One Dead, One Critical after Oshkosh Seaplane Base Crash

[GRG55]

Taking on water?! Were his bilge pumps not operational, or not large enough to offset the volume of water coming in?!

Would the bilge pump work without the master on? Or is putting on the master and pumping out the bilge part of the normal pre-flight on a boat-hull plane?

 

[GRG55]

...Maybe the Lake's pilot was getting used to everyone pointing out to him that the hull was leaking.

Maybe the hull was leaking because he regularly pounded the hell out of it?

 

[Cajun_Flyer]

I suspect that his faith in his piloting and his equipment was well-founded. He took off successfully. He would've gotten away with it if he considered the terrain, ate a small tailwind component, and departed to the north, where he didn't have to climb and could accelerate to Va instead. Rotors tearing from the ridge is what did him in, not the sheer wind.

It was his responsibility to study and understand the surrounding terrain, and other factors that would influence his ability to successfully depart the area - especially in such strong winds. But, according to the NTSB, he didn't even bother checking the weather and completely disregarded the warnings of the folks at the FBO. Three hazardous attitudes right there - anti-authority, invulnerability and macho.

Additionally, he was loaded with 3 pax, six bags estimated around 10 lbs each and 28 gallons of fuel. Density altitude was calculated around 9,550 ft. That likely didn't help his ability to climb out and I doubt he bothered doing the math to determine if he could do so safely. Sure, he successfully took off, but it sounds like he only lasted seconds after doing so.

The Mooney pilot was complacent and over-confident in his skills. Complacency can happen to anyone, but we have a responsibility to the people on the ground and to the pax we take up with us. He failed those people.

 

[SoonerAviator]

Would the bilge pump work without the master on? Or is putting on the master and pumping out the bilge part of the normal pre-flight on a boat-hull plane?

I'm not familiar with how the Lake Amphibs are wired. I would think there would be a bilge pump on a float switch to kick on automatically independent of the master, as well as being wired to a manual switch/secondary bilge pump going through the master. I guess it depends on what the designers fear more: an electrical fire you can't shut off from a hardwired bilge pump, or a plane that takes on water overnight with a bilge pump that only works with the master on . . .

Most small bilge pumps aren't terribly quick at pumping out large volumes of water quickly (within minutes), but can do 5 gallons per minute depending on pump size. I wonder how much water it was holding that people noticed it, and that prompted them to think it was unsafe. We talking 50 gallons? 80 gallons?

 

[RudyP]

They had one of the pontoons sitting on a bucket a few hours before the accident and it was draining quite a lot. They also loosened some sort of inspection panel (?) and the flow definitely increased from that. It was a really odd situation and that was before they tried taking off.

 

[skippers]

The bilge pump is wired off, manual or auto, the pilot selects. Also in the floor of the renegade there is a clear lexan panel that looks into the bilge so one can search for water.