Another person I know died in crash yesterday eve.

[Joe]

A lawyer from Joplin that I know was killed when his plane crashed about halfway between Joplin & Springfield in southwest MO. He was flying with another pilot so it's unclear which was PIC.

www.kansascity.com/2012/11/05/3901271/small-plane-crash-kills-two-in.html

This is the second person I've known now who has died in a crash. A couple years ago one of our club-members crashed his own personal airplane in Colorado.

I would consider this person a friend-of-a-friend more than a personal friend, though I really liked the guy. We got our PPL's roughly the same time. I flew with him once a few years ago when he let me fly his airplane back from a fly-in.

What I've learned through the grapevine is the two were returning the airplane to home-base in Joplin after some engine maintenance.
It was a twin, so total engine failure's improbable, though I suppose it does happen.

[Joe]

I said before that the pilot was a friend of a friend.

Today I found out that my friend had taken the two to pick up the airplane, a 1956 Cessna 310, and was flying behind them when the trouble started. He saw the whole thing.

I'd only spoken with the friend very very briefly Monday and he said nothing about that part of it. I texted him Tuesday, just telling him to call me if he felt like talking. A while later, he merely replied, "Thanks, bro." Now I know why he's been so taciturn. I hear he's in a great deal of emotional turmoil.

It's entirely possible it was sheer luck that he wasn't the one in the right seat of the accident aircraft.

[Tom Goodrick]

The NTSB report can be found at:
www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20121104X20957&key=1

It looks like they let the airplane get too slow and too low so they could not overcome the drag of the lowered gear and climb on one engine. They found themselves behind the power curve due to the additional drag of the gear. That plane was not known for having a lot of power when one engine was out. It had a very high safe-takeoff speed.

[Tom Goodrick]

I don't think it was sheer luck your friend was not in the right seat. I would have walked away after the mechanic was called out for the second time. The weather was barely at minimums or below; only one of the pilots was rated for multi-engine aircraft; it was actually a test flight on an overhauled engine; and there were known prop and gear problems requiring the gear remain up.

Sorry, but this flight was doomed from the start. I did some checks in the Baron, lightly loaded at low speed on one engine. Slow it down as on an approach and then decide to go around. It would take someone very familiar with that particular aircraft to avoid stalling out when trying to transition to climb. Add a misbehaving prop and it becomes just about impossible.

[Joe]

Yeah. I'm wondering what happened to that right engine, among other things. I see at one point he announced "110 knots" but then it got worse. Of course the main wonder is why they even felt the remotest need to make the flight at all, let alone near dark to a private unlit grass strip. He really planned to eventually fly all the way to Ohio before getting the gear fixed?

I've been to both of these airfields. Monett is one of the nicest small-town airports in Missouri because it gets corporate money. The private grass strip is the home-base of a family-run spraying business.

I was supposed to fly yesterday with my friend, the "witness" but there was low ovc and mist. He was going to bring a Piper Cub up here. He still hasn't talked to me about the accident. One thing I've heard is that my friend had said that the mechanic drove up to the accident site, realized the crash was fatal, and then drove off again.

Tom, the weather was clear with light winds and a 13-3* spread. I don't know that it was doomed from the start as they thought by then they had two good engines. But you don't fly off-field at night/dusk with a questionable engine for barely any reason at all. They were moving the plane all of 25 miles, and they had someone there already to tote them around. My understanding was that the CFI/PIC was out of Monett and the owner was out of Joplin so it's not like they were taking anyone home.

[Tom Goodrick]

Regarding the condition of the right engine:
"The pilot rated passenger said they informed him that they were losing oil pressure and were returning to Monett, followed by, “We shut the engine down.”" (from the NTSB note)

The only weather problem was darkness and an unlighted field.

[Joe]

I just meant they went from having a mechanic looking at it [the right engine] and saying it's good, to total failure, all within 20 minutes or so.

Regarding the weather, you said, "[t]he weather was barely at minimums or below."

I hope to find out why they were repositioning at all. I agree with you essentially, too many adverse factors-- walk away. I sure hope my friend hadn't urged the other two on. How easy is it to say, and how often is it said at airfields all over the world, "Oh, go ahead and go, everything'll be fine."