I meant to post this earlier when it happened, but haven’t been in the forum here for a couple months. This is the kind of “plane down” story that actually gives you a little smile. Be sure not to miss the video. I heard this old bird’s plane fly over my house and it didn’t sound right.
Why does this make you smile?
She didn’t plan adequately enough for fuel burn. 
She should be fined by the FAA.
Becuase flying knows no age limit.
The problem? You are just as human as her. We don’t know the specifics, while likely she may have not done proper fuel planning, how do we know that indeed she didn’t plan and something amiss went with the fuel lines gauges and so forth. You really don’t know, do you? Why be so quick to judge?
For making a human error? K, so she gets fined, no biggie. So, she goes on one of those compentency check rides, so what, she is human, she doing something the majority of the population is NOT doing and glad to see she didn’t get frightened off by her own human errs of her ways. She even admitted she learned from it.
Heck had a 87 year old physician land gear up at my own airport this past month. Him and his 90 year old blind wife walked away without a scratch. Gonna fine him for forgetting to put the gear down?
Was determined to be an accident? Why? He didn’t stop flying the plane after it landed. He left the master switch on and it caught fire 10 minutes after landing and trashed the plane. Would you fine him for that too?
Allen
The first part is bad.
The second part…
…makes me CRRRRRINGE!
ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_i … 0839&key=1 is the exact accident. Dang, here I thought it was last month, but it was earlier this month.
Ironic thing was, had he flew the plane to the point of stopping, it would have been nothing more then an incident had he shut everything down.
Other then the expected prop strike and engine tear down, hull damage was limited to the belly.
While reading the words to the report, it seems to imply a fire errupted when the plane stopped skidding, but that wasn’t the case. It didn’t catch until 10 minutes after the landing. So, yeah a fire erupted after the plane stopped skidding, but 10 minutes later after it stopped skidding.
I tell my passengers all the time (and remind myself) I haven’t stopped flying the plane until the master and alternater switch are turned off.
Allen
Allen,
It is nice to see a pilot put aside the dire and absolute necessary need for perfection and number one importance of safety, and remember the human factor.
I too saw the big picture from this story. When this elderly pilot said her lesson “was to be more aware when it comes to fuel”, after I had a good belly laugh, I too immediately thought of the years of safe flying this woman has done. Not only did she walk away from this landing which clearly avoided injuries below her, she is here after all these years of loving a dangerous sport. She’s doing something right. I think she reflects the inner love for flying that most pilots have and to have a muddy bloody nose to show for it, is proof of experience. Look at the alternative.
My friend, and reason for being on this site to begin with, who inspired my love for flight, has over 30,000 hours (beat that) and with all that experience I chaulk only part of his reliability up to going by the book. He doesn’t even log hours anymore. Some of it is obviously out of our hands. My friend lost a very very close family member to a plane crash and he had more experience than everyone I know, except my friend. And there is almost a humorous remorse to the extent that it forced him, and me, to understand that the love of flying far exceeds any frailty any of us may have. And life can be over in a split second. So don’t base it on a split second rule.
The very second you lose someone to a plane crash, there is nothing that compares to the difficulty of the loss. If you have the skill and the love and the faith to fly beyond the laws of physics, you have indeed truly flown.
I would rather fly with her than any by-the-book pilot.