INCIDENT REPORT

 

PILOT:

Ron Blehm

DATE:

February 23, 2003

LOCATION:

Meigs Field

 

AIRCRAFT:

Piper Meridian

WEATHER:  

High overcast, Visibility 40 miles +, Cold, Light NE Breeze

 



Occurrence Brief

Location:                          Meigs Field, Chicago
Date:                                February 23, 2003
Highest injury level:           Do you really want to know?

Aircraft Manufacturer:        Piper
Aircraft Model:                  Meridian
Reg :                               

Type of  operation:            Private – Pilot/Aircraft familiarization
Airline:                            
Damage to aircraft:            Total and Complete Loss!
Departure point:                 Meigs Field, Chicago
Departure time:                 
Destination:                      Madison, WI
Pilot in Command:             Ron Blehm
Class of licence:                FS 2002
Hours on type:                   ‘bout 23 seconds

Pilot's statement:

***I have tried to reproduce this blunder a dozen times, in secret of course, but never with the same, dramatic effect as the first time.  The picture shown is merely a REPRESENTATION of what really happened***

 

This is what happens when you have too many cockpit windows open on an aging computer!  I wanted to check out this brand new, sporty GA plane. It was sold as having a great Garmin500 GPS and active Weather Radar – I had to see BOTH of them at once!

           

I had just a few minutes and wanted to check out this new toy.  The kids were dancing around to one of their music CDs and seemed happy so I loaded up some weather, shot myself over the Meigs, shoved the throttles in and….these big, sporty engines have a little P-factor!  I compensated late and a bit too vigorously….then I over-compensated….then I tried to take off….then I clipped a wing….I made it through 750 feet twisting and spiraling and gyrating around, then spun and rolled out over the lake and splashed down in a cloud of smoke and flames.

 

Additional notes of interest:  I had a patient who was a “sales pilot” for the Boeing 777-200.  His job was to take the House Colors 777 all over the world and sell it to prospective customers.  (Tough job huh?)  He was also an FS2000 simmer and told me that before he got on Boeing’s 777 full-scale Simulator, he had to spend a couple hundred hours on a computer sim, which was eerily like FS2k (interesting that both companies are in Seattle???)  Whereas FS2000 came on 2 CDs, Boeing sent him 30 CDs of 777 simulation to run through.  One of the drills he had to “pass” was when a wing comes off! (Like that could ever happen to a real 777 – he said that after the 20G’s ripped off the wing there wouldn’t be any pilots alive to fly the thing, but….) the goal of the drill was to get your intact wing down and “fly” the thing like a ship with a giant keel/rudder.  (Any real pilots have input on this?)

           

I knew that right before I was staring into the tarmac there had been a noise off my left wing but, I really didn’t have time to analyze all of the what-if’s.  My brain did not go, “Okay, put the right wing down, use the rudder to gain altitude, steer this way and that….”  The thought process was more along the lines of “C***, What the ****?  Oh ****!  AAAAAARRRRRRRGH”.