With 3,000 ft of hard turf Basis Harbor is one of the prettiest grass strips in the country.
Posted on 09/10/2024 5:17:52 AM PDT by billorites
A teenage girl taking flying lessons, her high school aviation instructor, her mother, and an elderly man were all on a private plane that crashed after flying from Middletown, Connecticut, to Ferrisburgh, Vermont, for brunch on Sunday, law enforcement and school officials said Monday.
A four-seat, single-engine Piper aircraft departed Windham Airport for a flight of about two hours to Basin Harbor Airport around 8:30 a.m. for a brunch reservation at Basin Harbor, according to Vermont State Police.
Delilah Van Ness, 15, and her mother, 51-year-old Susan Van Ness, both of Middletown, 55-year-old Paul Pelletier, of Columbia, and 88-year-old Frank Rodriquez, of Lebanon, left their brunch outing shortly after noon and were expected to fly back to Connecticut on the plane, Middletown police and Vermont State Police said.
A witness reported seeing the airplane on the runway at about 12:15 p.m. but never saw it take off. When the plane failed to return to Connecticut as expected, relatives of the occupants reported the situation to the Connecticut State Police and the Middletown Police Department, according to Vermont officials.
“No reports were received indicating an aircraft in distress or that a plane had crashed,” Vermont State Police noted in a news release.
The Federal Aviation Administration then used cellphone location data to determine the plane’s last known location was near the airstrip in Vermont. Middletown police then notified the Vermont State Police of the situation at about 10:20 p.m. Sunday, prompting a large emergency search of the area around the airstrip.
With the assistance of a drone flown by Middlebury police, state police said investigators located the wreckage of the aircraft at about 12:20 a.m. Monday in a wooded area to the east of the Basin Harbor Airport.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
With 3,000 ft of hard turf Basis Harbor is one of the prettiest grass strips in the country.
Oh my. So sad.
Last thing I would do is go into a plane piloted by a teenaged trainee.
Or Toonces
Toonces!!! That was such a funny yet silly skit. Loved the one with Steve Martin
“No reports were received indicating an aircraft in distress or that a plane had crashed,”
I’m guessing that the ELT in the aircraft wasn’t in operating order before the crash. Those things usually get activated by a crash.
A four seat Piper has no ELT
In the 1960s my college girl friend had over 150 solo hours when she left high school. Taught me VFR navigation and we flew across the US ferrying a new plane with no instrumentation other than a compass.
My own research has led me to the conclusion that flying an airplane is a terrible hobby. It is both massively expensive and dangerous.
It is dangerous because most of the hobby pilots never really get enough time in to actually get good at it, most of them don’t know their planes all that well, and they often go long stretches without flying.
I have friends who fly recreationally. When they ask if I want a ride the answer is always, “No.”
I've heard "six means four, and four means two" regarding small aircraft seats and passengers. I'm not a pilot though.
I wonder when Hoover will cover this on Pilot Debrief on YouTube.
pretty close, I had a 172 sp “four place” but it flew entirely differently with one 170 lb person in the back mush less 2
I have flown a 1976 or a 1977 Piper Archer that had an ELT.
As the student did not yet have her pilot certificate (beyond student pilot), the instructor would have been the Pilot in Command (PIC). Responsibility for the aircraft’s safe flight would have remained his throughout.
If the student brought the craft toward an unsafe flight condition, it was his responsibility to make sure the condition did not result in catastrophe.
Part of the instructor’s teaching regime would have been to make sure his students know to allow him to have control of the aircraft any time he requested it. She would have been taught to release the controls to the instructor, as opposed to hypothetically “freezing with an iron grip on the controls.”
The unsafe flight would have to be considered the instructor’s fault unless and until more information might so indicate.
RX, CFI-AI
Hope Delilah enjoyed her brunch
It as nothing to do with people in the aircraft. It all is based on "Useful Load". Fuel counts in the equation. My Skyhawk has a useful load of 834 lbs. Yes it does have an ELT. I have a 1977 model. Myself at 200 lbs, a copilot at 200 lbs. That doesn't leave a lot of passenger weight and baggage in the rear. Plus add in full fuel at 240 lbs (if you have full fuel) additional weight. Bottom line is weight and balance is a big factor in a small single engine airplane. I suspect this airplane was over weight.
Also being hot and on a grass runway. Since it was later in the day density altitude plays a huge role.
Last thing I would do is go into a plane piloted by a teenaged trainee.
Or a Kennedy.
When I did my initial CFI checkride at FSDO the inspector asked me to demonstrate how to take over from a student who had frozen on the controls. I demonstrated what I had been taught.
"Naw, don't do that. You freeze on the controls and I'll show you what to do," he said.
So I froze on the controls as he asked. The inspector reached up under my rib cage, grabbed hold of my liver and gave it a pinch. My hands came off the yoke, my feet off the pedals and I sucked wind.
It was at that moment that I realized that I probably had passed the checkride having suffered a physical assault.
A four seat Piper would most certainly have an ELT
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