The tail looks complete to me.
Larger video: http://www.20min.ch/ro/videotv/?vid=401138&cid=120
I’d rule out icing, that went too fast. Either incapacitation/loss of orientation or stuck flight controls.
Yes. Looks like this one would have been saved by a parachute system.
The airframe is very weather capable. It depends on the pilot.
The airframe is very weather capable. It depends on the pilot.
I am sure people reading EuroGA would appreciate some information on how it depends on the pilot…
The PA46 is very capable in weather. The only real limit is CAT1 so it is bascially as good as a GA plane can be. But and a very big but you risk launching yourself into all kind of weather because the plane can do it. You notice that because you start flying in weather so bad the follow me drivers will not even get out of their cars when picking you up…
But flying single pilot are you up to the task should anything go wrong? If you operate the radar, data link, deice equipment, requesting deviations, looking at the charts etc. in bumpy weather at night are you capable to hand fly at any moment should the autopilot quit? I’m not sure I can so when flying single pilot I am the limitation and not the plane.
I am sure people reading EuroGA would appreciate some information on how it depends on the pilot…
The pilot was in a powerful deiced turbine aircraft. I flew the Meridian in very similar weather last night but if you are inexperienced (as a post on another forum suggests he was) hard IMC is very difficult single pilot. The sort of accident you see in the video is tragic but is almost certainly a simple case of pilot loss of control.
It always astonishes me how we all as pilots like to look for airframe or mechanical reasons for accidents. I have said many times before, it is almost always the pilot and we should all try to learn from that.
We owe it to ourselves and others to be very honest about our own capabilities. The key danger I see in such a capable weather platform is that a pilot pushes into conditions that they are not up to.
Of course you and Jason are the experts, and please correct me if I’m wrong, but I would say that the PA46 (all versions) is also a handful of an airplane, and it requires much more precise speed control in the pattern and especially on final approach, because it will sink like a brick if you get only a little slow. And it’s definitely not a plane to stall close to the ground (I know none is …)
At least that’s my impression from 2 hours of Jetprop and 1.5 hours of Meridian. My impression was that it requires a lot more training than, lets say an SR22 or Mooney TLS (have never flown a TB20)
I also remember a couple of deadly flat spin accidents.
(Jason, does it look like a loss of control and subsequent spin to you?)
OTOH, a novice / non-current pilot will just stick the autopilot on at 200ft AGL and leave it on till 200ft AGL.
So, what would make the AP disconnect? That last TBM crash was almost certainly an AP disconnect which surprised the pilot and he mishandled the (badly out of trim) plane and pulled a wing off.
A stall can do it, due to an excessive VS selected or due to icing. Turbulence can also do it (roll or pitch excursion beyond say 30 or 20 degrees respectively, or so).
Do you think ice could build up that quickly after T.O., Peter (Jason?)
