Wow I wonder what happened. I wonder if if anyone has come forward with a missing persons report yet to identify the people on board. Gotta be a terrible feeling for those on the ground when you know someone is flying and they don't show up.

Sad news. I'm thankful for family and good friends. I received several text, FB messages, and phone calls making sure we are ok since that is where I learned to fly and my family still lives.

God speed.

I know people there also, even a 210 pilot, but it's not him. Big wide open place, hard to think what the problem could have been.

It was pretty windy and gusty that day and unsettled, probably nothing to a 210 but what I would consider bad air, in fact it was a very similar day back when the Mooney when in at Grace a few weeks earlier. Both days I thought to myself that it probably wasn't bad for a plane like theirs, but no thank you in a light bird like the S-7S, gusting over 30 with ugly looking skies.

Still not much information about this crash yet, 2 days after it happened. The photos that have been released by the press show a burned spot and some melted aluminum, not much else except a wingtip laying on the railraod tracks. They took off downwind with an 8 knot tailwind, temp was 89 deg with a density altitude of about 7000 ft., and a 4000 foot paved runway. That should have been OK for a C-210 with 4 people on board unless they had long range tanks and/or a lot of baggage. They may or may not have been airborn when they reached the end of the runway. Have to wait for the official NTSB report, but it might not say much.

Dale Moul wrote:....... They took off downwind with an 8 knot tailwind, temp was 89 deg with a density altitude of about 7000 ft., and a 4000 foot paved runway. That should have been OK for a C-210 with 4 people on board unless....

Even if it "should have been OK", why handicap yourself with a tailwind on takeoff esp if it's high & hot? I don't know the field or the situation so maybe there was a darn good reason but that didn't sound very smart to me.

I was thinking the same thing Hotrod. I have seen high DA bite hard on several occasions and been uncomfortably close on climbout with an anemic naturally aspirated piston engine in hot and high conditions.

It's speculation that this was the issue, but "should have been OK" does not imply decent margins with a fully loaded airplane.

That's a sad story.
But I can see a likely chain of little things. Kids have grown a lot, it's a long family trip so more luggage. Pilot from CA possibly not used to leaning as much as needed for 7000' DA. Going to Utah probably a decent amount of fuel on board. Tail wind and most all that feeling that "I should be flying by now" so u pull back to soon and increase drag and get behind the power curve.

That could be what happens here. It's what happened to me a couple years into flying and I was only saved by dumb luck, no luggage and the runway was very long.

IF, read that again-IF-the picture being outlined here is what happened.......

It is the all too common slow transformation/deterioration of a 'pilot' into an 'airplane driver' who becomes too comfortable with where/what/how/when they fly and disengage from the other knowledge/principles/skills they learned to get their pilot's liscense-such as what has been mentioned here. When the mission/situation/load/stress/whatever varies significantly from what they are used to doing-now by rote-SHIT happens.
Frequently it is a combination of bad decisions/choices that join together for the tragic results-anyone of which alone can be overcome.

I realize I am pretty much 'preaching to the choir' since most of us BCPers eat/drink/sleep flying, but some of us might/do need our DGs reset/trued from time to time......

Self included......
lc

Littlecub wrote:IF, read that again-IF-the picture being outlined here is what happened.......

It is the all too common slow transformation/deterioration of a 'pilot' into an 'airplane driver' who becomes too comfortable with where/what/how/when they fly and disengage from the other knowledge/principles/skills they learned to get their pilot's liscense-such as what has been mentioned here. When the mission/situation/load/stress/whatever varies significantly from what they are used to doing-now by rote-SHIT happens.
Frequently it is a combination of bad decisions/choices that join together for the tragic results-anyone of which alone can be overcome.

I realize I am pretty much 'preaching to the choir' since most of us BCPers eat/drink/sleep flying, but some of us might/do need our DGs reset/trued from time to time......

Self included......
lc

LC well written.. In a nutshell.. Complancency Kills! At the last formal flying school I attended their motto was "Fly the Airplane!" Seems like a no brainer but you'd be surprised. I recently heard of a guy who stall spun from downwind to base because he was reaching across the cockpit trying to latch the passenger side door that had popped open. Pretty sure landing with the door ajar would have been better than landing nose first from 800ft. My last BFR the instructor dove pretty deeply into reading charts, airspace, and FAR's. The type of thing I knew inside and out for my first checkride. I felt like an idiot.