Crash at KCHD Nov 6 2020

[PeterNSteinmetz]

Apparently this was the result of fuel mismanagement. The 12th or 13th attempted touch and go and tried to go without enough fuel.

No injuries luckily.

https://www.azfamily.com/news/two-p...cle_7654ffea-2047-11eb-a669-aff97878644b.html

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

I heard they just ran out of fuel.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

Per owner that rented the C150 to the pilot and passenger they were on their 7th touch and go and they misjudged the fuel consumption and engine died on crosswind. They tried to make it back to the runway and ended up in the heliport parking lot and rolled into the canal. The pilot was instrument rated with a cfi friend on board.

I don’t quite understand the geography in this description, being familiar with that airport.

Does heliport refer to Quantum Helicopters on the east side of the field? If so, what canal is being referred to, as the Consolidated Canal is on the west side. Also the photo looks like they are right next to a taxiway. It appears there is a heliport over by the canal, but then the taxiway is puzzling.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

FlightAware track at https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N8700G. Appears to be 16 attempted T & Gs, starting at 6:41 AM local time (13:41Z).

Appears to be student female pilot and male instructor from the liveatc.net recordings. Instructor announces emergency landing at 8:09:30 AM. So they were flying about 1:30 before running out of fuel.

The crash was on the east side of the field near Quantum Helicopters. The accident plane was using right traffic on 4R at the time.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

If I might speculate a bit. They were out pretty early and running this many T&Gs in a row sounds an awfully lot like trying to get a student ready for a solo. Perhaps the instructor did stick measure the tanks and thought ok for a 1 hour lesson. Then got distracted by whatever was going on with the student and just kept having her try. Lost track of the count and the time.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

The aircraft is a 150F with a 26 gallon fuel capacity and a 6.5 gal/hr fuel burn. About a 730# useful load. So this flight would have burnt perhaps 10.5 gallons of fuel.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

Oye. Not sure that much can be learned after the first 6 touch and goes. 16 is a lot!!!

Yes, one really does have to wonder why they were going on like that. I suppose another factor may have simply been fatigue in everyone’s part.