Page 14 - Twin and Turbine June 2017
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The Long
Tentacles of
by Archie Trammell
The flight was Fort Lauderdale to Reading, Penn., with two passengers. It should have been routine, with just the usual shoreline thunderstorms common to Florida’s east coast. The aircraft was a hybrid: a Beech Duke converted to a pair of
P&WC PT6A- 21 turbines. The pilot had almost 1,600 total hours with about 270 in the converted Beech.
As the flight proceeded north along the Florida shore, it was CAVU inland, but there was a thunderstorm ahead at Orlando with a small CB about 10 miles to its southwest. This was displayed on the pilot’s radar and noted. With a 10-mile gap between the two, the pilot thought there was no reason to deviate west; just shoot the gap and continue.
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