Beech down northern Wisconsin

painless

painless

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
521
Location
Peshtigo, WI
Display Name
Display name:
Jeff Orear
Sad to learn of this. Pilot was from Texas. Condolences to his family.


5B74B634-4D14-4F6C-9161-B4A165A9A440.jpeg
 
luvflyin said:
The two jets that were escorting the airplane??
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Yeah, that attracted my attention, as well. And, apparently, phones can withstand a crash bad enough to kill the owner, and still work.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Yeah, that attracted my attention, as well. And, apparently, phones can withstand a crash bad enough to kill the owner, and still work.
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Sounds like the pilot had been unresponsive to ATC for enough time to have military jets intercept him.

https://www.wearegreenbay.com/news/...county-plane-crash-cause-under-investigation/

FlightAware shows him cruising at FL240. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N75RM

And yes, cell phone inner workings can survive impact forces even with significant external damage.
 
flightwriter said:
Sounds like the pilot had been unresponsive to ATC for enough time to have military jets intercept him. (And yes, cell phone inner workings can survive impact forces even with significant external damage.)
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Have you read something about that? Just going Nordo doesn’t usually get Airforce involved.
 
luvflyin said:
Have you read something about that? Just going Nordo doesn’t usually get Airforce involved.
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Yes, I added the link to my original post. FWIW, most events I've seen like this one over the years have included some kind of military response. It probably depends on what the unresponsive aircraft is flying over and/or where it's headed.
 
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luvflyin said:
Have you read something about that? Just going Nordo doesn’t usually get Airforce involved.
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It does when you are in the flight levels and unresponsive. It was also mentioned he was either in or heading towards an active restricted airspace.
 
Looking at the flightaware data, once the plane starts to descend, the speed also decreases dramatically. Does that seem odd to anyone, or is it just me? If he was incapacitated, I'd imagine he'd slump forward and probably push the yoke forward. That would cause an increase in speed.

Once the decent started, the speed went from ~240mph to ~130. The speed continued to decline all the way until it crashed when it was going about 85 mph. (FYI - stall speed in that airplane configured for landing is 106 mph according to Wikipedia.)

Why did the plane slow down? What am I missing?
 
azpilot said:
Looking at the flightaware data, once the plane starts to descend, the speed also decreases dramatically. Does that seem odd to anyone, or is it just me? If he was incapacitated, I'd imagine he'd slump forward and probably push the yoke forward. That would cause an increase in speed.

Once the decent started, the speed went from ~240mph to ~130. The speed continued to decline all the way until it crashed when it was going about 85 mph. (FYI - stall speed in that airplane configured for landing is 106 mph according to Wikipedia.)

Why did the plane slow down? What am I missing?
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Have no idea.

Could have ran out of fuel at 240. As airspeed slowed the autopilot nosed over to keep it from stalling all the way down or maybe it disconnected and was trimmed well. Or who knows. I usually wait for the details but just offering a possible explanation of the track log.
 
azpilot said:
Looking at the flightaware data, once the plane starts to descend, the speed also decreases dramatically. Does that seem odd to anyone, or is it just me? If he was incapacitated, I'd imagine he'd slump forward and probably push the yoke forward. That would cause an increase in speed.

Once the decent started, the speed went from ~240mph to ~130. The speed continued to decline all the way until it crashed when it was going about 85 mph. (FYI - stall speed in that airplane configured for landing is 106 mph according to Wikipedia.)
Why did the plane slow down? What am I missing?
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Loss of consciousness followed by fuel issue (running out in selected tank)?
 
azpilot said:
Looking at the flightaware data, once the plane starts to descend, the speed also decreases dramatically. Does that seem odd to anyone, or is it just me? If he was incapacitated, I'd imagine he'd slump forward and probably push the yoke forward. That would cause an increase in speed.

Once the decent started, the speed went from ~240mph to ~130. The speed continued to decline all the way until it crashed when it was going about 85 mph. (FYI - stall speed in that airplane configured for landing is 106 mph according to Wikipedia.)

Why did the plane slow down? What am I missing?
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Normally the way these type of incidents go, the airplane continues on until the engine runs out of fuel. The airplane slows and either the autopilot disconnects, or starts to descend, or stalls the airplane trying to maintain altitude, depending on the autopilot involved. Thats why you see the speed decrease, he was a glider at that point.
 
azpilot said:
Looking at the flightaware data, once the plane starts to descend, the speed also decreases dramatically. Does that seem odd to anyone, or is it just me? If he was incapacitated, I'd imagine he'd slump forward and probably push the yoke forward. That would cause an increase in speed.

Once the decent started, the speed went from ~240mph to ~130. The speed continued to decline all the way until it crashed when it was going about 85 mph. (FYI - stall speed in that airplane configured for landing is 106 mph according to Wikipedia.)

Why did the plane slow down? What am I missing?
Click to expand...

Doesn’t groundspeed read as horizontal speed over the ground? Couldn’t an aircraft descending straight down potentially have a GS of zero? Also TAS will decrease (for a constant IAS) as the a/c descends.

I haven’t analyzed any of the data, so I don’t know the descent rate, which would also figure in, but q&d: slant IAS != ground speed.
 
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