This video is called "No Greater Burden" and is difficult to watch for me as I almost exclusively fly with my two young sons. A few good lessons here, for sure. Sorry if this has been posted before.

http://www.aopa.org/asf/video/no-greate ... =ePlt:RdMr

What did you think?

What did you think?

Totally wrenching and a good reminder about how difficult (but essential) it is to be objective about my own fitness to fly. What courage it took to make this video! Such a sad monument to a dear child.

CAVU

SixTwoLeemer wrote:What did you think?

Thank you for posting this. A very sobering reality check on the potentially tragic consequences of very simple mistakes. We hear of tragic accidents almost everyday, but rarely get a glimpse of there true impact on the families involved.
I'm sure this video is going to save some lives in the future and remind all of us to stay focused when in the critical phases of flight. God help this man continue to find some peace in his life.

Wow. So sad. I fly with my family regularly and this was hard to watch, but very educational.

Thank you for posting this.

Heartwrenching and hard to watch. I flew a 206T on amphibs for a few years in the Pacific Northwest, and was lucky (yeah, I'll call it luck) not to have any misfortune with it. There were several other pilots with a lot more experience than me that did, with similar consequences. One in common with this incident was that they were a short hop from a runway to a lake with distractions. I remember cruising along one day wondering why the speed was lower than it should be -dang, the gear is still down. Would I have caught it on landing? We all had the same gear panel with blue for water lights and green for grass, plus the audio, and the mirrors, and the telltales on the floats themselves. In one case the pilot selected gear up, the hydraulic pump promptly popped a breaker and the gear stayed down, pilot checked the gear lever was up, missed the lights and audio, and turtled on water contact. Highest fatality risk was the person in the right front seat because he did not have a door (the 206 has a door on the left for the pilot and then that double clamshell for the back on the right) though I think it is now available as an option. In this video even though the pilot had a door he exited through a window.

I do regular underwater escape training every three years, from a rolled submerged cockpit with a blackout hood on. I do polar bear swims on New Years day in the ocean here, just to remind myself how quickly you will be physically impaired (your arms stop working first) when immersed in cold water, and also to experience the gasp reflex, where you cannot hold your breath in cold water shock. Emotional state check, fatigue check. I carefully brief passengers on window exits, door latches and jettisons, seatbelt latching. And like this guy actually wear an inflatable horse-collar vest when I'm flying over the water because I know that once I'm in the water I'll probably not be able to get it out of a pouch let alone on.

I remember my chief pilot telling me that if I landed gear up on a runway it was an embarrassment, but that gear down on water was a funeral. Tough lessons.

This was the fatal crash at Lake Goodwin (west of Arlington WA) about a year & a half ago. Very tragic.

I also fly with two small children (3 and 5 currently) and this video really hit home with me. I have deep appreciation for this man posting this video and I believe it will help to save lives.

A parent should never have to bury their child. When they are the cause of that loss, I don't know how they find the strength to go on. I can't imagine the burdens he bears, nor can I imagine having the courage to expose that pain to the rest of the world to share the lesson learned at such a terrible price.

I can, and have, made simple mistakes that could easily have led to big disasters. There but for the grace of God go I and any of the rest of us who have little kids and want to instill in them our joy of flight. Deepest sympathies for his loss, and deepest respects for his willingness to tell the story so the rest of us can learn from it.

RanchPilot wrote:A parent should never have to bury their child. When they are the cause of that loss, I don't know how they find the strength to go on. I can't imagine the burdens he bears, nor can I imagine having the courage to expose that pain to the rest of the world to share the lesson learned at such a terrible price.

I can, and have, made simple mistakes that could easily have led to big disasters. There but for the grace of God go I and any of the rest of us who have little kids and want to instill in them our joy of flight. Deepest sympathies for his loss, and deepest respects for his willingness to tell the story so the rest of us can learn from it.

Amen

Wow. That was gut wrenching, but a good reminder. It took a lot of courage for him to make this for others to learn from it and I applaud him for it. My worst fear is hurting my wife or kids because I took them flying. I know that we've had threads that touched on this before. For me personally, I know the elevated risk and accept it on their behalf, being keenly aware of the added responsibility. And then do all that I can to offset the risk (proficiency, knowing my limits, scale back the type of flying I do when they are with me, etc.) in hopes to manage that risk. But that is far from saying I am infallible. I have tried to think through how I would handle something like this...and I can't say I know how I'd cope. I hope I never have to find out.

Very good responses, all. This guy has a ton of courage to do this video.

With zero floatplane experience, I have to ask one question: Would a pilot of an amphibious floatplane taking off from a paved "home" strip retract the gear after rotation (like you do on RG planes) if you plan on landing on the water nearby? Or, is there a compelling reason to keep the draggy gear down until you're ready to set up for a water landing?

Just my curiosity here.

I have a whole hour of straight float time, so I'm guessing a little here. But I would think from a safety standpoint, it would be better to retract the gear any time you take off from a hard strip, because even if you were to forget to put it down for a landing at a hard strip, there would be less danger than if you had the gear down when landing on water. I've seen a number of videos in which airplanes on straight floats were landed purposely on the grass next to a runway, then jacked up on a dolly and towed to a facility for maintenance. A friend who used to do mechanical work on seaplanes said that was relatively common, although I've not seen it "for real", just in videos.

I admire the pilot for his courage to tell the story. I can't imagine the psychological trauma he and his wife have faced. I pray that they will find comfort, but I would think it will take them both a long time.

Cary

SixTwoLeemer wrote:Very good responses, all. This guy has a ton of courage to do this video.

With zero floatplane experience, I have to ask one question: Would a pilot of an amphibious floatplane taking off from a paved "home" strip retract the gear after rotation (like you do on RG planes) if you plan on landing on the water nearby? Or, is there a compelling reason to keep the draggy gear down until you're ready to set up for a water landing?

Just my curiosity here.

When flying or instructing in amphibians, my policy has ALWAYS been to get the ger UP as soon as you have a positive rate of climb. Most retracts, you wait till you can no longer land on the remaining runway to retract, but in an amphibian, the call after takeoff is "positive rate..gear UP".

I'm not a big fan of the new generation of gear annunciators for amphibs..they too easily relieve the pilot of responsibility for diligence, and can quickly become background noise. When I flew amphibs regularly, they were all equipped with gear mirrors, and it was clearly MY responsibility to position and inspect the gear prior to landing. Subtle psychology, perhaps, but I think sometimes the gear annunciators let a pilot get a little casual.

Three gear checks prior to any landing, and NO landing if you get rushed.

A friend did something similar in a cub, but he was able to get his grand daughter out of the plane after.....a VERY scary deal, nevertheless.

MTV

I haven't flown floats or amphibs for a few years now, but I still talk to myself every landing, even here in the desert...

"I'm landing on land my wheels are down, I'm landing on water the wheels are up." And actually think about it. Every landing.

Like Mike says, if you get distracted or rushed on your landing routine, the Spidey sense had better be tingling, and you need to be double checking everything for something you forgot. Or, just go around and do it right, so you're back in the familiar groove.

Gump

Good video, but it sure puts a lump in the throat.

As a low time pilot, I found that my passengers were often a severe distraction to me. I've been making it a habit to tell them while they are buckling in that there will be no talking during takeoff or approach to landing.

In spite of my directions, one guy kept chattering during the landing and I finally just reached down and yanked his headset cords out of the intercom. He turned red, but it shut him up. I've been thinking about posting a little sign in the right seat that tells the passengers to be quiet during takeoffs and landings. It would remind them, and might even remind me to keep a sterile environment during the crucial times.

What should be included on a placard? It has to be worded for someone that is not particularly knowledgeable about aviation. "No talking in the pattern" isn't helpful, because most of them don't know when they are in the pattern. No talking during the first and last five minutes of flight? Also, most of them keep talking right over the tower when ATC is transmitting. Arghhh.. Suggestions for wording?

Like Mike says, if you get distracted or rushed on your landing routine, the Spidey sense had better be tingling, and you need to be double checking everything for something you forgot. Or, just go around and do it right, so you're back in the familiar groove.

I think that's appropriate no matter what you're flying. Even the simplest of airplanes, even the least stressful landing sites, demand concentration on all the bits and pieces of landing--there're just fewer bits and pieces when things are simple, but still enough to cause trouble. But as you get into more complicated airplanes and more difficult landing sites, being distracted or rushed raises the potential accident ante a lot. Better to go around, reassess everything, then land, than to do it unsure of the outcome.

Cary

I finally just reached down and yanked his headset cords out of the intercom.

Not necessary--after doing that once to a pax who wouldn't be quiet, I discovered that if I'd just shut off the intercom, I could still talk on the radio! In my case, I lost only the ability to hear my own transmissions, but ATC could still hear me and I could hear them. That was that particular intercom. Now I have a new PSE audio panel which includes the intercom, and it has a pilot isolate switch that lets me shut off either the back seat pax or all 3 pax, as necessary. Truly a wonderful invention!

Cary

Cary wrote:Not necessary-- Now I have a new PSE audio panel which includes the intercom, and it has a pilot isolate switch that lets me shut off either the back seat pax or all 3 pax, as necessary. Truly a wonderful invention!
Cary

+1 on that.

I installed a PM3000 for stereo quality but I really like the CREW and ISO functions for the reason you stated.

http://www.ps-engineering.com/pm3000.shtml

The aircraft I fly charter in has that feature in the intercom and I use it on every flight. I would never own an aircraft without it. That said, there are aircraft that are very unforgiving by nature or have dangerous traps in them. Amphibians are one of these types. A simple mistake (one that is made by retract pilots on a regular basis) is often fatal. On these aircraft running a hard copy check list before turning final is mandatory.

For me (and I think for him) it would have been a mercy to die with my son.

SixTwoLeemer wrote:

Cary wrote:Not necessary-- Now I have a new PSE audio panel which includes the intercom, and it has a pilot isolate switch that lets me shut off either the back seat pax or all 3 pax, as necessary. Truly a wonderful invention!
Cary

+1 on that.

I installed a PM3000 for stereo quality but I really like the CREW and ISO functions for the reason you stated.

http://www.ps-engineering.com/pm3000.shtml

+2

Great audio panels and a great feature!