over several suitable airports and watched the fueler put about 48 gallons into a 50 gallon C-172Q fuel tank after landing in PRC.
 
jrh said:
I don't.
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Me neither.

Runing out of fuel = poor judgment

+

Trying to take off a C-210 from a city street = poor judgement

+

Poor ability to controll the airplane = Trashed airplane



I feel sorry for the poor airplane.



I won't tempt the flying gods by saying that I could never run out of fuel, but I will definately say that I wouldn't attempt a stunt like takeing off on a city street with vehicles on both sides. Removing the wings isn't a small job by any means, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than a new airplane.

If you wanted to try to fly it out, then tow it to a straight, wide open road, make sure you have plenty of experiance flying out of confined areas, then really think long and hard.
 
He played that one kind of weird....I don't think there should have been any problem getting the aircraft out of there, but something like that would take some thinking ahead ya know?
However...poor airplane....:(
 
bob loblaw said:
Do you know the man? If you don't know him, how can you say that sooner or later he was going to wreck his plane.
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No, I don't know the man. And I never said he woke up planning to wreck his plane.

I said that it would happen sooner or later because I can can see he consistently made poor decisions. Running out of fuel is bad enough. Then he decided to take off from a road that obviously was not clear. To me, the first decision could have been a one time lapse in judgement. The second decision indicates he isn't quite up to snuff.

After watching the video...I don't know what he was thinking. Taxiing that close to another vehicle makes me nervous, yet he decided to do a takeoff next to them. "I didn't think I was that close,"? Come on...we're talking about a city street here. How far away could he have thought he was?
 
Doug Taylor said:
I was too muddled in minutia trying to figure out why my figures weren't matching up enough to realize that I didn't plan for the unexpected winds, passed over several suitable airports and watched the fueler put about 48 gallons into a 50 gallon C-172Q fuel tank after landing in PRC.
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How much experience did you have at the time? Not to say I'd completely excuse a fuel exhaustion incident by a low time private pilot, but it's at least a little more understandable. By the time somebody has enough experience to get into a C-210, I'd expect them to have fairly strong situational awareness.

Fuel management is pretty simple. Write down the time you took off at. If you have a 4 hour range, and you're still in the air 3 hours and 30 minutes later, you better start heading for the nearest airport now.
 
I am freaking PARANOID about fuel. Thank god I don't fly jets because I'd burn more fuel tankering what I don't need than I could generate in rev.
 
I feel no simpathy for this man. He did demonstrate superior airmanship by landing on a road without breaking anything, but he did not demonstrate superior decision making.

In life and flying, its all about the quality of decisions you make. Crappy decisions = a crappy outcome. This guy seems to have made a hasty/poor choice to takeoff.

Warning arm chair quarterbacking; if for some strange reason I found myself with an airplane on a road, I would have walked the entire length of the estimated takeoff roll measuring clearances from fun things like signs, trucks, emergency vehicles and the like. On his initial roll it looks like he could have been 5 feet closer to the divider of the road.

I bet his insurance company LOVES him right now.
 
According to the video, the airplane spent the night on the road. The next day, they tried to get the plane on a roll back but the plane's wheels wouldn't fit on the truck. The pilot put gas in the plane and got permission from someone, ( I don't know who ) to take-off from the road. The pilot was faced with the decision of either taking the wings off and putting the plane on a truck, or try to fly it out.

Before being too harsh on someone who made some obvious mistakes, lets look at some of the thought process that humans go through when something like this happens. Running out of fuel is bad, I don't care who you are, there is no excuse for exceeding the endurance of the aircraft. Since running out of fuel does show bad judgement, the pilot probably knew that the FAA was going to have a talk with him for exhausting his fuel and landing on a road. Fines or suspension can result, so the pilot is thinking about this. The pilot tried the easiest method of removing the plane which was to put it on a roll back and carry it the three miles to the airport. The airplane wouldn't fit on the truck.

The next thought is taking the wings off the plane and putting it on a truck. This will take a lot of time, a lot of expense, and more scrutiny. The solution the pilot comes up with is the least to likely cause additional scrutiny if the take-off is successful, and deal with the FAA with the airplane sitting on the ramp wings still attached, no harm.

I am not saying that I agree with his thought process, I am saying that I understand his thought process. As I said, I feel for the guy.
 
I DO NOTwant to share the skies with people that do things like this . . .

Do you wanna know why the insurance companies are so hard on us?
 
jrh said:
How much experience did you have at the time? Not to say I'd completely excuse a fuel exhaustion incident by a low time private pilot, but it's at least a little more understandable. By the time somebody has enough experience to get into a C-210, I'd expect them to have fairly strong situational awareness.

Fuel management is pretty simple. Write down the time you took off at. If you have a 4 hour range, and you're still in the air 3 hours and 30 minutes later, you better start heading for the nearest airport now.
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Why is it understandable that a low time private pilot runs out of fuel? As student pilots, we are taught from day one that the airplane's engine will stop running if we fly the airplane beyond its endurance. As they say, I am not flaming you, but you seem to be back pedalling some since Doug announced that he almost ran out of fuel.
 
jrh said:
......
Fuel management is pretty simple. Write down the time you took off at. If you have a 4 hour range, and you're still in the air 3 hours and 30 minutes later, you better start heading for the nearest airport now.
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It is not that simple. If you have a 4 hour range and you figure that with No-Wind, what happens when you encounter a strong headwind? That 4 hours will not be 3.5 hours, it will be less.
 
bob loblaw said:
Why is it understandable that a low time private pilot runs out of fuel? As student pilots, we are taught from day one that the airplane's engine will stop running if we fly the airplane beyond its endurance. As they say, I am not flaming you, but you seem to be back pedalling some since Doug announced that he almost ran out of fuel.
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It's understandable because inexperienced pilots get overwhelmed and distracted easier than experienced pilots do. I never said it was acceptable, I just said that I can understand better how it could happen. Doug mentioned getting caught up in the minutia of flight planning and therefore he didn't see the big picture of just how long he had been in the air. I can picture a young pilot making a mistake like that.

Nobody plans to run out of fuel. It usually happens because the pilot is preoccupied with something. Inexperienced pilots are more prone to becoming preoccupied. That's all I'm saying.
 
JEP said:
It is not that simple. If you have a 4 hour range and you figure that with No-Wind, what happens when you encounter a strong headwind? That 4 hours will not be 3.5 hours, it will be less.
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You won't go as far over the ground with a headwind, but you'll stay in the air the same amount of time. If have a 4 hour range you'll still fly for 4 hours before the engine stops, but you might only cover 300 miles instead of 400. That was the point of my original message.

Since fuel is based on time, not distance, if a pilot has been in the air close to their fuel exhaustion limit, they better be getting on the ground now. If that means landing at an airport other than their intended destination, so be it. That's one of the reasons why we teach diversions. Running out of fuel trying to make a planned destination is not an option.
 
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