Bird Dog Crash Video - Density Altutude

[VictorBravo]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=316_1249535759

This is a tragic video that was found in the wreckage of a Bird Dog in Colorado 20 years ago and just released into the public domain.

The pilot continues into rising terrain at very high DA, and puts himself in a situation where there is not much performance left in the airplane to get him out of trouble.

He makes the one final fatal mistake by turning right toward the hills instead of left over the lower part of the valley, and goes through two incipient stalls before the third one puts him into the trees.

One notch of flaps might have saved his bacon. Turning left and having another 100 feet of ground clearance might have saved his bacon. Not getting into that situation in the first place... priceless!

Please share this video with anyone and everyone you can and practice your max.performance turnaround maneuvers... especially practice them at altitude when the airplane is at it's limits.

[Jim Hartley]

Re: Bird Dog Crash Video - Density Altutude

The "snow ball effect" ... A series of mistakes that add up to disaster.

This video is valuable for training and review. The law of INTENSITY!

Thanks for sharing, Bill

[mohawktipi]

Re: Bird Dog Crash Video - Density Altutude

Can 't rule out mountain wave effect in this situation. Wind coming over the ridge line would have a downward effect in the right turn causing loss of lift.

[VictorBravo]

Re: Bird Dog Crash Video - Density Altutude

I didn't get any feeling from this clip that wind had much to do with it. Mountain wave (& ridge soaring, downwash, orographic lift/sink, etc.) is something that I have plenty of experience with, this didn't seem like that was the issue here. If he had hit sink on the downwind side of a ridge, you would have seen the ridge line moving upward in the windshield.

It seemed to me that after all the previous mistakes, he just turned the wrong way, and when he saw how close that right turn put to the trees he made the turn tighter which is when he lost it. Turning the other way would have allowed him to make a much shallower bank, and he might have lived through it.

[M Jones]

Re: Bird Dog Crash Video - Density Altutude

Interesting but sad video Bill. Thanks for the link. I also didn't notice any real change in attitude based on the view in the wind screen, but based on the audio, the engine rpm seemed to drop off just before the stall warning horn kicked in. I would have expected to see an initial pitch up if the pilot had pulled up in that situation.

[LostnSpace]

Re: Bird Dog Crash Video - Density Altutude

With a density altitude of 13,000 feet, a guy wouldn't need to pull up to stall.with the angle of bank at what it was the stalling speed was exceeded, very sad, thank you Bill for taking the time to put that here, I have shown several students already, O.T.

[VictorBravo]

Re: Bird Dog Crash Video - Density Altutude

No, thank YOU for being an instructor and for caring enough about your students to show them this video... and thank YOU for (hopefully) teaching students far more than just the minimum the FAA mandates!!!!