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What on your aircraft could kill you?

Reading this I couldn’t help wonder if light GA has any good examples of things that could kill you. Obviously a more complex type has many more systems just looking for interesting ways of killing you; just down to complexity (hydraulics, ground spoilers, reverse thrusters etc). There are lots of ways to kill yourself in a light aircraft which are common to nearly all of them e.g. taking off with insufficient fuel on board. I’m more interested in examples which are particular to an aircraft or a series of aircraft.

One example I thought of was the Cessna C402b (IIRC) which seemingly has more ways of venting fuel overboard than actually supplying it to the engines

Last Edited by LondonMike at 08 Jul 17:24

There was a recent Turbo Commander crash with a very experienced instructor onboard. It is thought that the new owner, who was learning how to fly it, accidentally pulled the power lever out past the detent somehow and into beta mode, rather than the condition levers to feather it (prop control). From that, there is simply no recovery you can do in time at 5000ft.

Last Edited by AdamFrisch at 08 Jul 18:17

That is a really good question!

I cannot think of anything in the unpressurised piston world which is simple to do and which would kill you and which is type specific.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I had a really good scare in a Bonanza once. That particular plane had a very hard PTT button on the yoke, very close to the trim, and I needed to squeeze it reallly hard to transmit. If you held the trim long enough it accelerated.

One day, on a vfr flight, I transmitted, or thought I did, and all of a sudden the nose dropped and I got the impression I was headed straight for mother Earth. I pulled the yoke which took quite a lot of effort, and pulled the power in an attempt to level off. At the same time I looked at the trim indicator and realised it was all the way nose down.

A very scary experience.

LFPT, LFPN

Improper application of rudder in an engine failure in a twin, or believe feather selected when not especially in some types of twins.

Seps inclined to dramatically wing drop at the stall.

I cant help feel some reservation of aerobatic types that dont have injected engines and depend on a windmilling prop. The tiger moth is a good example.

Last Edited by Fuji_Abound at 08 Jul 22:23

Uneven deployment of flaps close to the ground, could be a bad day in many aircraft.

Thought of another example – jump starting both engines in the older DA42.

The autopilot.

Fly safely
Various UK. Operate throughout Europe and Middle East, United Kingdom

Piper Tomahawks – some models have an alternate static port within the cockpit. I could never quite remember which position it was meant to be in and didn’t find the placard helpful, but when selected it made the ASI over-read by 10 knots. Flying a circuit 10 knots too slow leaves very little margin above the stall. Stalls in a Tomahawk are an event.

AdamFrisch wrote:

Uneven deployment of flaps close to the ground, could be a bad day in many aircraft.

Even thought the Caravan has huge flaps and very small ailerons apparently is might not be so bad as you think. However it is paramount to recognise the failure.

Flap system failure leading to loss of control involving Cessna 208,VH-WZJ

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