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Virginia Plane Crash: 'Air Force General' Dies
Sky News ^ | April 20, 2013

Posted on 04/20/2013 10:19:11 AM PDT by Fennie

A pilot who died when his light aircraft crashed just a few metres away from a house was reportedly a US Air Force general.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: afgeneral; airforce; aviation; military; nuclear; obama; planecrash; usaf
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To: UCANSEE2

The 210 has very long wings. The fuel is in the wings. It is essential that the plane be level when fueling or you can end up short a few gallons. I never planned the last 5 gallons!

T210 driver


21 posted on 04/20/2013 10:49:06 AM PDT by BillM (.)
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To: old curmudgeon; billorites

The general logged a lot of hours on big aircraft, so he was not inexperienced.

Is it possible he could have been that negligent about his fuel, especially with the wife aboard?


22 posted on 04/20/2013 10:51:55 AM PDT by Old Sarge (My "KMA List" is growing daily...)
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To: Fennie
MAJOR GENERAL JOSEPH D. BROWN IV

Who worked on that plane last?

23 posted on 04/20/2013 10:53:07 AM PDT by CMB_polarization
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To: Fennie

Seven Days in May????


24 posted on 04/20/2013 10:53:21 AM PDT by djf (Rich widows: My Bitcoin address is... 1ETDmR4GDjwmc9rUEQnfB1gAnk6WLmd3n6)
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To: dagogo redux

He graduated with me in 1980.


25 posted on 04/20/2013 10:56:41 AM PDT by Cowboy Bob (Democrats: Robbing Peter to buy Paul's vote.)
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To: Old Sarge
"Is it possible he could have been that negligent about his fuel, especially with the wife aboard?"

I doubt that he ran out of fuel. The article says he was landing at the airport in Williamsburg. Even experienced pilots can be distracted in the traffic pattern, get too slow, stall and spin without sufficient altitude to recover.

26 posted on 04/20/2013 11:00:21 AM PDT by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: billorites

Gotcha. I always ask questions that I hope others can answer...


27 posted on 04/20/2013 11:01:09 AM PDT by Old Sarge (My "KMA List" is growing daily...)
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To: Old Sarge

We are overlooking something very important.

Yesterday was a very interesting weather day.

To think about this rationally, we need to know what the weather was in that immediate area at that time.

We also need to know where the flight originated. That would give a hint as to how much weather deviation was involved, winds aloft along the route, whether the route was a fuel stretch, etc.


28 posted on 04/20/2013 11:01:21 AM PDT by old curmudgeon
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To: billorites

I suspect more aircraft run out of fuel on a three mile final than anywhere else.


29 posted on 04/20/2013 11:02:51 AM PDT by old curmudgeon
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To: Fennie

Wonder what orders he was less than enthusiastic about? Gay indoctrination? Firing on American citizens? Taking orders from the U.N.? For starters...


30 posted on 04/20/2013 11:02:53 AM PDT by Albion Wilde (Don't believe any rumors in Washington, DC until they are officially denied.)
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To: old curmudgeon
Running out of fuel doesn't cause aircraft to "fall out of the sky" as described in the article. Airplanes fly fine without fuel, just not for very long or very far.

Stall/spin is what makes airplanes fall out of the sky. That Cessna was not flying when it crashed. It was plummeting.

31 posted on 04/20/2013 11:05:47 AM PDT by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: old curmudgeon

Thanks, OC!


32 posted on 04/20/2013 11:06:50 AM PDT by Old Sarge (My "KMA List" is growing daily...)
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To: djf
"Seven Days in May????"

Alternatively, he may have run low on "essence".

33 posted on 04/20/2013 11:07:35 AM PDT by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: darkwing104

B-1 and B-52 pilot.


34 posted on 04/20/2013 11:08:31 AM PDT by Jet Jaguar
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To: billorites
Airplanes fly fine without fuel, just not for very long or very far

Thinking that little Cessna has a pretty good glide ratio.

35 posted on 04/20/2013 11:11:57 AM PDT by The Cajun (Sarah Palin, Mark Levin......Nuff said.)
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To: billorites
As a non-pilot, I have a few questions. I'd always heard that the Cessna virtually flew itself...a forgiving plane. He was on a final approach to the runway so he had to be in control until right before the crash, when the plane( as described) went in almost nose first

Why assume he ran out of fuel. isn't it as likely, if not more so, that he suffered a heart attack, spasm at the controls, at the plane went in..an autopsy will tell.

36 posted on 04/20/2013 11:13:48 AM PDT by ken5050 (My tagline has mysteriously vanished...)
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To: billorites

One of the most common mistakes made when power is lost is to try to stretch the glide.

Trying to make a field just a little bit past that tree line or village or whatever.

That always ends in a stall spin close to the ground.

One must maintain the proper speed and take whatever comes because a crash under control beats a loss of control crash every time.

We don’t know what happened. The check I just made on the weather conditions at 5:00PM yesterday showed winds gusting to 35. It could have been something as simple as loss of control in turbulence.


37 posted on 04/20/2013 11:16:29 AM PDT by old curmudgeon
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To: ken5050

That was exactly my guess, about 5 seconds before reading your post.

I think he had a medical emergency.

Also a non-pilot.


38 posted on 04/20/2013 11:21:16 AM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network
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To: ken5050
"I'd always heard that the Cessna virtually flew itself...a forgiving plane."

I expect every airplane that I'm flying will try to kill me at some point. The plane may be forgiving, but the hard earth is unyielding.

Medical incapacitation of pilots is pretty rare. Much more common is fuel exhaustion. Perhaps he did run out of fuel, tried to stretch the glide, then stalled and spun it. That photo shows an aircraft that was out of control when it crashed. Fuel exhaustion does not render an aircraft out of control.

39 posted on 04/20/2013 11:21:27 AM PDT by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: billorites

No aircraft is forgiving in 35 MPH winds.

The weather I read was in MPH, not knots.

Never flew a 210, but I suspect that is is not a great ride close to the ground in that kind of wind combined with frontal passage or a squall line.

I don’t fly any more. Too old and can’t pass a medical and so longer watch aviation weather, but I do watch commercial weather closely.

My F350 has the Ford nav system on it and one of the nice features is the radar display.

I checked it at about that time and it showed a squall line out ahead of the front along the east coast. I would say very close to the Richmond / Williamsburg area.


40 posted on 04/20/2013 11:29:01 AM PDT by old curmudgeon
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