Backcountry Pilot • Family Saved after Crash at Sea

Family Saved after Crash at Sea

Near misses, close calls, and lessons learned the hard way. Share with others so that they might avoid the same mistakes.
6 postsPage 1 of 1

Family Saved after Crash at Sea

RanchPilot offline
User avatar
Posts: 974
Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2011 5:18 pm
Location: Wyoming
Experience is the knowledge that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.

RanchPilot Facebook Community: http://www.facebook.com/ranchpilot777

Re: Family Saved after Crash at Sea

I looked at the Bay Island Air website and it looked like the Air Cam was a 3 seater. I thought they only had 2. Wonder what happened to have both engines quit?
Image
180Marty offline
Supporter
User avatar
Posts: 2313
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2006 11:59 am
Location: Paullina IA

Re: Family Saved after Crash at Sea

The TV news report I saw said the couple and their young son were on board, so unless one of them was the pilot there were actually 4 people on board. The dad said he was told they "lost an engine" so maybe only one side quit? Unless taking off or otherwise slow with full power it seems like that should have been controllable, esp since the aircam's engines don't look like they're mounted very far outboard. Unless the single engine just couldn't maintain altitude & they were so low that they descended into the water before the pilot could take any corrective measures.
Like they say, airspeed is life & altitude is life insurance.
hotrod180 offline
Supporter
User avatar
Posts: 10534
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 11:47 pm
Location: Port Townsend, WA
Cessna Skywagon -- accept no substitute!

Re: Family Saved after Crash at Sea

Even with the engines near the centerline, since the props don't feather, I imagine it's pretty poor with one quit.
side slip offline
Posts: 61
Joined: Sun Mar 01, 2009 7:36 am
Location: Ontario, Canada

Re: Family Saved after Crash at Sea

According to Aircam it flies really good on one engine

http://www.flyingmag.com/news/crash-sig ... -questions
AvidFlyer offline
User avatar
Posts: 1351
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 8:22 pm
Location: Fairfield
Experimental Avid Flyer STOL 582 Rotax

Re: Family Saved after Crash at Sea

My wife and I flew in an almost identical AirCam in the British Virgin Islands. The pilot let me fly it for a while. Great view! With one operational engine and four people on board, I doubt you could maintain altitude, but a water landing should have been a non-event. Once you were on the water It might have been a problem establishing contact with base to get picked up since radio communications can be sketchy in the islands. I don't know why it would have flipped unless the pilot got preoccupied trying to restart the failed engine and made a bad water landing. If it took off from the water, the floats were ok.
andy offline
User avatar
Posts: 79
Joined: Thu Oct 23, 2008 4:18 pm
Location: Lake James
Aircraft: 1986 Maule MX-7-180

DISPLAY OPTIONS

6 postsPage 1 of 1

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

Latest Features

Latest Knowledge Base