Here’s what I have posted, I believe this has nothing to do with loosing an exterior panel or Oxygen deprivation.
I know PC-12’s are built like tanks and other than the Cargo door or the Pax door ripping off and causing a further structural damage I really think this pilot was referring to the instruments.
However this pilot was completely unaware of the service ceiling of his aircraft and perhaps while at these altitudes the Pressurization system was not able to keep up. I know I have set the pressurization incorrectly and you get the Surge from the valves with the climbing and descending cabin which someone may think that while dodging TCU’s that he lost a panel causing this leak but to loose control and plummet to the earth because of it is highly unlikely but something to consider until ruled out by the investigators.
As for the EFIS Systems Failure, the PC-12 has Dual ADHRS and when one fails you can switch to the other with the flick of a switch in addition as on most aircraft one ADHRS feeds the Captains Attitude indicator and the F/O HSI and the second ADHRS feeds the F/O’s Attitude indicator and the Captains HSI. All four tubes can be switch to composite mode getting all info from just one tube. Now I know I am Assuming this is a 4 tube system and there are PC-12’s out there with the co pilots side in the old analog style but the dual ADHRS remains the same with 2 Tubes on the Captains Side.
Back Up instruments Include the “Peanut” and the Standard Gauges.
The only thing I can think of is when he lost the panel at that altitude he may have got into some sort of high Speed stall while trying to hand fly the aircraft and work out the problem and this resulted in going above the VNE or below a speed that could not support lift at an Altitude for which this aircraft was not certified for operations in addition to being in IMC and single pilot. As I recall the Barber pole was fairly close while in Cruise up at 250 and perhaps at that altitude it didn’t take much to push it over. The pilots level of Emergency procedures training is open to question as he did not know a limitation, I know there are a lot of factors and look forward to the report on this one, I know the NTSB will be thorough in there investigation.
Scudrunner08 stated that he was the author in the other forum and was quoting himself here. Wazzu90’s request for an explanation as to how Scudrunner08 arrived at the conclusion that the accident pilot didn’t know how high his PC-12 could fly is perfectly justified.
At the observatories on Mauna Kea (13800 ft), staff technicians work efficiently all day or night without trouble. But astronomers visiting from sea level can get really dopey up there. And many people can’t even tell they have diminished capacity.
If you put in the effort, you can probably acclimate yourself to be able to fly safely for hours at 15000 without O2. But if you don’t do it often, you’ll make a lot more mistakes and assume more (unnecessary) risk up there. What’d be the point? Bringing O2 is much easier than the acclimation training.
Simple he climbed above FL300 the Service Ceiling for this Aircraft.
PS. I have 1000 hours in PC-12’s
N928J
His basis was a cut and paste job, he copied it from another forum.
So it’s against the rules to copy and paste your own words from another forum that I regularly post in? I was attempting to open the discussion up to some points that some may have not considered on this site and gain insight into thoughts raised on this one in an effort to learn as much as I can about this accident. Having flown this type of aircraft quiet a bit and have many friends who still fly it when an accident like this happens I like to learn as much as possible to prevent it from happening to me.
I stand by my statement’s and will continue to post on here, If you disagree with my thoughts on this accident or anything else I post please speak up I may have over looked something that we can all learn from and make aviation safer for all of us.
I hope if you become incapacitated or have major system malfunctions that the accident investigator will look a little deeper than your simple assessment.
Rob I guess the dude didn’t take into account that MAYBE he was incapacitated before the AC acceded above FL300.
The Pilots in the Payne Stewart crash were at FL510 6k above the service ceiling of a LR-35. Pretty sure they were all dead before reaching that ALT.
And dude WHO CARES if you have 1000 hours in the AC I have met and had the (privilege??) of flying with pilots that have over 20,000 hours who fly the same AC for 20 years and STILL don’t know their AC.
The pilot REQUESTED A CLIMB TO FL320, if he had been incapacitated he would not have been able to request anything.
Preliminary ATC information further indicated that the pilot contacted the R37 sector controller approximately 0954 and requested a climb to FL320, which was approved.
that guy was a moron OR he was already hypoxic when he asked for the climb.
In the lear when you climb above FL450 you run the risk of flaming out the engines, I’ve heard of guys trying to climb over storms and went to FL470 and flamed out both and ended up IN the storm, and doing half a million in hail damage to the AC.
And to add to my doucheiness, what do you consider “scud running”?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that’s when a Patriot missile battery fails upon the detection of an incoming Scud. Those in the targeted area then engage in “Scud Running”.
