DA40 Crash in Georgia

[Graham]

Very sad.

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2012/12/d ... ge-of.html

[Gasser]

Very sad and sobering. Even with our planes safety rating accidents can still happen. It's still n clear on what happened. Reports of mechanical issue and also reports of fog. Either way...god speed.

[Graham]

Preliminary Report

http://www.aero-news.net/bannertransfer ... 43174b8fa9

[Henrik]

"Instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) prevailed"

Inadvertent flight into IMC & subsequent loss of control? (pilot wasn't instrument rated)

[Gasser]

I still can't help it wonder if something mechanical happened. I mean, it seems most of us that got into poor visibility and were uncomfortable you would activate the autopilot, climb, confess and get help. One button push gets you a wings level climb as long as you can maintain power. We may never know the chain of events but can't help but think something happened that kept him from an easy out.

[Henrik]

I mean, it seems most of us that got into poor visibility and were uncomfortable you would activate the autopilot, climb, confess and get help.

We don't hear about all the pilots who does exactly this & gets themselves out of trouble - we only hear about those who didn't make it.

VFR flight into IMC & subsequent loss of orientation happens all the time, also in DA40's...

http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=48521

Whether this was the case here, we may only know after the final report.

[Gasser]

I mean, it seems most of us that got into poor visibility and were uncomfortable you would activate the autopilot, climb, confess and get help.

We don't hear about all the pilots who does exactly this & gets themselves out of trouble - we only hear about those who didn't make it.

VFR flight into IMC & subsequent loss of orientation happens all the time, also in DA40's...

http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=48521

Whether this was the case here, we may only know after the final report.

Very true. I guess as it probably does everybody, my anxiety to know and understand what happened to avoid the same fate wants to fill in the gaps. Things obviously happened very quickly.

[Gary]

"Instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) prevailed"

Inadvertent flight into IMC & subsequent loss of control? (pilot wasn't instrument rated)

VFR into IMC looks like a real possibility. The weather was MVFR with 1,400' ceiling at the time of the accident. Here is a link to the preliminary NTSB report. http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief ... 1020&key=1

[Tim H]

I can't help but wonder if he had a momentary AHRS failure, perhaps just as he was entering IMC? I wonder if the G1000 would "log" such a failure?

In that phase of flight, such a failure would be challenging even for a IR pilot, let along a non-IR pilot.

Or, pehaps he switched off the avionics master inadvertantly.

[Rich]

I can't help but wonder if he had a momentary AHRS failure, perhaps just as he was entering IMC? I wonder if the G1000 would "log" such a failure?

In that phase of flight, such a failure would be challenging even for a IR pilot, let along a non-IR pilot.

Or, pehaps he switched off the avionics master inadvertantly.

There are lots of reports of pilots whose "instruments are all haywire" as soon as they enter the clouds.