I moved this video link to the 'Safety' section and would like it to stay (even though there is no RV content).

I got a cold chill watching this....and think it serves an important safety lesson. Four brains and a 696 doesn't mean you're bulletproof if the decision to scud run has been made.
 
Last edited:
If they'd have had that 696 in "terrain" mode, it would have been blood red the whole time....just a reminder that if you don't configure the tools properly, they can't do a thing to help you. Of course, these guys look to be beyond help!

Paul
 
You can actually see the terrain warning popup in the corner of the screen on the 696... it's trying to get their attention, they just aren't looking! :eek:

mcb
 
Ironflight said:
If they'd have had that 696 in "terrain" mode, it would have been blood red the whole time....just a reminder that if you don't configure the tools properly, they can't do a thing to help you. Of course, these guys look to be beyond help!
Click to expand...

Two problems I could see, since I use a 696 and fly in mountainous areas. The terrain mode not being on, as you mentioned is problem #1. And while the the 696 still brings up a smaller terrain warning square, even when it's not in terrain mode............brings up the second problem. The 696 is too far away from the pilot for him to even notice. Perhaps the total "blood red" may have got his or someone else's attention. Of course mine is connected to my headphones. It would be screaming "terrain, terrain, pull up, pull up!!!"

P.S. --- landed in Sedona, Arizona the other day. Lot's of that blood red...:D

L.Adamson --- RV6A
 
Stupid

So you take your friends flying...you do some dumb stuff and almost kill everyone. Then, you post it all on youtube so the world can see how dumb you are too. Amazing.

I would just go home, have a drink and not say a word......to anyone ever...maybe call my CFI and dump a few bills on getting my skills back up to MINIMUMS. :eek:
 
Not sure if it's true, but if you read the comments, it appears the Feds might be looking at this, and rightfully so!
 
I suspect we are going to see more of this as more and more planes are equipped with synthetic vision capability. Only the results aren?t going to be so good.
 
I posted this on my Facebook account for my non VAF pilot friends to read...As you say the first STUPID mistake is doing it..the second is posting it on Youtube..I wouldn't be that hard for the FAA to track them down..unless they go kill themselves first..gee.

I'm not immune to dumb stuff either but this one almost defies belief

Frank
 
And this one...

RVnoob said:
if you read the comments on YouTube... someone wrote...
Click to expand...

....by the guy who posted the video.


"An FAA case is in progress. The only one with a license on this plane was the pilot.. the rest of us were there to film our friend in the L-39. "
 
Don Jones said:
....by the guy who posted the video.


"An FAA case is in progress. The only one with a license on this plane was the pilot.. the rest of us were there to film our friend in the L-39. "
Click to expand...

I would guess the pilot has some "splainin to do". ;)

The more pilots rely on new gizmos and forget what is between their ears, the more "statistics" we'll see.
 
Last edited:
I hope the FAA sits on his certificate for a few years for that one. What a complete idiot. That's why so many people are afraid of GA.
 
Remember there were TWO pilots who voluntarily went IMC on a VFR flight.

Both should have their tickets pulled, and additional fines for being stupid.

Here's your sign...
 
I was wondering where the Albatros was in the soup. My first thought was that we were about to see a near miss between the two aircraft ...

I wonder if the passengers will ever fly with those guys again?
 
Yeah, that just makes me mad.

Go get an instrument ticket. It just isn't as big a deal as a lot of people say. Especially when you have your own airplane to stay current with.
 
Far Side

This video reminds me of that old Far Side cartoon, "Say, what's a mountain goat doing up here in this cloud bank".

Paul Danclovic
Jamestown NC
RV-8A N181SB
 
Fancy avionics are great...

but they definitely don't replace common sense and safety. What an idiot. VFR into IMC, one of the leading killers of pilots and he did it anyway. He was only concerned with looking cool and confident in front of his buddies...he could care less about following the rules and looking out for their safety.:mad:
Why do Cirrus Design aircraft have such a high accident rate? My flight instructor told me, "they are so advanced that people forget stick and rudder and common sense." They fly their planes into conditions not suited for the plane or pilot and they crash, Cirrus gets sued, pays millions, and aviation looks bad. This type of behavior is BAD for all of us. I know the plane in question is not a Cirrus, its a Beechcraft. But say they did crash. The spouses and lawyers would have sued Beechcraft, Garmin, every manufacturer of every part on the plane, the Owner of the Albatross, etc, etc, etc. It costs everyone money (not to mention lives) and makes GA look bad. For a pilot stupid enough to fly VFR into IMC, have a brush with death and then post it on youtube, they should pull his ticket.
THERE ARE OLD PILOTS AND BOLD PILOTS BUT NO OLD BOLD PILOTS.

Think of others, fly safe.
 
No good

My guess is that that video will (or already has been) removed from You Tube for legal reasons. When I saw this last night, I got a chill as those people escaped death by maybe 5 or 10'? Grace of God.

(IMHO, the 'pilot' needs to find a new hobby and never fly again. Maybe something safe like painting as he has used up all of his 'luck'. And his 'friends' need to say goodbye to him forever, praise God, and realize how graced and 'lucky' they are. Simple as that. This is not something that any of us can laugh about.)
 
Similar stuff, different ending

A pilot friend died last June in a Bonanza: New pilot with lots of money, looking to buy a Bonanza, flew it into a building. This video reminds me that a lot of pilots do things to be cool, like fly into IMC and laugh about it, or get in over thier heads because they have the money to do it. I remember a P51 crash at camarillo a few years ago; another one with more money that sense.
I remember a saying from an ethics teacher that applies here, "Just because you can... doesn't mean its right".
The sadest part is that he almost took three others with him. Scary.

Johnny stick
RV10 wannabe
 
Everyday going to and from my office I pass a graveyard. Right next to the corner nearest to the road is five graves with the same day of death. Local guy got his license (barely) and got a Bonanza. On Thanksgiving day he started out with the family to visit his sister in Knoxville, TN. He was warned by a local instructor that it was pretty much IMC everywhere he wanted to go. He stated that he wanted to go up and just look around. Flight was launched into IMC and just west of Knoxville he augered in while scud running in the mountains. Now I think about that situation everyday as I pass them by. Soooooooo preventable. :(
 
aarvig said:
THERE ARE OLD PILOTS AND BOLD PILOTS BUT NO OLD BOLD PILOTS.
Click to expand...

Well, Chuck Yeager comes to mind as one of the exceptions to this rule. :D Actually, I would modify the axiom to read that "there are old pilots and dumb pilots, but no old AND dumb pilots"!

It has been said that flying is not inherently dangerous, but terribly unforgiving of mistakes and poor judgement. Clearly the incident in the video is an "over the top" example of both a mistake and poor judgement on the part of the pilot, and all of the occupants were extremely fortunate to have survived! Talk about a hairraising example of what NOT to do...:eek:
 
Last edited:
If I was a passenger in this situation I would beat the Sh_t out of the SOB and never talk to him again. PIC means being responsible for the passengers and the aircraft. Stupid people should walk, not fly!!
 
John, I think your on to something here...

OldTee said:
If I was a passenger in this situation I would beat the Sh_t out of the SOB and never talk to him again.
Click to expand...

I would have made sure that the pilot at least looked as damaged as the airplane.:mad:

Kent
 
N941WR said:
I suspect we are going to see more of this as more and more planes are equipped with synthetic vision capability. Only the results aren?t going to be so good.
Click to expand...

I'm really pro "sythetic vision". I've personally seen the results of too many mountain accidents as well as having studied far too many. This guy seems oblivious to what's actually ahead and to the side. Since rising mountain terrain can be somewhat decieving, especially with partial IMC conditions........... I suppose it will take synthetic vision to provide a better heads up of what's really there.

Yes, there probably will be more risk taking with SV, but it's probably better than all the reasons for flying into rising terrain that exist now.

L.Adamson --- RV6A
 
Larry,

Like you, "I'm really pro 'synthetic vision'." But it is kind of like air bags and antilock brakes in cars. Everyone thought they would be big life savors when they first came out. It turns out that the safer people felt, the more reckless they drove.

With SV, I'm afraid people will take bigger risks when flying and not only are you dependent on receiving a good position from all those satellites you are also dependent that the programmer who developed the SV put the mountains in the same place God did.

That is not to mention what happens to your GPS accuracy when you are in a valley and all of sudden you are down to two or three satellites. I?ve lost satellite reception up at 8500 feet with a clear view of the sky, I can only wonder what it would be like down in a valley. Maybe some of the guys out west who play in the valleys can tell me what happens to their GPS signals.
 
N941WR said:
Larry,

That is not to mention what happens to your GPS accuracy when you are in a valley and all of sudden you are down to two or three satellites. I?ve lost satellite reception up at 8500 feet with a clear view of the sky, I can only wonder what it would be like down in a valley. Maybe some of the guys out west who play in the valleys can tell me what happens to their GPS signals.
Click to expand...

I'd have to be in a real skinny valley to loose GPS reception --- I suppose. I say suppose, because I have not lost GPS reception for years. Maybe it's those good Garmins, and a decent antenna location! :)

However, I sure fly a lot in many mountain locations. Just last week, the Grand Canyon, Sedona Arizona, Lake Powell, Bryce Canyon, & Monument Valley.............as well as all the mountains between there & Salt Lake City.

L.Adamson --- RV6A
 
I am having trouble believing that anyone is stupid enough to do this,

&

Stupid enough to laugh about it afterwards,

&

Stupid enouggh to put he video on You tube afterwards.

No one can be that stupid. This video has to be a fake.
 
N395V said:
No one can be that stupid. This video has to be a fake.
Click to expand...

Maybe not. I suspect that the guy holding the video camera is not a pilot, and therefore may not fully realize the magnitude of the buffoonery foisted upon him and the other unsuspecting passengers, and how close he came to having a mountainside waypoint named after him (MORTT intersection.) He probably thinks of it as merely another adventurous experience to share with the world.

I think this is the phenomenon that accounts for 90% of similar YouTube videos. (You know, the ones that make you cringe and say, "Holy ____!" and then forward the video to your friends...)

Let us learn from the videos of the lucky. Like the guy in the back seat of the Bonanza.
 
N395V said:
I am having trouble believing that anyone is stupid enough to do this,
Click to expand...
You will never loose money betting on the stupidity of people. I'm very skeptical of Youtube videos, but this one looks genuine to me. I'm prepared to eat crow if I'm wrong.
 
Our Human Factors Motto

We have a motto in the Human Factors division of the Air Force Safety center.

"To Err is Human...Some are More Human Than Others"
 
What I don't get is why people are upset because that non-pilot passenger posted the footage on da 'net?

Look at the good lesson he has provided us. If that pilot loses his license and one person is saved because of that video, to me that is a very good tradeoff!
 
If you read through the comments on youtube, the original poster answers several questions. It kinda hard to sift through the hundreds of comments at this point though.

Here's some of the info I pulled out.

1) Tailnumber N65335

2) The only pilot on the airplane was sitting the left seat. The other passengers were simply along to shoot video of their friend in the L39.

3) After the big event, they returned to the departure airport (Van Nuys).

4) The laughter was described as 'nervous laughter'. He said they were pretty screwed up and couldn't really get a handle on their emotions to understand how to react. So giggling and laughter became their avenue for coping with the experience in the following moments.

5) There is a raw footage tape - that we haven't seen.

6) (I am reading between the lines on this one......) - I believe the video owner notified the FSDO and provided the raw footage of the event. But he is aware of an investigation being conducted by the FAA and I would assume that is where the raw footage exist.

I haven't read his responses today - just been too busy.
 
Well...

Just because this thread has RV related written all over it, I'm going to say this... we truely don't have any RV drivers that would ever assume this position that's for sure... I hope! Very... Very STUPID!!
 
Last edited:
Ya no, there's not really a lot to learn from the truly stupid. You learn from smart people making poor decisions in situations where you might find yourself making the same decisions, not from idiots doing things that no rational person would consider. Some village is missing its idiot.
 
Well stated Sir! Words of wisdom I say...



mikegraycmg said:
Ya no, there's not really a lot to learn from the truly stupid. You learn from smart people making poor decisions in situations where you might find yourself making the same decisions, not from idiots doing things that no rational person would consider. Some village is missing its idiot.
Click to expand...
 
how close is close?

I'm curious why we'd call this a near miss or close call ( with death I guess?)

this is impact with terrain, a hit .....not a miss. Just not solid enough to bring down a bonanza.
no injuries, great.
a lesson for some of us? Surely.
(Caution: some clouds may contain rocks.)

It would Never happen to me.
....well, no more than once, right?
 
flyboy1963 said:
I'm curious why we'd call this a near miss or close call ( with death I guess?)

this is impact with terrain, a hit .....not a miss. Just not solid enough to bring down a bonanza.
no injuries, great.
a lesson for some of us? Surely.
(Caution: some clouds may contain rocks.)

It would Never happen to me.
....well, no more than once, right?
Click to expand...

Tanya and I were just talking about that last night. This WAS Actual controlled flight into terrain.
 
When I was a green ag pilot....

....back in the early 70's, I drug an Agtruck wingtip in the soybeans one summer and darn near lost it. You'd be amazed at how little of a hit can go a long ways to your demise. I noticed the Bo yawing as it hit....totally asinine flight into IMC.

Yeah, the village idiot,
 
The lucky village idiot. Would that he had used that quota of luck (if there is such a thing) buying a Powerball ticket.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.