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The First Few Minutes
by Thomas P. Turner
You don’t know for certain how well you or the airplane will perform until you’ve already committed yourself to flight. You have to bring your A game to even the first few minutes.
From an NTSB final report:
The pilot and two passengers depart- ed in the multi-engine airplane from a controlled airport under night, marginal visual f light rules conditions. Radar showed the airplane climb to about 2,200 feet mean sea level (MSL). When the airplane was about three nautical miles (nm) from the airport, it began a descending left turn, followed by a right turn, losing about 700 feet of altitude during this time.
The airplane then began a climbing left turn. The left turn continued while its radius decreased until the end of the recorded data. During the final left turn, the airplane initially climbed about 400 feet, descended about 400 feet, and then climbed again about 1,300 feet before reaching its peak altitude of 2,800 feet
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MSL. The final recorded radar point was 0.1 nm from the accident site, and the calculated descent rate between the final two radar points was more than 5,000 feet per minute.
Postaccident examinations of the air- frame, engines, and propellers revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. The airplane’s avi- onics and instruments could not be functionally tested due to the extent of the impact damage.
The recorded weather conditions at the destination airport, located about six miles from the accident site, at the time of the accident included a broken ceiling at 1,000 feet above ground level (AGL), an overcast ceiling at 1,700 ft AGL, and visibility of six miles with
mist. The radar data indicated that the airplane penetrated the cloud layers during the accident flight. The pilot held the appropriate certificates and ratings for operation of the multiengine air- plane in instrument conditions but no clearance had been issued. The weather and light conditions at the time of the accident were conducive to the develop- ment of spatial disorientation. Further, the f lightpath, which was not consistent with the intended course; the airplane’s repeated climbs and descents; and the loss of airplane control and high-speed impact were consistent with the known effects of spatial disorientation. Based on this evidence, it is likely that the pilot experienced spatial disorientation after the airplane entered the clouds at night, which led to his failure to main- tain airplane control.