Crimson Red Sports

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/oklahoma-state-says-womens-basketball-coach-assistant-among-4-killed-in-ark-plane-crash/2011/11/18/gIQAjuX4XN_story.html

Wow, that's terrible news...

My prayers go out to the families for their loss. I leave them in the hands of a being who does all things well. RTR!

That is terrible news. My heart and prayers go out to the families, players and the school.

 :pray: Prayers to all the family, players, and school. Did Ok State not have a plane crash some years ago that killed some the players on the mens team. Wow, this is so sad.

Eddie Sutton was the coach. They were returning from a game and one of the two planes carring the coaches and team went down. That was in 2001.

As a private pilot, I never take off without doing a safety check first.  Every pilot knows they are supposed to do a pre-flight inspection before every flight, but the ones that fly all the time will skip it sometimes if they flew the plane recently.  I have no idea what caused either one of these crashes, but the policy implies that something was missed that should have been detected during the pre-flight.

Does a pre-flight include any inspection that has to do with carb heat?

Actually that is part of the run up.  That is something that you can't test until after you have the engine running.  Right before you take off, before you get on the runway, you pull off to a designated side area on the taxi way and go through your run up check list.  Testing the carb heat is one of the things you check.  You rev the engine up to a certain RPM while you go through the check list.  For carb heat, you watch the tach and turn it on for a couple of seconds.  You should see a small but discernable RPM drop when the carb heat comes on if it is working.  This is because the carb heat warms the air going into the engine, which causes it to be a little thinner and changes the amount of fuel getting into the engine slightly.

If the report mentions something about carb heat, it most likely was not a failure of the carb heat system.  It was probably a failure of the pilot to recognize that he needed carb heat and to turn it on.

Sad news. Thoughts and prayers go out to their familes, bb team, and school.

No,No. I added that. After I posted it I kinda/sorta remember that icing can happen even when not cold-- ventura affect. Also in clear weather. Maybe he pulled the handle and it came off in his hand.

BTW, I also kinda/sorta remember the turn out/run up test was grounding the magnetos (both)... I forget.

That is right.  The temperature/dew point differential is key.  If they are pretty close together then moisture can form in the carburator, and the cooling of the air as it passes through the throat of the carb can cause ice to form.  If it builds up it will eventually shut down the engine, obviously.  It is easy enough to fix if it happens at altitude, but you have to keep your wits about you and not panic (hint: grab your engine failure in flight emergency check list, "carb heat on" will be near the top and one of the first things you check).

If you are on short final though, you are probably coming in with no engine.  You better not be low.  The aiming point for where you are supposed to touchdown is 1000 feet down the runway.  If you were aiming for that then you will probably still make it onto the pavement.  A lot of guys don't aim for that though, they want to just barely touchdown on the pavement so they can get the plane stopped quicker and make the first turn off onto the taxi way.  If they ever have an engine problem on short final they aren't going to make it to the pavement.

Yep, that is one of the many things you check.  It is the only thing a lot of guys check.  After you set the throttle to the desired RPM, you then turn the magneto switch from both to left.  You should see a small RPM drop.  If it is over 50 RPM then the magneto you have turned on right now is bad.  Most likely the plugs are fouled on that magneto, and there are some tricks you can do with the throttle/mixture to burn off the crud and it will clear up.  If there is no RPM drop, then that means the mag you are on is the only good mag, and the other one is contributing nothing to the combustion sequence.  Expect a big RPM drop when you switch over to just the other mag.  You do this test for each mag, then turn it back to both before takeoff.

Tip:  Always check the mag whose key position is furtherest from the both position first, then the one that is right next to both second.  That way you don't inadvertently leave the key one notch away from both when you are done and takeoff with only one mag turned on.  Think about it and I'm sure it will make sense.

We had a plane back in our schooldays. But I remember the carb heat cable breaking. It was on the ground though. It just kept coming out (LOL).

By the way, I saw an article today on this accident that said they were flying in a Piper PA-28.  This is a small 4 seat single engine plane that I am very familiar with.  It is highly unlikely that they had 4 adults in that plane and managed to stay within the weight and balance limitations.

Cherokee 6? 6 seater?

I think the Cherokee 6 is a PA-32, not a PA-28.

PA-28 includes Cherokee, Warrior, Archer, Arrow, Dakota.  They are all 4 seat, with the Dakota having the biggest engine.

I didn't get that on my own. My Bama/drilling buddy is on the rig floor and we couldn't hear well enough to talk. That is way cool that you know all that. I did not know you were a pilot or maybe I sent that info to my mental recycle bin out of jealousy. The fact that you are a pilot explains to me a lot about your personality/ persona. RTR

I haven't flown in several years.  I don't fly enough any more to justify buying an airplane, and the local rental fleet is horrible.

ESPN just reported that the pilot was 82 years old.  They also said that witnesses saw the plane spiral into the ground.

This is just speculation on my part, but being outside the weight and balance envelope can cause you to lose control and spiral into the ground.  The airplane is more likely to enter an unrecoverable spin if you have too much weight in the back seats.  I would not be the least bit surprised if this turns out to be the cause of the accident.