re: NTSB releases preliminary report from Lafayette plane crash on 12/28

Perhaps one of our resident pilots can help - wouldn't a 35-70 degree roll be noticeable in the cockpit, regardless of cloud cover?

ETA - wouldn't you be able to feel it?

A plane can be in a 70 degree bank and turning, and fell like it is flying straight and level. Without some type of visual reference of the horizon, or using the attitude indicator in the instrument panel it is impossible to tell what attitude the plane is in just by “feeling”. Not using or trusting your instruments when there is no outside visual references and relying on what your brain tells u is straight and level is exactly what causes spacial disorientation and the resulting loss of control:crash.

quote:

---

I have no clue about planes but one would think they would have some kind of instrumentation on board to tell them this information in the event you dont have visual references?

---

They do. It's called an artificial horizon or an attitude indicator and shows the plane's orientation relative to the sky and the earth. The primitive parts of a pilot's brain can take over, though, and cause the pilot to disregard what the indicator is telling them over what their inner ear and proprioreceptors are telling them.

Once outside references go away, pilots and the people flying with them die all the time because the pilot trusts what their body (which is evolved to sense position and body attitude on stable ground, not moving through the air and subject to dynamic loads) is telling them and completely disregards what the instrument is telling them. In essence, they get convinced the instrument is faulty and then splat because they trust their untrustworthy senses. By the time they regain an external reference and realize their body is lying to them, it's often too late to recover.

Horrific

quote:

---

I still don't understand why the pilot didn't respond to the air traffic controllers when alerted about low altitude?

---

aviate, navigate, communicate in that order

quote:

---

It's called an artificial horizon or an attitude indicator and shows the plane's orientation relative to the sky and the earth. The primitive parts of a pilot's brain can take over, though, and cause the pilot to disregard what the indicator is telling them over what their inner ear and proprioreceptors are telling them

---

Always trust your instruments. They are more likely right then you are. I've felt like I was turning in the clouds and the instruments tell me i'm not. I always believe the instruments and I'm still here

someone said both engines were running at impact

Buddy of mine oversees many of the hangers at Lafayette including the plane that went down. We also have a bunch of private pilot friends in our friend group -I’d met Ian a few times. According to my friend the left engine had been running a little hot for a few months. The pilots who flew the plane would throttle back when possible to sync up with the right engine temp when appropriate. That morning was extremely foggy and Ian was flying solo with the kid in the right seat. Upon takeoff he was told to take a 33something heading from L22 which would have been a left bank. Seems like the left engine failed during the left turn maneuver. His speed was probably not anywhere fast enough for the rudder to be of help. The extreme fog hitting the dead prop made matters worse. Ian most likely fought the plane to 200 feet which was the estimated fog height from ground level. It’s no coincidence, in my mind,that the plane found the only open field in the area. RIP Ian.

Just want to clarify- my buddy is not the mechanic. He oversees keeping the hangers clean/cleaning the planes/fueling the planes and making them ready for departure or stowing the planes back in the hangers

Whose the fricker that's down-voting every post?

I didn’t say thick fog affected performance. I said thick fog hitting a dead prop did not help the situation