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What can bring down a 421? (OK-TKF)

It should not enter a flat spin

The dozens, possibly 100 plus fatal accidents, linked to Vmc demos (before the regulators finally woke up to the need to introduce Vsse), ended on the whole as flat spins. These occurred in a training environment so almost certainly with a forward CG.

A forward CG might aid recovery at the incipient stage, but may not help once autorotation sets in.

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

Mooney_Driver wrote:

Is it only the bad quality of the clip which make it look like there is no vertical stabilizer?

This is what made me think of an inverted spin. I do not see the vertical tail in the video.

EDDS - Stuttgart

The tail section remained complete, i.e. in one piece, see the picture bellow.

LKHK, Czech Republic

Ok, thanks. So maybe what-next has a point, I also see it that way. I can not see the vertical tail at all. If it came down inverted this would explain it.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

The published pictures show the aircraft impacted the terrain belly first. The video shows textbook example of flat spin. Sorry to say it this way, I am well aware of the fact that two people perished during this accident, this thread is to help the other aviathors to avoid mistakes by learning from mistakes of others…

LKHK, Czech Republic

A flat spin for sure …R.I.P.

Mooney_Driver wrote:

Is it only the bad quality of the clip which make it look like there is no vertical stabilizer?

It must be — #16 of the pictures linked to by Michel above shows an essentially undamaged empennage with the complete vertical stabiliser. Which by itself is a bit surprising considering the crash attitude .

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

The explanation may be simpler than icing → stall etc. I was talking to a pilot who has a lot of time in these, having ferried them between USA and Europe.

He says that an engine failure is a big deal even in cruise:

So it could have been just a loss of one engine coupled with a low currency pilot.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

Any piston twin will be a handful on one engine. A 421 has a lot of power and will be a REAL handful.
If you’re current, get the prop feathered quickly, add about 5% of bank towards the good engine and get the ball centred it’s manageable.
In IMC conditions, you’d need to be on the ball to not be dead.

That is simply not true, and in some it is almost a non event in the cruise.

Engine Failure in cruise was no big deal in the three Twins on which I did my MEP: Piper Seneca II and V, Piper Seminole.
I only have training experience with it, and only in VMC, but I think that every MEP pilot should be able to handle that. That’s the very CORE of the whole rating, you train that stuff all the time.

I do not know anout the 421, but will ask a friend who regularly flies one.

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