Dan Gryder Lockheed Electra Crash

StraightnLevel said:
Thinking beyond this option, it puts you back in the air, and still without brake pressure on one side.

Now what? Aside from slowing your approach and touchdown speed to the bare minimum, what else can you do to deal with this situation?
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Go somewhere other than a small grass strip with hangars and trees just off the edge of the runway.
 
Dave Theisen said:
Go somewhere other than a small grass strip with hangars and trees just off the edge of the runway.
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That's great, but I'm thinking about what you actually do when you finally land it.

Assuming that you aren't going to be able to bring it to a full stop easily in a normal manner, what's the least bad option? Accept a low-speed run off the end of the runway? Turn off onto a taxiway at excessive speed and hope the gear doesn't collapse under the side load?
 
flyingron said:
Longer runway, into the wind. Believe me, the Electra with the throttles closed will eventually come to a stop.
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Well, anything will eventually come to to stop, one way or another.....

I was actually thinking of the more general case - any sort of plane, particularly something like a Cirrus that uses differential braking instead of a steering third wheel.
 
StraightnLevel said:
Well, anything will eventually come to to stop, one way or another.....

I was actually thinking of the more general case - any sort of plane, particularly something like a Cirrus that uses differential braking instead of a steering third wheel.
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A long, wide runway is your friend if you have a known ground directional control problem. The more open space, the better. In the SAT area, I look at SKF as my go-to emergency airfield. 11,000 x 150 with multiple approaches and a top-notch ARFF capability.
 
TCABM said:
A long, wide runway is your friend if you have a known ground directional control problem. The more open space, the better. In the SAT area, I look at SKF as my go-to emergency airfield. 11,000 x 150 with multiple approaches and a top-notch ARFF capability.
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Around here it would be KEFD. 9,000 x 150, and equipped for just about anything you can imagine.
 
What I did when I tested the brakes in the air and realized I had a brake failure in a T-6 before landing, instead of taking it where I was going, which was a more narrow runway surrounded by trees that usually got pretty gusty, with a big ditch off to one side, I took it back to a long, wide runway where I landed uneventfully and had more difficulty parking than anything else. You land slow, power out, keep it straight with rudder and a locked tailwheel (!) and differential power if you have it (I didn't in the T-6 but you would in a twin). It'll slow to a stop. If you're about to go off the end or into something and you see it coming, you can kill it (mags are faster than mixtures). But choose a long enough runway and come in at the appropriate speed and you won't have that much trouble, (unless a person has always ridden the brakes and that's the only way they know how to taxi, land, etc.)
 
StraightnLevel said:
That's great, but I'm thinking about what you actually do when you finally land it.

Assuming that you aren't going to be able to bring it to a full stop easily in a normal manner, what's the least bad option? Accept a low-speed run off the end of the runway? Turn off onto a taxiway at excessive speed and hope the gear doesn't collapse under the side load?
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In a single, consider using the crosswind to assist directional control where the usable brake corrects for the wind that keeps on trying to turn the aircraft toward the dead brake.

On a twin, differential power can be used after touchdown.
 
woxof said:
Dan has a new video out. It is titled What Did Dan Forget. He forgot to check the brake pressures(really it was the PIC - I am not sure what experience Dan has on this aircraft).
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According to Dan, this was an instructional flight, and he's very familiar with the aircraft.
There were three of us on the plane, this is a Lockheed 12A that I am very familiar with. The owner and his family are close personal friends and I have provided multi engine periodic reviews and reminders for the owner. This flight was just a shakeout flight for the plane and the pilot.
The owner is a very accomplished pilot with extensive previous experience and ownership in the C-310, AC-685, BE-18 and L-12A. The owner has recently acquired agricultural assets which has caused him to fly less. I have asked to be on board numerous times prior to a trip in the plane where it hasn’t flown for an extended period.
I was aware of his planned trip to Texas scheduled for June 19 and I requested and coordinated to be on a review flight in advance of that. The recent L12A crash in chino was caused by two pilots that didn’t use the checklist, and attempted a takeoff with flaps full.
The emphasis for me of this trip was to both review for the owner, and to
film the proper electronic checklist usage
and verify all “killer items”
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I filmed the taxi out, checklist usage, and takeoff. Once airborne, I turned cameras off and we just reviewed aircraft systems, pressures and temps. The plane ran great and we set up for a very normal approach and landing, still emphasizing checklist usage. At this point I was very happy with flows, checklist usage and airmanship.
He and I have flown this aircraft a lot, I typed him in the DC-3, and he is a gruff and raw with me as I am with him. We both prefer it that way. He knows that if he’s screwing up he’s going to hear about it and flying with Dan now and then is just part of life.
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https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=793541042911168
 
This might be a case where the aircraft could be operated out of the field, but maybe shouldn’t be operated out of the field. I sure as hell wouldn’t base that aircraft there if I owned it. No margin for anything to go wrong imo.
 
I’d agree with that. Watching the trees and houses (or were they only hangars?) go by, I couldn’t help but think the same thing. Compared to other airports that have more “room” the one they operate from doesn’t leave room for much error.
 
Haven’t spent anytime paying attention to this YouTuber in a long while until this accident. Couple of observations. Those guys took a pretty good licking and seeing that device attached to his leg is sobering. And, he was the least injured of the three. He is fortunate to be alive considering what occurred immediately after the crash.

Watching him drag the visiting lady YouTuber into the frame (as she cringed) while filming this Sunday’s edition was strange. While trying to figure out who she was, I stumble across some other interpersonal trouble he got into during the past year or two. Creepy.
 
woxof said:
Dan has a new video out. It is titled What Did Dan Forget. He forgot to check the brake pressures(really it was the PIC - I am not sure what experience Dan has on this aircraft). We did that on the Cessna 150 when I got my private pilot license as it was on the checklist. Surprised that Dan typically never did this). But it is a good idea for those not doing it.
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As soon as I get up to taxi speed I brake to a stop to check braking action and to be sure the pedal feel is normal.
 
Bill said:
As soon as I get up to taxi speed I brake to a stop to check braking action and to be sure the pedal feel is normal.
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I want to be clear I'm defending the pilot, not Dan. :p

The pilot claims that he did brake check during taxi and that everything was fine. This is plausible, since he likely would have had to use differential braking to taxi and take off.

He states, and there is video evidence, that the brakes were being worked on prior to this event, with this being the first flight after that work was completed.

He further speculates that retracting the gear might have rotated the line, or otherwise loosened it, to the point of failure and was the main cause of the wreck.
 
TrueCourse said:
Haven’t spent anytime paying attention to this YouTuber in a long while until this accident. Couple of observations. Those guys took a pretty good licking and seeing that device attached to his leg is sobering. And, he was the least injured of the three. He is fortunate to be alive considering what occurred immediately after the crash.

Watching him drag the visiting lady YouTuber into the frame (as she cringed) while filming this Sunday’s edition was strange. While trying to figure out who she was, I stumble across some other interpersonal trouble he got into during the past year or two. Creepy.
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Did you see the video of him offering to let the nurses give him a sponge bath? The guy is so skeevy he doesn't even know how skeevy he is.
 
Lindberg said:
Did you see the video of him offering to let the nurses give him a sponge bath? The guy is so skeevy he doesn't even know how skeevy he is.
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It is always a sound strategy to **** off the healthcare workers who will be sticking you with needles for the next week.
 
Lindberg said:
Did you see the video of him offering to let the nurses give him a sponge bath? The guy is so skeevy he doesn't even know how skeevy he is.
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Yes, unfortunately. I would have rolled my eyes if I was there to hear it while finding a pumice stone for the bather. The new part I didn't know about was the Louisiana RO.
 
I watched Dan's video on the accident. Amazing everything he went through I have a new respect for him and am glad they survived that horrendous crash. I definitely learned a few things.
 
Ben Loper said:
I watched Dan's video on the accident. Amazing everything he went through I have a new respect for him and am glad they survived that horrendous crash. I definitely learned a few things.
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I learned not to fly with Dan....who went on the flight to verify checklist usage....and then forgot checklist items.
 
There’s not many people on YouTube that you can’t pick on. So many goober experts on there when someone screws up. A few good creators who just share flying and don’t dive into the accidents. All that said, Dan has in the past and will continue to have good points. There’s only so many ways to call it sometimes and he does it unapologetically. His tact just isn’t there. It wouldn’t kill you guys to lighten up on him a bit. There’s many more people on the daily that give aviation a black eye to attack than Dan.
 
Speaking of checking the brakes on landing. I had an incident in a Bonanza early this spring. I was getting a Bonanza owner ready for his commercial check ride & we decided to go to a local grass strip & do some real soft field takeoffs & landings. Little did we know that in the process we must of hit a gopher hole & tore the right brake line off.

When we landed at our home airport with a 6,500 & 150' runway as we touched down & my client mentioned that he had no right brake. I instructed him to just let it roll & it would come to a stop on it's own. After we got it stopped we explained to the tower that we had lost our right brake & would have to taxi extra slow. It was an interesting taxi. When we came to a stop I jumped out and verified we had brake fluid under the right gear & then spotted the severed brake line.

When we did a post briefing of our flight my client discovered that in the Beechcraft manual a brake check was a listed item to perform prior to landing. We both learned something that day. I hate to admit this, but in my many decades as an instructor this was not something I had been teaching. I do now.
 
Skymac said:
There’s many more people on the daily that give aviation a black eye to attack than Dan.
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Do any of these other people have restraining orders against them by former students? What about million-dollar judgments for defamation? Police reports accusing them of tampering with evidence at an accident scene and lying to authorities about it? Posting videos of themselves sexually harassing nurses? I'd really like to know which aviation celebrities are a bigger black eye.
 
Skymac said:
All that said, Dan has in the past and will continue to have good points.
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Unfortunately, he is just as often wrong on his points, but opines in a strongly confident manner that is very convincing to his base.

He’s a lot like ChatGPT without a sound basis in fact, but he has placed himself in a safety advisory role.

Plus, since he regularly vanishes content where he is challenged, it’s hard to pin him down later.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Oh jeez. Now he has a 501(c)(3) for DTSB as well. ‍♂️
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I challenge y'all to remember how many other dumb things our society tolerates that are far worse than a pilot who thinks he's on a mission from God to keep other pilots from making dumb mistakes. I can think of some far crazier 501(c)3s.
 
Lindberg said:
Went to prison. And does he have any sycophants who show up here to defend him?

And he hurt no one but himself.
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The question was about YouTubers that give aviators a black eye that we can crap on.
 
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Skymac said:
… All that said, Dan has in the past and will continue to have good points. There’s only so many ways to call it sometimes and he does it unapologetically...
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A stopped clock is still right twice a day. Again, he has a decade and a half of public records demonstrating his bad decision making. Large amounts of physical evidence to bak it up. That’s long enough that it’s gone beyond being a trend and instead is a rooted behavior.
 
saddletramp said:
When we did a post briefing of our flight my client discovered that in the Beechcraft manual a brake check was a listed item to perform prior to landing. We both learned something that day. I hate to admit this, but in my many decades as an instructor this was not something I had been teaching. I do now.
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Planes don’t come much simpler than my Sky Arrow, but that’s one of 3 items on my “Before Landing” checklist:

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Especially important in any plane with a free castoring nose gear.
 
I think you folks pretty much have yourselves totally convinced. I do wonder, however, if this Snark Fest Circle Jerk ever will come to an end, and I am not really talking about this particular thread. I could care less about DG. After 50+ years of aviating, I do seek out information I can use. Not going to get any from this crowd.
 
FastEddieB said:
Planes don’t come much simpler than my Sky Arrow, but that’s one of 3 items on my “Before Landing” checklist:

53813913402_e8c60a3773_n.jpg

Especially important in any plane with a free castoring nose gear.
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It's on the generic "CheckMate" checklist we use for the Cherokee - first item on the pre-landing section.
 
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