Who cleared this guy to fly MU-300?

No way he’s signed off in this thing. Unless he was having a stroke or something. Crazy. Worse then most new students.
 
Can’t seem to find any iteration of registered owner in the FAA database. Recently registration updated as well.
 
Agreed that the guy clearly was out of his element. However, I find myself wondering why the tower didn’t give him a heading to fly. “Turn right” is a bit vague. “turn right heading 080” or something like that seems like it would have been more effective. No? Now, of course, that shouldn’t be necessary since “join the left downwind” is pretty clear. But, once it became apparent that there was some sort of issue, wouldn’t some baby step, micro-managing directions have been in order?
 
The MU-300, aka Diamond, which later morphed into the Beechjet, is not a single pilot airplane. So there was either a tremendous breakdown in CRM, or it was actually being flown single pilot.

jimhorner said:
Agreed that the guy clearly was out of his element. However, I find myself wondering why the tower didn’t give him a heading to fly. “Turn right” is a bit vague. “turn right heading 080” or something like that seems like it would have been more effective. No? Now, of course, that shouldn’t be necessary since “join the left downwind” is pretty clear. But, once it became apparent that there was some sort of issue, wouldn’t some baby step, micro-managing directions have been in order?
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The tower may not have had the equipment or permission to give actual vectors to aircraft. Not sure of all the details, but they could say "fly eastbound" or "turn right" but they can't say "fly heading 090". Perhaps an ATC'er can chime in and give more details.
 
You can hear a second pilot in the background stepping in and advising his “copilot” what to say.

When someone is flying this type of airplane you would expect them to know the difference between a left and right downwind. I think the controller did just fine. He did “spoon feed” him by giving a landing clearance after realizing they weren’t going to follow the other directions.

If this doesn’t warrant a determination of the SIC’s qualifications (and maybe PIC too), I don’t know what will.
 
TrueCourse said:
When someone is flying this type of airplane you would expect them to know the difference between a left and right downwind.
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You’d be amazed. Give some jet pilots an actual visual maneuver, and they become idiots.
 
I do believe the aircraft landed hard and the wing tip made contact with the ground. If I'm not mistaken, this aircraft is a high wing so...???

Not expecting this guy to have a certificate
 
guzziguy said:
I do believe the aircraft landed hard and the wing tip made contact with the ground. If I'm not mistaken, this aircraft is a high wing so...???

Not expecting this guy to have a certificate
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The MU-300 is essentially a Beechjet, so its not anything like an MU-2.

I would also suspect both pilots to be unqualified.
 
MauleSkinner said:
You’d be amazed. Give some jet pilots an actual visual maneuver, and they become idiots.
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I knew someone might say this and I think you are referring to the bottom of the barrel. Let me rephrase it some to help. You would expect a licensed pilot to know the difference between a left and right downwind. Initial confusion or missing original clearance, understandable. But after checking into the tower and being advised of the error? And told multiple times? There is room here for a language barrier, but this is a bit much.
 
MauleSkinner said:
You’d be amazed. Give some jet pilots an actual visual maneuver, and they become idiots.
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That's a very broad generalization. I'd say 95% of us evil jet pilots can fly a visual with little problem, and 99.999% know the difference between a left and right downwind.
 
Groundpounder said:
That's a very broad generalization. I'd say 95% of us evil jet pilots can fly a visual with little problem, and 99.999% know the difference between a left and right downwind.
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As long as you hold up your right hand lol.
 
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TrueCourse said:
I knew someone might say this and I think you are referring to the bottom of the barrel. Let me rephrase it some to help. You would expect a licensed pilot to know the difference between a left and right downwind. Initial confusion or missing original clearance, understandable. But after checking into the tower and being advised of the error? And told multiple times? There is room here for a language barrier, but this is a bit much.
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The bottom of the barrel is out there, and it has jet type ratings.
 
MauleSkinner said:
You’d be amazed. Give some jet pilots an actual visual maneuver, and they become idiots.
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Yeah, a friend of mine flies jets, and hates visual approaches! Of course he can do them, but doesn't like them at all. He'll ask for an ILS if available. He needs to get back in a Skyhawk for a few hours.
 
Being that was Vegas I’m betting some of the reason the Henderson controller didn’t bust out in a tirade of “Turn right immediately expedite I don’t care what else you do but turn NOW NOW NOW!”...

Is because they saw the stupidity commencing and had the Vegas TRACON on the land line somewhere around the big pause in the transmissions...

“Yeah he’s coming right for the airspace we normally keep open for you guys for departures southbound... keep your departures out of there... he’s not following instructions...”

Or however you say that in controller speak on the landline... LOL.

The Vegas valley is tight. Henderson almost always wants you tucked over against the ridge to the east until they coordinate handing you off to the Vegas TRACON fine folks... who are almost always cranky when Henderson traffic starts to mix into their arrivals or departures.
 
Groundpounder said:
The tower may not have had the equipment or permission to give actual vectors to aircraft. Not sure of all the details, but they could say "fly eastbound" or "turn right" but they can't say "fly heading 090". Perhaps an ATC'er can chime in and give more details.
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I believe the terminology in Class D since they cannot assign a heading is I suggest you turn right to a suggested heading of XXX. Well it is just a suggestion. Some Class D's have radar feeds, some don't but all try to be helpful.
 
When tower asked "Are you a solo flight student?" I wonder what would have happened if the answer came back "yes"
 
asicer said:
When tower asked "Are you a solo flight student?" I wonder what would have happened if the answer came back "yes"
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The SIC would have breathed a sigh of relief.
 
hindsight2020 said:
probably the same guy who solo-signed our homey over here (the belated tail smack-back always hits my funny bone for some reason :D ):
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I’m just wondering why stopping the camera was the 1st reaction. I mean the blooper reel had already been made, why shut it off now?
 
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Well in his defense, he was fixated on the wrong downwind. He actually did "turn right" to get on the wrong downwind because he was heading NW. The controller realizing the breakdown should have told him to turn EAST or 090 or something than the condescending and unprofessional "hold up your right hand" crack. I was expecting some snark on the ability of the pilot to turn right on the taxiway when he couldn't in the air.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Yeah, a friend of mine flies jets, and hates visual approaches! Of course he can do them, but doesn't like them at all. He'll ask for an ILS if available. He needs to get back in a Skyhawk for a few hours.
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Going out to small airports was always fun. Get cleared for the visual on the downwind and just fly a slightly larger pattern than a 172. I always gave the FO the first leg to the outstation because most captains they’d fly with always took the first leg and they were left with doing all the hub landings, which 99% of the time is getting set up for a straight in ILS and doesn’t require much skill.
 
flyingron said:
Well in his defense, he was fixated on the wrong downwind. He actually did "turn right" to get on the wrong downwind because he was heading NW. The controller realizing the breakdown should have told him to turn EAST or 090 or something than the condescending and unprofessional "hold up your right hand" crack. I was expecting some snark on the ability of the pilot to turn right on the taxiway when he couldn't in the air.
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Agreed, while there is no excuse for such poor airmanship at that level of flying the controller didn’t help his case. Clearly English wasn’t the guys strong suit and clearly it wasn’t clicking that he was on the wrong side of the airport. A more concise direction like a heading would have been more appropriate. I understand his frustration but giving the same direction and expecting a different result at that point is his own lunacy.
 
jordane93 said:
Going out to small airports was always fun. Get cleared for the visual on the downwind and just fly a slightly larger pattern than a 172. I always gave the FO the first leg to the outstation because most captains they’d fly with always took the first leg and they were left with doing all the hub landings, which 99% of the time is getting set up for a straight in ILS and doesn’t require much skill.
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They were doing construction at our home airport one summer, and had the long runway with the ILS closed...I don’t think my copilots ever actually figured out that they flew all of the NDB approaches back home that summer. ;)
 
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