Speculation, what the hell are you guys talking about?
1. Fresh private pilot, flying on his own for about 6 months. What, MAYBE 100 hours total. GOBBS of experience to be doing this kind of stuff, right?
2. Probably fairly unfamiliar in the 182. Probably not too much of a factor in this though.
3. NIGHT in a sparsely settled area with mountainous terrain.
4. FOG, in an area known to be inverted and foggy for extended periods at this time of year no matter the time of day let alone in the four hour period following sunset where temp dew point spreads close.
For those of you new to this, those of us that aren't call this the "snowball" situation. With limited experience comes limited judgement that allows us to make poor decisions which then puts us in positions where we need extreme skill and unfortunately that limited experience leaves us a smidge short on skill to fly our way back out of the poor judgement corner we are in.
Bottom line is that it is amazing that he made it from Portland to Ontario over eastern Oregon in the dark let alone pushing it further into a foggy dark.
The poor judgement began when he flight planned to leave Portland at sunset for a nearly 3 hour flight in the dark in a single engine aircraft with no Instrument rating and less than 100 total time over some of the highest, most rugged terrain our country has to offer in the middle of winter, with passengers.
Survival gear?
Then the poor judgement continued when he made it to Ontario safely and TOOK OFF AGAIN! My attitude would have been, "let's see how much a taxi costs from Ontario to Nampa!". Then we'd go back for the plane later.
There's no reason to split hairs on this one, it doesn't matter.
The dude was in WAY over his head, making poor decisions, flying around in the foggy dark, VFR, pushing it with no friggin' experience to perform such activities in an unfamiliar aircraft in the vicinity of mountainous terrain and lost his way until one of those blacker spots ahead turned out to be turf. The end.
Worst part is that his six kids are probably going to hate aviation for the rest of their lives due to the association of their father's death with it. When really it has very little to do with aviation itself, it has more to do with the decisions he made within aviation. It is unfortunate he made the choices he did.
Sorta like the numbskull from Utah that disintegrated the Comanche just west of here a few years ago. He committed suicide, it was just slower than pulling a trigger. But kinda fast right at the end.
Let's be careful out there people, this shit is permanent.
Last edited by
lowflyinG3 on Wed Feb 02, 2011 5:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
