Twin engine Cessna 310
Posted on 02/17/2010 12:52:50 PM PST by SmithL
EAST PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) -- The three people killed on board a small plane that went down in a Northern California neighborhood were all employees of Tesla Motors Inc.
The twin-engine Cessna 310 crashed in a residential area of East Palo Alto on Wednesday morning after hitting some power lines. It had just taken off from Palo Alto Airport in heavy fog.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
No no no. The increased ownership of the Pious has greatly increased the levels of smug.
He hit the power lines coming out of Paly. They are well known to locals but if you don’t spend much time out by the Bay and the dump you won’t know they are there. Not the first time some yahoo has flown into them won’t be the last
Unfortunate. It would be nice to see the Tesla cars become mainstream and more affordable.
Twin engine Cessna 310
But it should give FReepers an idea, at least.
I think the pilot knew they were there. He just wasn't able to clear them.
I found the location of the crash from another article and pulled it up on Google Maps. It's about 2000 feet southwest of the runway centerline.
Either he took off to the northwest and was trying circle back around to land, or he took off to the southeast and was turning the base leg to land.
The NTSB will be able to tell if both engines were generating thrust at the time of impact. I suspect they will discover that one engine had failed. But, maybe not: an experienced pilot wouldn't have been turning if he lost an engine -- it reduces your climb rate even further.
Perhaps he had an instrument failure (i.e. the directional gyro or artificial horizon) and didn't realize it was giving him inaccurate information until it was too late.
A buddy of mine just got laid off from Tesla after they got a $$$ infusion from the “Stimulus Package”.
Guess he didn’t donate any $$$ to Pelosi.
BTW, you can see the power lines (and the shadows cast by the tower) if you zoom in far enough.
“I know, inappropriate.”
Well, yeah, but impractical, too....where do you get a mid air recharge?
Yeah, they probably won't be ID'ing them from their wallets either....Excellent point. And you know they have credit cards too...It'll be party time in East Palo Alto tonight.
To simply take off the pilot had to be on an IFR flight plan. From the time the throttles were advanced to impact there could have been any number,or combination of problems, that caused the crash. All I can say is doing a zero-zero take off is always a bit un-nerving.
The few hours I had in a 310 were with a friend who used to fly medical supplies from Pa to several places in the mid-west. One night, at around 3am, we were given clearnce to decend. A quick glance at the instruments told us something was very wrong. Turned out that the ATC guy was in training and he had confused us with another plane. We maintained altitude and soon another, qualified, person come on and actually appologized.
Insurance fraud. They insured their top employees and eliminated them when they figured out the global warming scam./s
Hey, if we can refuel mid air, why not recharge! Giant flying batteries!
A buddy of mine just got laid off from Tesla after they got a $$$ infusion from the “Stimulus Package”.Or they decided to buy a plane instead.Guess he didn’t donate any $$$ to Pelosi.
Well, yeah, but impractical, too....where do you get a mid air recharge?
“Hey, if we can refuel mid air, why not recharge! Giant flying batteries!”
True...if you can overlook the irony of them crashing into power lines, this really is pretty awful. RIP. Hope they went quickly.
Could I get a link to that from reliable source? Thanks
I owned a C 310Q for many years.
Without looking in my log books, I suppose I had around 4,000 hours in it.
A 310 is a fantastic airplane, but like all airplanes there are things to be considered.
First, I have made many many takeoffs in what could best be described as zero zero conditions and if the aircraft had good instrumentation an experienced 310 pilot would have no problems.
I googled the airport. It has a tower, so no takeoff would be allowed unless it was an IFR takeoff. Not if it was really a fog.
However, although I operated off several strips shorter than 2,400 ft., I considered that to be as short as I considered comfortable.
I did operate a few times from a 2,000 ft. strip, light and that is really too short.
So what I would suspect.
Two passengers. A full fuel load? How much baggage? How big were the passengers?
I quit 10 years ago, so I don’t remember all of the numbers and my weight and balance calculator is in a different computer, but generally speaking 140 gallons plus three 170 lbs passengers plus 150 lbs or so of luggage would put them at or near gross.
With 2,400 ft. of runway and power lines, he would probably lift off and immediately rotate to a steep angle of climb. Not max rate, but probably at 120 knots.
If he lost an engine at 120K with that load, not yet on top of the fog, he would have to do everything exactly right the first time to keep from losing it.
Again, it has been 10 years and the numbers are hazy but as I recall he has to nail everything, clean up gear, feather the bad engine and do it all before speed sinks to 106K.
106K is not VMC, but below 106K you don’t climb, you just mush along.
That is, if my memory is correct.
I flew a Meyers 20D, a fast mother if you know them. I had 3 key employees on board and took off from Chasey NY on a full IFR flight plan. Made 3 approaches to my small private airport, missed all three IFR VOR. Called ABE approach and was cleared for the approach. Lots of icing on the approach and went around. I made the second by the skin of my butt.
The three plus me were the entire management chain of the company. I had a 5th passenger who I later found out was God. The three employees had no idea of the danger I put them in. To this day they still don’t. Put my plane on the market and never did fly again. God recommended that. I understand the guy who took off. “Gotta get there disease” Death is the only sure cure/So sorry for the families.
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