Grumman electrical failure. Crashes into Cessna on runway.

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Racerx

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A total WTF. Allegedly had electrical failure. Lands right behind a Cessna. Full send. Crashes into the Cessna on the runway. Passenger who took the video commends the pilot for doing a great job.

 
Why in the world was he that close behind the Cessna?!? Electrical failure doesn't affect the Magnetos. The engine keeps running just fine. Go around! Or even do a 360 for spacing!

I am dumbfounded.

(On my second or third training flight, before ADSB was a thing, I noticed the alternator light on while we were flying out to the practice area. CFI told me to turn off the master saying "We'll have plenty of battery to come back." We were not in anybody's airspace and I was new to all this so I obeyed. We flew out and spent 30-45 minute practicing turns, climbs, descents, etc. Turned around to head back, fired up the electrical about 10 miles from the class D airport, and completed the flight without incident. Knowing what I learned later, I wouldn't do it as we were within the Class B veil for KMCO (Orlando international) and really should have had the mode C on, and now it's ADSB, but I didn't know that then. What I did learn was the plane flew just fine without electrical power.)
 
jsstevens said:
Electrical failure doesn't affect the Magnetos. The engine keeps running just fine. Go around!
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One of mags could have been replaced with a SureFly. Also, some Grummans have an electrically controlled prop (but probably not this one since I don't see a MP gauge).
 
I think in this case PIC stood for Pilot In Confusion.

So many decision making failures, even a simple sidestep woul've avoided the collision. Edpecially with a low wing overtaking the high wing.

Had a similar situation at SnF years ago, guy in a Cardinal lands in front of us, disregards controller instructions to taxi at high speed to the end of the runway and instead proceeds to slam on his brakes in front of us. Quick swerve to the right and our wing went under his (it helped that he didn't have struts).
 
Why was it so important to land? An electrical failure, especially when it’s wonderful VMC, is an annoyance, but not an emergency by any stretch. Even if he has an electronic ignition, there’s redundancy for just that event.

Unless you’re on fire, don’t rush.

PIC = Panic In Cockpit
 
geneseib said:
Does the I-pad generation know what makes the propeller turn?
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Guessing this pilot is, like the vast majority of GA, a boomer.

Aircraft is registered to a "Norman". Not a lot of young Normans around, if it was him flying.

1000057857.png

Also - who on earth named their daughter "Norman" in 1929 :lol:
 
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Katamarino said:
Guessing this pilot is, like the vast majority of GA, a boomer.

Aircraft is registered to a "Norman". Not a lot of young Normans around, if it was him flying.

View attachment 136207

Also - who on earth named their daughter "Norman" in 1929 :lol:
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Market crash called for desperate times...but I believe that's his last name.
 
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geneseib said:
Does the I-pad generation know what makes the propeller turn?
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Sorry my guy, but this pilot (if we can call him that) - based on his sartorial choices, voice, and panel - is 100% a boomer. Not that it matters. Bad ADM is bad ADM.

By the way, I'm a glass-panel-flying, iPad-carrying Millennial who proudly flies the magenta line when it reduces my workload. I still know my engine isn't going to stop if my panel goes dark. Some of that 1890s tech is pretty cool.
 
I keep hoping that there’s a “rest of the story.” Smell of burning insulation. Electrical smoke. Something to make it an emergency. Not just panic over a dead battery or forgetting to turn on the alternator (I managed to do that once, in Class B airspace no less - forget to switch on the alternator, not panic).
 
midlifeflyer said:
I am though, trying to figure out what the pilot’s age has to do with it.
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Agree. I was simply responding to a couple of posts above who saw this as an opportunity to call out the "iPad generation." How that could possibly have anything to do with recognizing that an electrical failure in VMC isn't an emergency is beyond me. Whether he was 18 or 80, all he would have had to do was go around and we wouldn't even be talking right now.
 
traumamed said:
Agree. I was simply responding to a couple of posts above who saw this as an opportunity to call out the "iPad generation."
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I was referring to both.

I did, btw, have a student who was convinced the prop would stop if we lost electric. So I shut off the master. He actually started sweating.
 
midlifeflyer said:
I did, btw, have a student who was convinced the prop would stop if we lost electric. So I shut off the master. He actually started sweating.
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Easy mistake for a student pilot to make if they only have familiarity with car engines, regardless of whether they are 20 or 60. That's why learning about magnetos is part of the PPL curriculum.

This individual was not a student pilot and should have known better.
 
Hopefully no real injuries, but good lord is that the worst ADM I have seen all year.
Bruh has a plane that's still running, plus he has like a football field width sized patch of grass on both the left AND right of the runway AND a taxiway, and he chooses to land 100 feet behind a Cessna and then ram it instead?
Was this all for the insurance money or something? Why was the pax recording the whole thing like a fkn spectator!?
 
ArrowFlyer86 said:
Hopefully no real injuries, but good lord is that the worst ADM I have seen all year.
Bruh has a plane that's still running, plus he has like a football field width sized patch of grass on both the left AND right of the runway AND a taxiway, and he chooses to land 100 feet behind a Cessna and then ram it instead?
Was this all for the insurance money or something? Why was the pax recording the whole thing like a fkn spectator!?
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Because the pax was a spectator?
 
midlifeflyer said:
Because the pax was a spectator?
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Haha, fair.
I guess my first reaction in an emergency as a passenger would not be "let's record this!"
That seems like something you do when you don't think there is an actual emergency.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Because the pax was a spectator?
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Sort of. According to the video description he is a co-owner of the plane. Which I’m gonna assume makes him a pilot, most likely. At any point he could have made any number of suggestions, like “land on the grass to the right”, or “land on the grass to the left”, or “WTF ARE YOU DOING YOU DUMB F#*%??!!??”
 
Reddit has been absolutely brutal to this guy. The comments are hilarious. The best comment: "How do you expect him to fly a plane in that condition? Left with only a running engine, a working airspeed indicator, HSI, VSI, magnetic compass, altimeter, fuel gage, oil temperature and pressure gauge, primary flight controls, attitude indicator and being caught in VFR with unlimited visibility, his only choice was to send that puppy into the ground NOW, doesn’t matter if it was straight into another plane."
 
11,752 views Dec 13, 2024
On Dec 11, 2024 was flying with a couple friends from Galveston to Pearland Regional Airport. I was in the right seat recording. Our plane, a 1973 Grumman, experienced electrical issues. First the headsets went out, then the radio, then the avionics (navigation). We knew we had to get down quickly and made an emergency landing behind another plane with no working instruments. Fortunately our skilled pilot was able to set us down. However with no way to communicate, the pilot ahead was unaware of our presence and stopped fast to make a left turn on the tarmac. With our flaps not operational, we couldn’t slow fast enough and plowed into his plane as he turned. The prop tore a hole in the left side of his fuselage and destroyed the side of his aircraft. Thankfully he had no passenger on the backseat or it would have been fatal. In our aircraft, the impact was devastating with aluminum crumpling and glass exploding everywhere. My shoulder pushed through the window and I sustained slight external injuries. But thankfully everyone was ok. The planes not so much, both are likely totaled. This video captures the moment.
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eman1200 said:
Sort of. According to the video description he is a co-owner of the plane. Which I’m gonna assume makes him a pilot, most likely. At any point he could have made any number of suggestions, like “land on the grass to the right”, or “land on the grass to the left”, or “WTF ARE YOU DOING YOU DUMB F#*%??!!??”
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With our flaps not operational, we couldn’t slow fast enough
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Since apparently neither knew how to do a no-flap landing, and the guy in the right seat only saw a "skilled pilot," I'm sticking with "spectator."
 
AvNavCom said:
Reddit has been absolutely brutal to this guy. The comments are hilarious. The best comment: "How do you expect him to fly a plane in that condition? Left with only a running engine, a working airspeed indicator, HSI, VSI, magnetic compass, altimeter, fuel gage, oil temperature and pressure gauge, primary flight controls, attitude indicator and being caught in VFR with unlimited visibility, his only choice was to send that puppy into the ground NOW, doesn’t matter if it was straight into another plane."
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Even Jerry thinks this guy's an idiot.
 
SMH, that was NOT an emergency that warranted a Grumman enema.
 
FYI - the "grass" on either side of the runway is actually fairly deep drainage ditches. Quite a few accidents in them and at last one fatality. Go-around was the option with a functioning, not-on-fire, airplane.
 
I think we have lost something by not including flight in gliders and older aircraft with no electrics, as the first thing in ab initio training.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I think we have lost something by not including flight in gliders and older aircraft with no electrics, as the first thing in ab initio training.
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When I flight instructed in the early 80's we started the students a PA-11, no electrical system or starter. That's what they flew until they soloed and had 15-20 hours.
 
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