Backcountry Pilot

[Zzz]

Another cable/wire strike while flying low along a river...similar to this one.

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If any of you have read "Flying the Mountains," the pilot of this aircraft was the author, Fletcher Anderson. I really liked his writing style and respected the guy and his incredible experience. -Zane

CAP Blog story

Casper Star Tribune - Nov 19. 2005
JACKSON -- An experienced Jackson pilot died Friday after his small plane apparently clipped a river gauging wire in the Snake River Canyon, flipping the plane and causing it to crash into the river.

Fletcher F. Anderson, 57, died on impact when his Cessna 182R hit the thick cable, which is strung between trees low on the river to gauge river height. Anderson was flying the plane close to the water through the canyon on his way from Jackson to Afton. The plane went down near Wolf Creek, about 10 miles north of Alpine.

Anderson was the sole occupant of the four-seat aircraft.

The crash happened at 8:55 a.m. An officer from the Wyoming Highway Patrol was on a routine traffic stop in the area when he heard a "strange sound" coming from the river canyon, according to Lt. Tom Kelly, division supervisor of the patrol.

The sound of the plane flying through the canyon "caught his attention," Kelly said, and he "went over (to the canyon side of the highway) because it sounded unusual, and he found what he didn't want to find."

Anderson's plane was about 200 yards downstream from the wire, upside-down in the river. The wing was 100 yards upstream from the main cabin.

Rescuers said Anderson died on impact. Officials did not know why he was flying low in the canyon.

Anderson was a member of the Civil Air Patrol and was flying to Afton to pick up Doug Henry, also of the CAP and a member of Star Valley Search and Rescue, for a training flight.

"He was a very experienced pilot and a very good flight instructor," Henry said. "It's a huge loss to the Civil Air Patrol and the Jackson squadron."

Responders to the crash included the Star Valley and Teton County search and rescue squads, Lincoln County and Teton County sheriff's offices, the Alpine EMS, and the U.S. Forest Service.

The Forest Service closed boat ramps in the area as the National Transportation Safety Board ordered the wreckage to remain in the river pending investigation. The plane was tethered to a tree in the canyon, and was blocking much of the river channel.

Anderson was an experienced river runner, having written a book about rivers in the Southwest and Colorado. He also wrote "Flying the Mountains," a training and safety guide about flying single-engine aircrafts in mountainous regions. He was a flight instructor and worked as a corporate and charter pilot.

Anderson was a senior member of the Wyoming CAP Wing's Teton Composite Squadron. The Wyoming Wing has 15 squads, headquartered in Cheyenne, with more than 300 volunteer members.

The CAP is the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force and conducts search and rescue operations and aerospace education, among other duties.

And the NTSB report:

NTSB Identification: DEN06GA017
14 CFR Public Use
Accident occurred Friday, November 18, 2005 in Alpine, WY
Aircraft: Cessna 182R, registration: N9928H
Injuries: 1 Fatal.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.

On November 18, 2003, at 0900 mountain standard time, a Cessna 182R, N9928H, registered to and operated by the Civil Air Patrol as CAP 4928 and piloted by a commercial pilot, was destroyed when it struck a steel cable and impacted the Snake River approximately 6 miles north of Alpine, Wyoming. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The public use business flight was being conducted under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 without a flight plan. The pilot was fatally injured. The flight originated at Jackson (JAC), Wyoming, at 0843.

Preliminary information indicates the pilot was en route to Afton (AFO), Wyoming, where he was to administer a checkride to another CAP member.

A Wyoming state trooper had made a traffic stop on U.S. 26, at Mile Post 125. While he wrote the ticket, the violator saw the airplane fly past her position in the Grand Canyon of the Snake River. She told the trooper what she had seen and said that the airplane was below the highway and below the treetops. Shortly thereafter, the trooper located the inverted airplane submerged in the river.

[hotrod180 offline]

Not to speak ill of the dead, but this looks like one of those things that's really cool and fun to do-- until it goes wrong. Report said VFR conditions, so scud-running between the trees is out. Apparently he was a very experienced mountain pilot. Unless he was in the process of shooting a gravel bar landing or something, I'd call it a fatal lapse in judgement. Bummer.

Eric

[punkin170b offline]

Mr. Anderson was a UBCP member and had contributed this article to our newsletter fairly recently: http://www.utahbackcountrypilots.org/ne ... b_2004.pdf
We've all done things which we might look back upon as being "sporting". I lost an uncle to powerlines back in the early 90s. The only good that comes from it is that maybe the rest of us will be a little more aware. I am...
Matt

[hotrod180 offline]

Like you said, Matt, tragedies like this do (or should!) at least serve as a wake-up call for the rest of us. I've done plenty of "sporty" (aka dumb) stuff myself, just lucky that none of it turned out like this.

Eric

[speedbump offline]

I wonder how many times he flew that strech of river before the wire got him? Does anybody know if the wire would've been submerged most of the time.
I have but one wire story. When I was flying Grand Canyon tours we would have two empty legs every day. (An unavoidable consequence of shuttling folks back and forth.) Anyway, we were flying Beech-99's which empty were pretty good performers. It was almost customary to come home low level. We had a lot of former fighter guy's who'd kind of show you the ropes of flying low and fast. They taught me to use peripheral vision to pick out fence posts and telephone poles, cause you'll never see the wires in time. One of our guy's didn't pay attention to that lesson and flew through a telephone line at around 200kts. The wire managed to miss the cockpit by a couple of inches, but got one prop, the vertical stab, and part of the horizontal stab. Incredibly, the engine kept running and the wire snapped, and he got the plane home. I was told that the plane pulled down several telephone poles. (Although I'm sure dry rot in the poles helped.) It was quite a mess.
I still love to fly low. If you take the time to check an area out, and gradually work your way down it's really fun. Making it up as you go is just foolish.

[Zzz]

Jeff,

I agree. My only low flying has been in an ultralight, which gives you a little extra time to react because of the low speeds. Where I learned to fly, in the Illinois Valley of So.Oregon, there is a stretch of Illinois River that is probably 80-100 feet wide, and has trees 50-60 feet high along the banks. My instructor, when she felt her student was ready, would take us over there and have us fly below tree level for about 2 miles down the river. She knew exactly where the wires were, which we went UNDER. I was concerned shitless, but thrilled at the same time and I will never forget it.

Looking back, it was foolish. Thrilling, but foolish. In an ultralight at 40 mph you would probably survive a mishap over water at low level, but the risk of losing the airplane and possibly getting really busted up is just not worth it. It also shows the disparity between the mentality of some of the ultralight community and that of general aviation. Probably not a worthwhile comparison, there are those willing to risk it in every group.

I am just disappointed that this accident befell someone of Anderson's stature in the flying community. Guys like this, whose books I've read and teachings taken to heart, seem like they should never have a misstep. I like to think that he would not have been doing this had he been carrying a passenger.

Matt-

I read that article on UBCP that Fletcher wrote prior to finding this out. Some good tips in there. What a shame.

Zane

[retired user offline]

I don't know about my fellow pilots but I will usually read about an aviation accident and think that A: He died doing what he loved. B: He had a lot of time flying some pretty hazardous hops and the odds finally caught up with him. Sometimes B: can vary but it is usually a justification as to why it isn't going to happen to me. (If I can't come up with a good B: ,,, well there is always A ) That having been said, a lot of pilots have a hard time acknowledging accidents and their underlying causes (myself included) as it makes us aware of our inevitable frailty. Sometimes we have to swallow hard and examine the accident or face the possibilty of repeating the errors and subjecting ourselves to the same fate. Ignoring the plight of a fallen comrade would be a disservice to his memory. Honor him by not letting yourself make the same mistake(s). In this way we can remember him and let his unique expertise fly on.

As far as wires/cables go, the hackles should go up on your neck anytime you see a tower or pole at anything near your altittude. Wires are one of the most unnerving things I can think of and I am extremely happy anytime I can put them behind me.

[YELLOWMAULE offline]

Jr.: hear hear!
Fletcher was a friend of a friend. Never met or spoke with him but read his book and followed a lot of his advice.
That being said, I also try to learn from the NTSB reports. I just wish it was not from the same source. Fletch was a great pilot but we all make mistakes, hopefully not for the same reasons. I wish to learn from all the mistakes I hear about instead of making the same ones. I am sure the mistakes that I have made are not new and the ones that I have not made yet are also nothing new. I just hope to keep it safe.
Last flight for Mr. Anderson, let's learn for what he had to offer and offer our best to his family and friends.
Caber Feidh

[hotrod180 offline]

Kurt, what the heck does Caber Feidh mean?
Reading these posts, a famous quote comes to mind (don't know who coined the phrase): he who does not learn from the past is doomed to repeat it. But like others pointed out,another famous quote also applies: shit happens. (I think a t-shirt that sez "shit happens-but why does it always happen to me?" would probably sell very well)
Every couple years, I hear reports of a wire strike, usually along some local river (like the Skagit), and usually it's a helicopter. Don't know if those cable cutters work very well or not, but it seems like only the big boys (JetRangers on up) have them, not the little piston powered choppers.
Those wires are sure something to think about, especially if you're gonna be landing on river bars-- that usually involves low-level approaches along the river. Lots of the smaller wires aren't marked. I can think of one place on the Sauk River southeast of Concrete where a major powerline crosses a canyon, quite high off the river, and there's only one or two little hard-to-see balls to mark the lines. It'd be real easy to hit them if you were flying low along the river there,planning a landing or just enjoying the thrill of it.

Eric

[Jon B. offline]

zane:

I like that: "I was concerned shitless". May I use it sometime?

I was just that a while ago in northern Minnesota - low clouds, rain and tall trees. We missed all the towers and stayed above all the regular power lines, though. The big transmission lines had us "concerned shitless" but none appeared in our path.

A friend bought a Champ after the former owner drove it through some lines crossing a small bay on a lake. The guy had landed there many times (on the ice with skis) but, for one reason or another, that day, he drove right through them. He dinged the Champ but lived to tell about it. His biggest mistake was landing, looking at the plane, then flying it back home. It was pretty banged up and should have stayed on the lake. The feds were *not* impressed.

Jon B.

[retired user offline]

As long as we're talkin' near misses. (Which is of course a misnomer because that would be you hit something) My IFR training was done twenty years ago with one of the brightest young (he was young then, even though he was older than me, I was really young) instructors I have ever known. He told me a story that gave me chills. He was IFR, solid just before sunrise somewhere in So. Cal. He had missed an approach and had asked for vectors to his alternate hoping he would find a hole or sunrise would provide him some improved visability. He was given a vector and an altitude toward his alternate and at that point the controller got busy working some other traffic. Just about the time the controller frantically called to turn him away from some higher terrain he swore he saw a tree flash by one side of the plane in the foggy half light just before dawn. Once on the ground at his alternate he looked over a sectional and sure enough there was a small knob of a hill that could of easily been the near miss tree he saw earlier. He said he was too scared to fly back that direction on depature because he knew what he would see. BTW, Dan flys freight for Fed-X last I heard...

[Stol offline]

This was a series of real dumb mistakes...... he should have known better...

[lowflyinG3 offline]

A few humble comments on a few comments above. First the background from which I make my observations; 13,300 total and 9,200 hrs. ag time with 2 wire strikes in that 9,200. Luckily neither of the wire strikes actually brought me down (crashed) thanks to the fact that ag aircraft have "defensive" devices that did their jobs and protected me in my time of "head up ass". I also had the benefit of energy being that I had a fairly heavy load on (gross weights of 7,000 and 14,000 pounds respectively)and was in excess of 165 m.p.h. at the time of the actual hits. One wire I had never seen when I hit it and actually did not know I had hit it until a few hours later when the farmer called. The second wire I had seen and knew it's location during my scouting circle of the field but allowed myself to be sucked into a visual depth perception error while being over-multi-tasked on my 10th pass of the field. Now on this one I saw it just before the strike and had absolutely no doubt that I had hit it! Unfortunately unlike the first one this did more damage to the airframe and being a Garrett turbine had to be torn down and cost the operator about $50,000. The worst day of my flying career to date. Another interesting fact is that I have gone under wires many many tmes while working and never hit one then. I believe due to total focus when you are sure your life could be in jeopardy but even doing that I have caught myself getting complacent after a few months of flying the same field and going under the same wire over and over.
My observations are; although "shit just happens" you create your own luck by the decisions you make while flying and the path those decisions take you down. Also as a third generation pilot/skydiver and second generation ag pilot I have in my 32 short years watched my parents cry at funerals of family friends and have since cried myself at my friends funerals due to flying/skydiving accidents (both arenas are high speed and final). After the funerals when everyone gathers to drink and share stories of the newly deceased I always hear how good he/she was at flying/jumping. But evidently not good enough to avert whatever killed them. Now short of a wing coming off, most accidents can be attributed to the pilot (and in some Piper Malibu cases it was the pilot that made it come off). My point being that you never hear of that lucky bastard dying, he always makes it, it's that "good" pilot that always gets it. So if you have a choice between good and lucky, choose lucky because there is a time in all of our aviation careers no matter how "good" we are (especially operating in non-standard environments) when we will have "skill at the stops" and all that will save us is luck. Just make sure you make good decisions and create good luck for yourself. I also don't personally care to be killed "doing what I love", I also love sleeping and chances are I'm not going to be torn to shreds or have my bones broken, or feel my whole body burning (albeit briefly) if I die in my sleep. Also my wife will get the added benefit of selling the plane if I die in my sleep (she'll get more money that way, I'm under-insured!).
A couple of observations for people plane pilots on this wire thing; if it's not neccessary for the operation don't be down there, just don't do it. Even if you flew it a few weeks, months, etc. ago overfly it again first. Things change fast in our world today, a house can go up in a few months and it needs power. Now since most of us won't heed those warnings I'll tell you ag-pilot tricks the feds won't. If you're going to fly low do it like a man, LOW. The reason I say this is that if most guys didn't pussy foot around and just get kinda low they would go under most wires and not even know it. Basically fly at 500' agl or 5'agl, no in between. If you get to a wire that has balls be cautious because they may have balls on the actually power wires but not the static wires on the top. The danger here is that the static wires don't sag as much or follow the same profile as the power wires (this got a friend of mine in 2003) so if you sight the balls on the power wires and start your pull-up you may pull-up right into the static wires. This is especially dangerous anywhere they cross a canyon, etc. and go especially far in between derricks. Try to set yourself up with the sun at your back, it's easier to see the wire that way. Try to set yourself up with no mtns., etc. in the background of your view (hard out west) wires will show up against the sky. Another reason to be down low, you have to be low to have the sky as the background for the wire. When you see the wire immediately follow it until you see a derrick/pole because you can never get accurate depth perception from a wire. If you didn't do all of the above and a wire strike is imminent LEVEL THE WINGS,POWER UP AND PULL OR PUSH so the PROP CUTS THE WIRE, ie. take it like a man. You will probably not survive in a light plane (maybe slow) if you allow an extremity to take the wire ie. gear leg, wing , etc. None of this applies if it is a steel high tension wire, unless you actually get hung up in them (it has happened!) you will die period. Even most ag planes don't make it through them. If you fly out here in the west look out for the Meso-west weather towers. They are 125' or less very small, with guy wires, not painted or lighted, and out in the middle of nowhere following on rhyme or reason BE AWARE OF THESE IN IDAHO! One almost got me this year and it went up in FOUR DAYS!!!
The bottom line is that you can be any kind of great pilot but if you don't have formal training in low level operations and are operating in a familiar environment, and are current with low level ops DON'T BE THERE!

[DFXXX offline]

Being a former Jackson Hole resident, I know exactly where this occurred. The Snake River Canyon south of Jackson is fairly narrow, especially at the crash site. The cable he hit was part of a small gauging station consisting of a small 1-man "trolly" on a cable.

The cable is about 20ft. over the water. 20 feet!!!!!!!

The river at this point flows E to W. N riverbank is lined with tall pine trees while the S is the edge of one side of the canyon. the Snake is about 150ft.-200ft. wide at that point.

I've floated this streach of river fishing and whitewater rafting dozens and dozens of times. I can't imagine any practical reason for flying that low through that canyon. Conditions were VFR so he wasn't forced down into it by clouds.

[lowflyinG3 offline]

Exactly.
You can see though as I stated before ,if he was actually low, he'd have made it. 20 feet is plenty of room to get a 182 under as long as you are no higher than five feet. However, there is no reason to be there in a 182 flying VFR on a ferry flight.

[YELLOWMAULE offline]

Eric, Caber Feidh is a Galic salute.
We all will and have made mistakes. It's part of our curse, mankind that is. We, (all of us here) by our very intrests, push ourselves a little further than the general public and sometimes, well, it doesn't work out the way we had in mind. The way I see it, we plan our moves, take calculated chances and hopefully weigh the odds ahead of time. Life is about learning, the edge of the envelope and playing around it.
Live, fly and love it.

[Desert Rat offline]

Near where I live there is a cable across a canyon. It is about 500' above the floor of the canyon and about 2000' long. The cable is 7/8". There is no way to see it from the air. I will see if I can get a pix. the next time I am in the area (on foot).

[Strata Rocketeer offline]

Is that cable you're describing on the charts? What is it, an abandoned logging tramway?

[a64pilot offline]

Just been reading, haven't posted before, thought I may have something to add.
Retired Military helicopter pilot, what we did as we flew "nap of the earth" all of the time was to have a wire hazard map on board where wires were clearly marked. Always do a recon flight before getting on the deck. Wires can/do appear overnight. ALL ROADS HAVE WIRES. Don't look for wires, you won't see them, look for poles to the left or right of the flight path. Look for poles on the crests of hills, be wary when the poles "disappear". If you aren't real sure where you are climb and reorient yourself before descending again. I would bet due to his experience and apparent farmiliarity with the local area this pilot knew that wire was there, but he wasn't exactly where he thought he was.

[Wes offline]

The cable he hit was part of a small gauging station consisting of a small 1-man "trolly" on a cable.

The cable is about 20ft. over the water. 20 feet!!!!!!!

These cables are on A LOT of rivers.
Mr. Anderson, being a longtime river runner, knew that. It is a lesson that we should all remember and learn from.